Archive for the ‘Popping’
Electric Boogaloos and Boogaloo Sam
No need to explain. Electric Boogaloos. I haven’t posted their clips because most of the clips are already well known in youtube.but someone pointed out that at least I should mention them since they are the originator of popping. Also, I am posting this because these days people tend to focus on “animation” and “Boogaloo” aspect seems to be less emphasized. But Boogaloo is very very important foundation of popping and I want people to understand that. Here is the information copied from their website.
The group responsible for the creation of the dance styles known worldwide as popping and boogaloo style. In the mid 70’s Boogaloo Sam created a set of movements, evolving each into their own style. He then taught these to the members of his group - The Electric Boogaloos.
Three decades later, the EB’s are still active, performing in shows, teaching around the world and spreading knowledge of their own and other dance styles that were created during the funk movement in the west coast.
The EB’s were born in 1977 when Boogaloo Sam founded the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers - Original group was:
THE ELECTRONIC BOOGALOO LOCKERS
(1977, FRESNO, CA)
BOOGALOO SAM: Creator of popping and boogaloo style.
SLIDE (NATE) : Co-founder of the group with Sam.
ROBOT JOE: OG member and robot was his main style.
TOYMAN SKEET: Originator of the toy man style
TICKIN WILL: Learned the style ticking from Sam.
TWIST-O-FLEX DON: Don was (R I P) the hardest hitting popper around.
ANT MAN: (Anthony) Was the locker of the group. Also popped.
THE ELECTRIC BOOGALOOS
(1978, LONGBEACH, CA)
BOOGALOO SAM: Creator of popping and boogaloo style.
POPIN PETE: Little brother of Boogaloo Sam.
TICKIN DECK: The other little brother of Sam.
ROBOT DANE: Became a member after Sam battled him. (SAM WON)
PUPPET BOOZER: Known for the puppet style that Sam taught him.
CREEPIN SID: Sid came from Arkansas to learn how to boogaloo.
SCARECROW SCULLEY: Sam taught him the scarecrow style.
DARRYL (KING COBRA): Creator of the style snaking.
GEORGE (KING RATTLER): One of Long Beach’s first poppers.
Kite -footwork master
when you think of poppers in Japan, the first names you may come up with would be Gucchon, Accky, Kei. They are all from Osaka City not Tokyo. Osaka is traditionally known to have many good poppers (according to the Mr. Wiggles, the best city of poppers in the world.) This is because of the strong influence of OGs from California since 80s. Dancers like Poppin Pete, Sketer Rabbit (R.I.P.), Boo Ya Tribe were frequently visiting Osaka creating the strong foundation of popping. O.G.S (Osaka Gang Star) is a crew that has had the strongest connection with Pete and Sketer and lot of Japanese dancers including Gucchon, Accky, and Kei were inspired by O.G.S. You can say O.G.S is a sort of Japanese popping version of Rock Steady Crew which has been around for a long time and actually still active with original members and the new generation members.
But what about poppers from Tokyo. Yes, we have many new young poppers from Tokyo, too. Kite is my favorite popper from Tokyo and he is one of the best poppers in Japan just like Gucchon and Acky. His name is relatively less known outside Japan simply because in the past years, Gucchon or Kite has kept Kite from going to the final of international battles like UK bboy championship and Juste Debut in Paris. Kite and his crew mate Madoka from Former Action are so close to beat Gucchon and Kay in this years Juste Debut preliminary battle in Japan that they went to the extra round. Mr. Wiggle pointed out Gucchon and Kite should do one on one for the extra round.
If you see Kite, you can instantly notice his style with crazy crazy footwork with solid boogaloo foundation. People tend to get impressed easily by flashy animation moves but to me, boogaloo is what popping make it funky and make this dance style more dance. The clip above is from the 1 on 1 popping solo battle at Street Dance Kemp 2008 in Czech Republic. He won this battle. The video was taken by Tatsuo from Grasshopper. I took it from Tatsuo’s website. Thank you, Tatsuo for taking this video!
U-Min (Woo min) again
I noticed that U min or Woo min got appeared on Missy Elliot’s music video. It seems like many people are searching the U min videos.Unfortunatelly, U Min as a full group has not been active for the last two years in Japan. Maybe their appearance on Missy’s video made them reunite and start to perform together again. Meanwhile, two guys from the Woo Min has been active as a group called “Woo min no kokoro” or “The core of Woo min”. In case you miss the fast video of Woo min I put, you can see it here
Juste Debout 2008 Final Results
Just came in..
Popping final:Acky (JAPAN) & Sarah (FRANCE) vs Coo-Thkoo (Kei & Gucchon)( JAPAN)
Winner: Coo-Thko
Locking Final:Seiji & Yukari (JAPAN) vs P-Lock&Jimmy Soul (FRANCE)
Winner: P-Lock&Jimmy Soul
House:Pinochio (Kenji & Pino)(JAPAN) vs Hiro & Tatsuo (JAPAN)
Winner: Pinochio
Hip Hop: ???? (FRANCE) vs NIAKO&SALAS (FRANCE)
Winner:NIAKO&SALAS(FRANCE)
Yokoi & Dominique was defeated at the 1st round!!more information to come..
Juste Debout 2008 Final is coming this weekend!!
Juste Debout is one of the hottest street dance events right now!!. The final for 2008 event is going to be held this weekend, March 2 at Paris. Juste Debout is the international street dance 2 on 2 battle event. It has hip hop, house, locking and popping. This year, they had preliminary event in different countries such as Swiss, Germany, Japan, Italy, Paris, etc.. and the only the team who won these preliminary event are going to enter the final event. I don’t know why there was no preliminary event in the US. Since the preliminary event are organized by local people, I guess there was no organizer who was willing to host the event in the US. This is the same case with Battle of the Year. The US being the pioneer of this culture, It is a shame!!!! The US needs somebody who think more about preserving the true essence of this culture as opposed to having a show like “MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew” .
Anyway… This year, I expect the level of the competition to be really really high!! Many dancers I mentioned on this page are actually going to be at the final. Since I was at the Japanese event, I can tell Japanese dancers who won the preliminary events.
Hip Hip: Yokoi&Dominic (Electric Trouble -no need to explain!)
House : Pino & Kenji (Pinocchio: Pino is my favorite house dancer and he is also the member of ALMA)
Popping: Gucchon & Kei (Coo-Thkoo: -they went through the most intensive battle of the all category. Guccho was 2nd place at 2007 UK BBOY Championship)
Locking: Seiji & Yukari (They beated Hilty & Bosch. )
On top of these dancers, I heard the rumor that there are more big name dancers entering the contest from Paris preliminary event which will be held the day before. They are:
Acky & Salah for popping (what a team!!)
Yoshie & Akane (BE BOP Crew) for locking
Hiro (ALMA) & Tatsuo (Grass Hopper) for house
So anyway, I was going to fly to Paris just for this event. But I end up not being able to… If you happen to live near Paris, I must go to see this event. Yoshie said, “If you are a street dancer and you are missing this event, then you are not a street dancer.”For more information, visit at www.juste-debout.com
Juste Debout 2008 Japan
I was in Japan for two weeks last month and I went to see Juste Debout 2008 Japan event in tokyo. It was really long event started at 9PM ended at 7AM. But the event was really hot. The highlight of the event was the final of popping category: Gucchon & Key vs Kite & Madoka. There was no doubt that the skill of these guys were supoer, but what really impressed me was the emotion or I should say “SOUL” that they put into their each move. It might be hard to see what I am talking about from this video clip, though. I guess you have to be there to feel it. Also, I am really impressed with DJ Batsu. He is by far the best DJs in Japan who specialized old school music. I believe he is going to spin at the Juste Debout 2008 final at France, too. oh, by the way can please someone translate what bruce and other people are saying in French?
U-Min: Japanese Animation crew
This Japanese animation crew calls themselves “U-Min” meaning unknown. Even though they focus on “animation” style, the members also perform locking, popping and breaking. This performance was done for Japanese clothing company called “UNIQLO”.U-min is very unique in their choreography. Each movement itself may not be so unique. But the way they put each movement together as a group and the use of their technique is extraordinary. Because of their amazing skills, they have been knicknamed as “Controller of Time and Space”.Currently, two members from U-Min, Koutei Sennin and Kikky are performing as a group called “U-Min no kokoro (Soul of U-Min).
“Animation” is a style and a technique that attempt to imitate film characters being animated by stop motion. The technique consists of moving rigidly and jerky by tensing muscles and using techniques similar to strobing and the robot to make it appear as if the dancer has been animated frame by frame. This style was heavily inspired by the dynamation films created by Ray Harryhausen, such as The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958)