Dance Masterz

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Speechless!! I have so much memory in this video. After this video came out, it set up the trend of hip hop dance in Japan for the next 5,6 years at least at that time -NY style. I think this video came out 1990. But in Japan, I believe we discovered this video around 1991. Around that time, Japanese dancers were paying attention to dancers in LA such as Soul Brothres, back up dancers for Def Jef and Scheme Team, back up dancers for Devine Styler. LA style was very raw, funky and energetic and I have a big respect for Soul Brothers. But the dancers in this video were very different. This may be partially because they were dancing to slow R&B. But NY style was smooth and sexy. Later we discovered that the dancers in this video were Mop Top Crew aka Elite Force, Henry Link, Caleaf, Voo Doo Ray, and I believe Kito and Marquest from Misfitss crew. Followed by this video, Alive TV’s “Wreckin Shop from Brooklyn”, Mariah Carey’s “Emotion” help Mop Top’s fame rising among Japanese dancers. Eventually, this movement took Mop Top crew to Japan in 94.

This is a scene from the movie “Paris is burning” -the 1990 documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the poor, African American and gay and transgendered community involved in it.

 In mainstream world, it was Madonna who made the vogueing popular just like Michael Jackson made moonwalking popular.  Vogueing might have been considered as just a fad.  But vogueing has a long history before Madonna and its culture is still alive now.  In this clip, the best vogueing dancer, Willie Ninja explains the origin of vogueing.  I saw him dancing in January of 2007 and he was still great.  He passed away a few month later. 

Willie Ninja R.I.P.

Thanks to youtube, I am able to watch this legendary TV show of UK Jazz battle. I first heard about this tv show back in 1994 from an article in Japanese magazine. I think I saw its freeze frame on the magazine but never be able to see the actual video. And at that time in Japan, dancers don’t want to share the video with others so that if they copy or inspire moves from the video, nobody can’t tell if it is taken from somewhere. Rare videos were circulated only among the certain people. That’s the kind of the mentality in early 90s in Japan. It was the time when how fast and many videos you get from overseas play a big part to become well known in dance community. Anyway, I finally watched this video after mora than decade since I heard about it. My reaction? Even though this is more than 10 years old clip and should be considered as old school, it is still super fresh!!

Part 2 and Part 3 of the same show is below.

What he is performing is called “Shine” in Cuban Salsa. Normally, Salsa is pair dance. But Shine is a sort of salsa version of free style solo dance style when the pair split and start dancing individually for a while. Even though Salsa is not a part of street dance culture, this video is definetely worth posting. If you are into house dancing, be-bop or any footworks, you should appreciate this video.

According to the original post on youtube, he is a colombian and the world champion of this “shine” category in 2005 and 2006. I love to see him dancing with house music.

This is Yokoi performing in 2005 Juste Debout when he was invited as a judge.
Yokoi represents a crew called Electric Trouble in Osaka, Japan. He started dancing around 1993 and his biggest influence come from Link from Elite Force. His musicality is his strength in his style as he explains “My favotite moments in dancing is when my body complete become one with music.” He is also a member of the project “Wreckin Crew Orchestra”, the theatrical street dance performance project consists of top dancers of different styles from Osaka area. Wreckin Crew Orchestra was invited to perform at 2007 Battle of the Year as a guest.

This clip is from a popular dance TV program in Japan called “Super Chample”. There is no doubt that Yoshie is one of the best female street dancer in Japan. The guys who are dancing with Yoshie are from DA PUMP, a boy band. Despite being a boy band, members of DA PUMP are not bad dancer at all. She is all around dancer and can do most of the styles of street dance beside b-girling. Personally, I always love watching her locking and punking. She is a member of “Be-Bop Crew”, the historical street dance crew in Japan, which has always been pursuing soulfulness and funkiness in movements since early 80s. Yoshibo, the leader of the Be-Bop crew, is said to be the god father of street dance culture in Japan. Yoshie trained her skill under Yoshibo and his crew while managing her busy schedule as a 9-5 office worker Later, she became a full time dancer.

Representing Be-Bop style from UK, Brothers in Jazz is the best! The members are Irven Lewis, Wayne James, and Trevor Miller. Be-Bop is probably the least known style sicne its scene is limited to UK and Japan. More information about Be-Bop is coming soon
 

This clip is excerpt from the documentary movie about house music called “MAESTRO”. It was shot at a underground club in New York City. This clip features influential house dancers.

0:25 Caleaf (Dance Fusion)
2:11 Shannon (Dance Fusion) He is also a good house DJ.
4:40 E-Joe (Elite Force).

Caleaf was featured in music video of Crystal Waters “Gypsy Woman” with Peter Paul, another veteran house dancer in NYC.
Both Caleaf and E-Joe also appeared on the legendary documentary “ALIVE TV:Wreckin’ Shop From Brooklyn” as mop top crew.

Although house dancing has finally start getting recoginzed by dancers around the world last two or three years, it has been around as early as 80s in new york city. There might have been random individual house dancers in other part of the United States. But I believe that it was only in New York and Chicago which had established house dance scene in 80s. In early 90s, house dancing was introduced to Japan. Then toward 2000, house dancing was introduced to France through Brian Green and some Japanese dancers. “Juste Debout”, international street dance competition in France, featured house dance competition and house started getting recognized by the rest of the world.