This is the old clip of Electric Trouble’s performance back in 2003 I believe. At that time, the Electric Trouble consists of three members, Yokoi, Shohei and Bon. The first guy who is doing solo is Shohei and the yokoi is the next. This is my favorite Yokoi’s solo.
If you are one of the people who got inspired by PBS’s legendary documentary ”Reckn’ shop Live from Brooklyn”, you must appreciate this clip. Yes, it is Kito from Misfits. He is the member of Misfits crew along with Prancer (dancer for Special ED also a member of Zhige), Peek A Boo, Rubber Band. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, Kito has a very unique style of dancing. It is very hard to describe but he hits the beat in a very different manner. or somebody else can describe his style better, please. Although he didn’t appear in many music videos (maybe only Mariah Carey’s “emotion” and Lalah Hatherway’s “Baby Don’t Cry”, I heard he was very prominent at NY club scene in early 90s. (By the way, I think a guy who is hanging around Mariah in her “Dream Lover” video, is Kito.) If you know anything about him, (like other video he did or what he is doing now), please leave your comment, please.
And I just want to talk about the background story of this clip. This clip is so called “Underground Zoo video” among dancers in Japan. What it means is that there was a Japanese pop group called “ZOO” and in 1992 ZOO went to NYC featured NY dancers like Link, E-Joe, Brian Green, Marjory, Marquest, Voo Doo Ray, and Tony (Saku) in their music video that you see at the bottom of this blog. During the shoot, one of the members from ZOO videotaped NY dancers dancing being videotaped behind the camera. And the footage was circulated among limited dancers in Japan first. It was a kind of video people talked about but never be able to see it. Later, I was lucky enough to see the same video but the quality was so bad because the VHS tape I got was copied after copied so many times. So, I was so surprised to see this video on youtube, I mean in public. Time really changed!!
Kito’s dance appeared at 3:00 in this clip.
The legendary hip hop crew, Elite Force appeared and choreographed the opening act for Soul Train 25th Anniversary show. The members are from Mop Top Family, a group of hip hop/house dancers in NYC, who appeared on PBS’s legendary documentary “Reckin shop live from Brooklyn”. The original dancers of Elite Force were Buddha Stretch, Link aka Henry, and Calef and Ejoe (according to the their website.) In Japan, their first appearance was in 1994 when they were invited to perform for the 1st Japan Dance Delight. (the members were Stretch, Link, and Loose Joint) Next year, they were invited again for 2nd Japan Dance Delight and the members were Stretch, Link and Ejoe. Currently, the official members of elite force are buddha Stretch, Link, Terry and Bobby. It is safe to say that Elite Force has had the biggest influence on the freestyle scene or new school hip hop or whatever you call it (basically the hip hop style after bboying). Elite Force choreographed and appeared so many music videos mainly in 80s and 90s including Heavy D, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson (Remember the Time) and etc.. The members are still very much active and they are traveling all the time being invited to perform or judge for dance events around the world.In this clip, the dancers are Loose Joint, E-Joe, Stretch, and Link dancing to aretha franklin’s “Rock Steady”. You can see the style is very different from what you see on MTV these days. This may be just me but the thing I like about their choreography is the flow. I see lot of young dancers who put so many moves in the routine but each moves are often disjointed and not flowing well with the music. Elite Force’s choreography has very smooth flow to the music.
For more information please check their website at www.eliteforcecrew.com
I just noticed that IBM dancers’ clip was deleted by youtube. So, I posted it again.In case you missed before, here it is
This is the clip from Juste Debout 2008 Hip Hop. Twins (Left) vs Meech & Joseph Go (Right) and they are both from France. The best moment from this battle is at 1:55 - 2:41 done by Joseph Go. This is HIP HOP, Not hip hop mixed with Jazz on MTVs… When I first saw this, it gave me a chill!! I hope you appreciate this.
IBM Dancers are known for being backup dancers for Nice & Smooth from NYC. According to E. Boogie, the member of the group, they also danced for Akinyele and Mary J. Blige. This clip is from Nice & Smooth performance at Yo! MTV Raps. In this video, I really like the light skin dude on Red. It maybe hard to see on youtube video but he has a sick flavor on his move. I am not sure if he is the official member of the IBM dancers since I didn’t see him on other Nice & Smooth performance. Please let me know if you know anything about this guy.IBM dancers and Nice & Smooth is supposed to be appeared on 2008 VH1 HIP HOP HONORS AWARD. So, please check out.Talking about Nice & Smooth, they are my favorite rap group. Their songs like “Hip Hop Junkies”, “Funky For You”, “Sometime I Rhyme slow”, and “DWYCK” used to make all dancers on the floor go crazy. I remember at clubs in 90s, when you start hearing the intro beats of DWYCK, I felt like the entire floor was shaking because of the excitement from the crowd.
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 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
Is this just me? I was really disappointed to see MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew. What’s up, America??I am sure there are tons of better underground dancers in this country and they just don’t show up on TV. But still….Now watch the clip from weekly Japanese dance TV show. It is aired on late night and it is not like big MTV show with big budget. Still, I believe that they got way better dancers there. or is this just me??
