B is for B-boys: This weekend Bonnie invited me to attend R-16 (one of the most infamous international bboy competitions) with her friends. For those of you who have no idea what a Bboy is let me educate you. A Bboy is a male dancer (Bgirl for a female dancer) that practices breaking more commonly known as breakdancing, an acrobatic style of hiphop dancing. A breaker is the general term used for both sexes. Bboying started with the Black and Latino hiphop cultures in the South Bronx in the 1970's and evolved from there. In essence, it is all out street dancing. Koreans picked up bboying, along with the influence of the hiphop culture, largely in the 1990's. Apparently while young soldiers were serving their two years military time they picked up bboying. Starting in the year 2000, the Koreans proved worthy to compete along with the international bboys. In 2002, a German audience watched history as theKorean born Expression Crew won "Battle of the Year." From 2002 on Koreans have only perfected their style and innovated new elements of bboying. (There are four elements to bboying: toprock, downrock, freeze and power moves.) As of 2009, Koreans are the top nation in bboying. 
Top bboy groups such as: Last for One, T.I.P., Gamblerz, Rivers, Drifterz, Maximum and Visual Shock all hail from Korea.
Top bboy groups such as: Last for One, T.I.P., Gamblerz, Rivers, Drifterz, Maximum and Visual Shock all hail from Korea. It was amazing to watch the performances at R-16 (an international bboy festival held in South Korea) this Saturday.
Watching these masters of style was riviting, and all that the audience can do while they stare mindlessly at the bboys is utter "oooh!", "ahhh!", and "how the..." :) The final performance was what completely captivated me. It was choreographed (unlike bboy one on one battles which are freestyle) to include traditional Korean dancers, bboys, and Taekwondo masters. The piece began with a traditional Korean drum dance, where the drummers have ribbons attatched to their caps and must consistantly rotate their heads to keep it 
streaming through the air; trust me its pretty great you just have to see it for yourself. The drummers consistant rotation is akin to the perpetual movement of the bboys. As well the Taekwondo masters jabs and hooks can be likened to the popping and locking of bboys. The performance demonstrated why the Koreans have a historical and natural inclination to be masters of bboying.
Watching these masters of style was riviting, and all that the audience can do while they stare mindlessly at the bboys is utter "oooh!", "ahhh!", and "how the..." :) The final performance was what completely captivated me. It was choreographed (unlike bboy one on one battles which are freestyle) to include traditional Korean dancers, bboys, and Taekwondo masters. The piece began with a traditional Korean drum dance, where the drummers have ribbons attatched to their caps and must consistantly rotate their heads to keep it 
streaming through the air; trust me its pretty great you just have to see it for yourself. The drummers consistant rotation is akin to the perpetual movement of the bboys. As well the Taekwondo masters jabs and hooks can be likened to the popping and locking of bboys. The performance demonstrated why the Koreans have a historical and natural inclination to be masters of bboying. So... if you are ever in Korea, you should watch bboying. I can guarantee it will be the performance will not let you down.
No comments:
Post a Comment