It’s a minute til 7:00 pm and I’m sitting there listening to the track Judgement Day by Method Man while bobbing my head to the beat. While in the waiting room the door starts to open to the studio as students exit from their last class of the night. The purple walls, the four windows, hard wood floor, with the red and grey mats pushed against the walls. The stereo system with its four speakers spread out along the top and the 15 foot mirrors along one whole side. This is my place where I can learn and evolve my skills. Where I create and perfect my movements. I’m the mad scientist and this is my lab, where I put in the work and time.
I walk in and place my backpack where ever there was an empty space on the floor, usually right next to the window. As crew mates enter the room we will greet one another and begin to stretch together while one of us will plug in their laptop or Ipod through the aux wire to the sound system. About 15-20 minutes have passed and I feel pretty stretched out. I stand up to shake my legs and my arms to loosen my muscles and let the blood flow. I soon start to focus more and my body starts feeling relaxed. I think now its that time to hit the dance floor.
I wanted to work on every aspect of my game. From top rock to foot work, back rocks to of course power moves. Now these are all things a bboy needs to actually well, be called a bboy. Everything needed a bit of polishing up. All the moves I had in my arsenal took years of practice. Countless hours of training that will take me further and further beyond past my limitations. Just to even get a move right and to be able to do it over and over again like it came naturally is considered a big accomplishment. Being motivated, focused, and determined definitely had a big part in that.
My motivation can be linked to many things. Listening to different genres of music and think to myself how can I dance to this? Or watching different styles of dance, from ballet to modern jazz, and trying to incorporate it somehow and give it that bboy flavor. Being focus also helps the training very much. Not trying to worry about a move that I may keep on attempting and failing at constantly but to then further on perfecting different types of transitions for moves that I already felt I’ve mastered. And of course my dedication to this dance. The feeling of satisfaction I get when I finally over come mess ups and get a move down by the end of a session. Numerous amounts of trial and errors but it definitely feels great. I’ve been doing this for so long, almost 9 years now and definitely have such a love for what I do.
The one thing about break dancing is it’s longevity. How long will it take for breaking to take its toll on our body? Now I’ve managed to keep a dedication and determination still even when injuries have surfaced and I’ve endured from many. From bumps and bruises, from popped shoulders to sprained ankles. Even when I had one body part injured that never stopped me from still going to practice and training. I never let them heal properly though and I can definitely feel it catching up to me now. Another thing is that of course when I first started I had a much smaller body frame, weighed less, and was shorter. For my height and weight it is harder for me to do certain moves but that never stopped me. I’ve learn to basically improvise and adapt someway. If something little like that stopped me, then I never really was dedicated to it in the first place.
During practices me and my crew will what we call “vibe off” one another. Another way to put it is feed off each others energy. We get hyped and gain more adrenaline and push one another. We try not to give up and continue learning and trying. We make each other better with every practice session even on our worst days. We strive for the same goals and are always the student. I wouldn’t be the dancer I am today without the help and influences I get from my crew mates. There is always improvement needed so we always go back to the lab and continue to put our time and efforts in because there is no greater feeling then doing what you love doing.