Floor The Love

Crowd Vol.7, Seoul Korea 10-4-11

2011-04-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

The Crowd streetdance series in Seoul is a 1vs1 all style mixed battle hosted by Tae of Trip Family, a Seoul dance studio and Flow Maker,a streetdance event management team. Crowd volume 7 was held on the 10th April in V-Hall at the famed Hongdae district in Seoul, the centre for streetdance, youth art and culture in Korea. It was my first time to come back to Seoul in a year and I could not think of a better event to catch during my short 10 day trip than a Flow Maker 'Crowd' jam.

Everyone was there. All my friends, dance acquaintances and people that I looked up to in the Seoul scene came to this jam. It was almost like everyone gave me a welcome back party, haha. People just love coming out to a Crowd Mixstyle 1vs1 simply because the event is just so damn funny~!

MCs were MC Go and Jazzy Ivy (photo below).

Between the two of them, they have hosted almost every single major streetdance event in Seoul over the last six or seven years, from R16 to Battle of the Year, to Street Jam. That's not to say they haven't forgotten their roots because they have also been most prevalent at all the little jams too, like Crowd, Who is the Best of Pop Lock and many more. Jazgeem is also a recording MC as well and has dropped several albums in the last few years, so he also makes appearances at music festivals as well as his own concerts.

When they are together on the stage, they have such a familiarity with each other, such a connection that when they speak, it's like it's just you and them in the whole auditorium. It's hard to explain, but it's such a privilege to watch them work on stage (even though my Korean listening ability isn't fluent enough to grasp all their jokes) because what you are watching is not just two event MCs, but two friends up there sharing their camaraderie with you in the audience in such a way that makes you feel like a friend as well.

I found a little bit of youtube footage of them online from R16 2009 in Incheon.

So it was brilliant to see them at work again, it made me feel like no time had passed at all at the event even though it had been a year. Ivy dubbed me 'Seoul Brother number two,' in reference to him being Seoul Brother number one. Lol, how about Ivy, I be Seoul Brother 'A' and you can be 'Seoul Brother number 1?' ^^

Jaz Geem's youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/jazzvilrecords
Jaz Geem's website: http://www.jazgeem.wordpress.com
Jaz Geem's facebook: www.facebook.com/jaz.geem

MC Go is an old generation Seoul hip hop dancer who always had the gift of confidence and intelligence on a mic. Prior to his auto accident in 2007, he was one of the best in Seoul for hip hop dance and if I recall properly, he was the champion for Crowd vol. 1 in 2006. Here is a video of a funny showcase he did with G-Haksu in 2006 at the first Who is the Best of Pop Lock in Blue Monkeys club in Sincheon.

Judges were a who's who of the dance scene in Seoul; G-Haksu, Bboy Tinoroc, Originality Woong, Pop Kun and House dancing Seen.

Entrants were also equally as crazy as the judges, Popping DS, aka Kin, Originality Moon, Crazy Kyo, Funky Lia, Bboy Mickey, Kyoung Mi aka Lock Me....

Oriental Waacking Unit: Waacking Jina (orange) and Ari (red)

The guest showcases too were off the chain! Monster Woo Fam, The B. + Funkyz and Oriental Waacking Unit. Monster Woo Fam is Korea's first Krumping family and is headed by the infamous Monster Woo who just gets crazy on that buck tip. Youngster, Bucky and 2Face went to Singapore for a project event by Music Garage studios in 2010. The B. is an all girl popping team featuring Dassy who you may remember was the Floor The Love 2011 Popping and Locking champion alongside boyfriend and partner aka Kin. And Funkyz is Kyoung Mi and Kyoung Ah who came in first runner up in Singapore Juste Debout 2011 Locking category. Oriental Waacking Unit features Jina as a member and of course, Jina was a judge in the first Floor The Love battle competition in 2007 and gave the very first waacking workshops in Singapore in 2007. Wow, so I guess all the guest showcases had a connection to Singapore. Dope.

DJ Mulder was the man behind the wheels of steel with co-Dj, DJ Back. Mulder had a brief break to recharge his batteries after bringing the house down at Juste Debout Singapore in January. It was good to hear him play at Crowd.

Crowd featured a lot of different dancers sharing their dance in a mix-style competition. Dancers play 'rock-scissors-papers' to decide what genre of music they DJ must play for the battle. So, if a popping dancer is battling a house dancer and chooses 'popping' music for the music for the battle if he wins the rock-scissors-paper game, then the battle is heavily in his favour. It's notoriously difficult to dance outside your genre of music against someone who is 'in' their music.

What I found interesting is that most of the time, the dancer who won the music choice didn't pick a music category that was their strength. A locking dancer would be up against a bboy and choose 'House' music. I don't know if this was sportsmanship or politeness, but it happened more often than not. The result is more often than not freaking hilarious and there is as much laughter as 'oohs' and 'aahs'

I think this type of mix-style battle where high-level dancers of many genres all come to compete in a sense of non-competition is really fresh. It shows a sense of maturity and unity in the scene when people can come together to a jam that features genres they don't usually get down to to maybe battle someone in a different genre to different music. A kind of 'rojak' feeling where the main aim is to have fun more so than 'be the best.'

Bboy Mickey in the top 8.

Popping DS

Soul K, waacking dancer from Ghost of Soul

Every battle has its winner though and Crowd volume 7's champion was Crazy Kyo, the defending champion from Crowd volume 6. It was Crazy Kyo vs Popping DS in the final popper vs popper. Locking Moon and Hip Hop J-Black were in the final four.

After the event, me and Rebecca Chan, a Malaysia Hip Hop dancer who is living in Seoul at the moment went out to eat with Funky Lia, Waackin' Jina, Waack Queen, Soul K and Soul Choi in a neighbourhood eatery nearby the event hall. It was so good to be back in Seoul with old friends doing the same stuff we used to do back in the day.

I could not have asked for a better event or jam to see coming back to Korea for the first time in a long time.

Thank you Seoul.

Love, Seoul Brother Number Two.

Floor The Love 2011

2010-11-18T03:11:00.000-08:00

Floor The Love 2011
Date: March 26th 2011

Where: Singapore Management University, ACC Hall

Judges: Freestyle Ali (Next Level Crew, Korea)
   1G (Imperial House of Wacking, Korea Chapter)

Freestyle Ali Video

1G Video

DJs: Mulder (Korea)
   Smoke (Singapore)
   Crown (Worldwide)

MCs: Stephanie Phua and Chris Crown

Categories:
Hip Hop 2vs2 Locking 2vs2 House 1vs1
Popping 2vs2 Waacking 2vs2

Registration:
Email your Team Name, Individual Names, Country, Phone Numbers, Category of Battle and email addresses to floorthelove@gmail.com. Registration closes March 22nd. 40 teams per category. $25 per contestant, payable on the day. Contestants can enter in as many categories as they want.

Tickets:
Early tickets available at Natasha Studio, Singapore $26 each. Available SOON! Watch this space for more info.
Door tickets on the day $30.
Foreign visitors looking for early bird $26 tickets, please email floorthelove@gmail.com with your contact details and country of origin. You can pick up the tickets at the door on the day of the event.

Event Schedule:
Coming soon

Workshop Schedule:
Coming soon

After party Schedule:
Coming soon

Contact:
Facebook - "Floor The Love"
Web: www.floorthelove.blogspot.com
Email: floorthelove@gmail.com

Judges Profile -

Freestyle Ali is one of the most progressive streetdancers in the new generation of dancers in Seoul. A graduate of the notorious year long 'Hard Training Project' at NY Studio, where dancers trained from 11pm to 5am seven days a week for a year under the tutelage of NY Studio seniors, Freestyle Ali chose his name because of his love and dedication to learning house, locking, popping, hip hop and more. Proficiency in his funkstyle dances led to an invitation to join 'Funky Move All Stars' with aka Kin, aka Ra and Boogaloo Tom. Along with Ji Hae (aka 1G), Kyoung Ah and Kyoung Mi (the two Singapore Juste Debout 2011 Locking runner ups), Ali took 'Hard Training Project' to Osaka for Dance Delight vol. 22 in 2006 and finished in the top 16 with a Hip Hop dance routine. Freestyle Ali has also been dance lecturer at Seoul Performing Arts College and currently teaches Hip Hop and Popping dance with various studios in Seoul. He was a judge at Floor The Love 2007 and 2008.

Top Achievements -
Battles
Korea Locking Session 2005, best 4
Battle of the Month, Freestyle Battles best 4
4 Da Next Level 2007, Popping best 8
Real Jam Hip Hop / House 2009, Hip Hop side Best 8

Guest Shows
City of Heaz 2009, NY Crew
Seoul City Festival 2008
R-16 International Bboy Festival 2009
Seoul Arts College Festival
Yong San American Base Festival

1G is also a graduate of the Hard Training Project and has found a specialization in Waacking but is also proficient in Popping, House, Hip Hop and Jazz. Taking in the NY Studio culture of studying a wide range of dances, 1G impressed Imperial House of Waacking Father Tyrone Proctor with her humble attitude towards learning more combined with a gift for dramatic flair in waacking, she was made the leader of the I.H.O.W. Korea Chapter in 2009. Further testament to her diverse love of streetdance, 1G has partnered with many Seoul dancers and dance teams of different disciplines such as Funky Lia (aka Locking Lia) and House Jinu over her dance career to create shows ranging from contemporary jazz to hip hop to waacking to house. She was a battle guest at Floor The Love 2010 and returns as a judge in 2011.

What's the Name of That Song?

2010-09-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

How many times have you heard your friend ask 'What's the name of that song?' Music is so pivotal to especially the culture of Hip Hop in addition to Streetdances in general. They make us feel 'funky,' 'amped,' 'motivated,' and put us in that indescribable zone where you can do your best creative work either freestyling in practice or thinking of a new direction for your choreography.

We've all seen unbelievable freestyles in battles, where a dancer's familiarity with the horn breaks of a song, a drum set or bassline just kills the battle and we say "Damn! He killed the music!"

And or course, the right selections in music coupled with the insight of a choreographer to write a piece of dance to describe that music transcends language and 'communicates' themes and subtexts to the audience (of course not just in streetdance, but all dances).

But what makes Streetdance and Hip Hop so different to our approach to music is the concept of 'Digging' and 'Sampling.'

What is Digging?

Digging traditionally refers to the way a DJ searches stacks for obscure and never before discovered vinyl records. In places where vinyl is sold, Djs join vinyl enthusiasts to look for music from different eras to use in their sets and recordings and performances. The better you could dig, the better collection of music you probably had.

Djs used to keep their record collections secret from one another - Bambaataa, Flash and Kool Herc notoriously used to soak the labels off their records so that other DJs couldn't get a peek at who the artist was and famously, Bambaataa kept the record 'Apache' by the extremely obscure group Incredible Bongo Band which in turn got the music from 60s grpup The Shadows in the UK a secret from everyone else and if you wanted to hear that song, you had to go to his party. There was no other way of hearing it!

Sampling - the DNA of Hip Hop Music

'Sampling' refers to a DJs use of a previous hook, beat, hornbreak or other musical arrangement on an existing piece of music into a new piece of music. It is often a familiar 4 count snatch of a familiar riff, vocal sample or drumset. Djs and music producers 'borrow' the credibility of that 'sample' in their new work to present an interpretation of the music for their own contemporary work. This is especially the case in popular 'remixes' such as utilizing the World Famous Supreme Dream Team's 'Hey DJ' (Rappin' Island 1984) bass, keys and vocal that has appeared in the following releases

		Hey Ladies by Beastie Boys (1989)

		I'm in the House by Dysfunkshunal Familee (1994)

		Slide and Rock On by Redman (1994)

		Honey by Mariah Carey (1997)

		Hey AZ by AZ feat. SWV (1997)

		Hey DJ (Play That Song) by Tony Touch feat. B-Real and Nina Sky (2005)

World Supreme Dream Team 'Hey DJ' (Rappin' Island 1984)

Jeff Chang wrote in his book 'Total Chaos: The Aesthetics of Hip Hop' that Hip Hop isn't creating something from nothing, it's seeing the something in the thing that society tells you is nothing.
Which I think is a pretty apt way of viewing as well the larger racial undertones and social issues that helped shaped Hip Hop Culture in the 1970s Bronx.

No art centre? Paint on a wall.

No musical instrument? Beatbox.

No band equipment? Use records.

No dance academy? Make your own dance.

No money for new clothes? Keep you sneakers looking new and fressshh.

I'm an avid fan of finding the roots and sample to recent tracks. When I first began listening to Hip Hop music, it slowly dawned on me that I was hearing snatches of music from other records and that I would hear that same sample by different artists on different albums, most notably for me was World Supreme Dream Teams 'Hey DJ' that was on Lighter Shade of Brown's 'Hey DJ' and Mariah Carey's 'Honey.'

Remember, these aren't just straight covers of songs like Alien Ant Farm'a 'Smooth Criminal' butchery of Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal,' but an intelligent use of a segment of sound to bring the right tones of familiarity and even nostalgia while invoking a new sound.

In the days before the internet, finding information about music was almost impossible. Scratch that, it was impossible outside living in a place that had a well-established Hip Hop music culture. I would go to friends and ask 'Hey, what's the name of that song, it goes da-da-da-dee-dee-dum-da.'

Needless to say, results were minimal.

But now, I've found the internet holy grail of sampling. A wikipediaesque record of who sample what, where, when and for whom. A treasure trove of information and god almighty beats.

www.whosampled.com

You can spend days at this site researching what they call the 'DNA' of Hip Hop music. It is such an enormous catalogue of information that is always being updated. It's sites like these that is really going to change the game for the next generation of Hip Hop music fans and Streetdancers. Try punching in the name of some of your favourite contemporary artists (especially all you kids born after 1990) and see who they have beat jacked from.

Start with P. Diddy. Haha.

Musical foundation is maybe as important as your technical foundations. In developing your approach to dance, the music you listen to is going to play a big part. The different dances whilst have similar roots in many cases are also distinctly done to only one or at the most maybe two genres of music.

So dig. Dig deep into the music of the dance styles you practice in. You will find untold treasures, I really promise you. You will develop an ear to appreciate the kind of 'feeling' that makes people in your genre produce the best, most innovative works. But it all has to start with collections of music that you listen to. The older you get, the more samples you will probably even start to recognize just on the radio as part of songs that you heard once before in elementary school.

I guarantee World Supreme Dream Team will be collecting royalties for 'Hey DJ' for yeaarrss.

I'm off to go login back into that site to waste some more valuable office time. I hope I can finally find the name of that song that goes 'da-da-da-dee-dee-dum-da.' Do you know what it is?

Singapore Bboy Documentary

2010-09-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

Tosh Roc of the notorious Radikal Forze has been getting bizzay behind a camera and on macbook to bring you the first independent, honest and accurate more than just behind the scenes, but behind the mofo' superficial veneer of respect that mainstream media (yeah i'm looking at your Razor TV and Singapore Press Holdings) has for the people in the scene who gave blood, sweat and years for the scene.

If you don't know, now you know, ninja!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Director Bio

His name is: [Tosh Roc]

And he comes from: [the Lion City]

He holds it down for: [Radikal Forze, Inertia Crew]

He has been known for: [putting mark ass tricks in their place]

Someone once called him: [the most gangster Chinese they know]

And they're probably: [right]

Upcoming [director], well established [bboy] and avid [shoe wearer], it

is the opinion of this author that Tosh Roc is a nasty ass mofo.

Email:	toshroc@gmail.com

Mobile Phone:	+65 98776087

Skype:	toshroc
Website:	http://www.radikalforzecrew.com http://www.recognizestudios.com
Facebook Profile:	facebook.com/toshrock

Wild Cherry 1961-2010

2010-06-18T02:04:00.000-07:00

Koji Tatsuta, aka Wild Cherry 1961 - 2010

Koji Tatsuta, aka Wild Cherry was an influential dancer in the Japanese streetdance community who inspired dancers far beyond his native Osaka.

He learned Popping from the late Electric Boogaloos Skeeter Rabbit and Soul Dance from Teddy Dan. He was also proficient in Locking and Waacking.

He was one of the Japanese Original Generation dancers who pushed streetdance culture in the early days to the heights it has reached today and in doing say has influenced a great many number of dancers across the world. He was especially close to Korean dancers and helped a lot in the early days of development and was a friend to many.

His main crew affiliation was OGS.

He is survived by son Shibumi Tatsuta.

Popping Mouse of Singapore recorded these post-session talks with Wild Cherry during his 2008 visit to Singapore.

--------

posted by Chris Su, Floor The Love.

If you have any additional information about Koji Tatsuta, please let me know. I feel that he deserves a lot more written about him given his stature in the game. Competitions he's won, judges, crews he has joined, students he has taught, teachers who taught him...let me know alla dat!

You Are Still My Heroes.

2010-05-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

Teamwork Is Perfect - 1996 to eternity.

No matter what happens in the history of the Bboy and Bgirl Culture in Asia, no one can deny that one of the most influential teams to come out of the 'second wave' in the mid 1990s were Teamwork Is Perfect aka TIP Crew in South Korea.

Their hard work ethic is reflected in their choice of team name; yes, their teamwork was indeed perfect and they did so many next level, complex routines back in their early years that still blow minds today and in no way look outdated or behind the times.

In 2001, they won 'Best Show' at Battle of The Year in Germany under the name 'Visual Shock' which also comprised of some members who are not on the TIP roster today. But nevertheless, they put Korea on the map for breaking and inspired a new generation of people to take up the dance and an older generation to step up their training.

They pushed everyone to become better and I certainly know that in Singapore and Australia, we all looked at their shows and thought "Daaaammmn."

On a personal level, watching the old TIP shows really made me respect bboying and helped me explore team work in dance and in no small way led to the events in my life that started Floor The Love. No shit.

I MCed at an event for TIP once in Seoul and I must say, you couldn't find a team of more humble people. They are real people. If you want to come and practice at their studio, you are welcome, 7 days a week, they'll even help you find it. Dozens of foreign dancers have come through Seoul and they have been accepting of them all and given so much to them without asking for anything except - 'practice hard and come back to visit.'

It is the culture not only of streetdancers, but to Korean people as a new generation that looks outwards to make new relationships around the world and not inward at their sad past.

It is because of Korea's sad past that TIP have problems today. It is mandatory for all able-bodied Korean men to do 2 years of military service sometime between the age of 19 and 32. Many people, especially dancers injure themselves deliberately to avoid doing the service and TIP were part of this too, mimicking mental distress to get cleared from active service.

They spent 15 years of hard work developing their skills, studio, helping other dancers, doing show and representing a new face of Korea to the world - a dynamic and positive one that help overcome the 'old world' view of Korea, a nation divided and at war with one another. They were caught and are now to face military service and have lost their sponsors, studios and the respect of some people.

But not me.

You are still my Heroes.

I will always Respect you and I will always Respect T.I.P.

The following is a letter from TIP leader Virus to the world.

Hello, it's Hwang Dae Gyun (Virus). First off, I would like to apologize for the commotion we have caused in the society. We are especially sorry to all our fans who have supported T.I.P crew all this time. Fellow Bboys, students, and admirable school authorities (?) and other associates, we are sorry.

The members associated with the incident are Random, Differ, and I (Virus). Other members have already quit or are participating in other crews. People have been speculating and assuming that I was going to hand over my leader position. To clear things up, I have not been proven innocent. I'm not a professional in that area either. And none of the crew members have said they received the leadership position from me.

Because of this incident, T.I.P and I have lost our dignity, sponsors, money, respect, and jobs we have been working for for 15 years. And the saddest part is that we no longer can use our studio. A long time ago T.I.P practiced in the streets, public transit stations, and on university campuses. Back then we vowed that we would provide a free practice studio if we ever got one. And for those of you who know, we have kept that promise. But it seems I can't keep that promise for now. I am deeply sorry.

Now I'll talk about myself. I personally want to hide it but.. 31 Years ago, 20 months after I was born, My father passed away in a Car accident. Since then we have been in deep debt and my mother alone carried the burden, along with my brother and I, and left our home to GuhYung district. We were always hassled by loan sharks and kept moving after that. Because of that, I went to elementary in three different places. But there was one talent I had. It was dance. Since I was young, I had been athletic, and felt that breaking was very easy. I could see a move and pretty much copy it.

Eventually dance became a way for me to come over depression, and became all of me. When I was around 20, my mother realised that I had to pay off our loans and debts together, and make some money. I was thinking about what I could do, and I chose to become a celebrity. I debuted when I was around 21 years old but the result wasn't as I expected. With an official celebrity status at the time I was offended and my pride was ruined, but thanks to a friend's referral I worked part time at a bar and participated in T.I.P activities. I made more money and thought to myself, 'I'm going to pay back all of that money before I go to the army'.

Then in 2001, T.I.P was chosen to go to Battle Of The Year as the first korean crew in history. There was 2 months left before Battle Of The year, but my Military recruit letter came 2 weeks later. At the time, BOTY was the greatest opportunity in my life, and also the last opportunity (or so I thought) in my life. But I could not delay my military service farther and pondered endlessly. There was no solution. Eventually I decided to become hospitalized. My plan of only staying there for one week was extended to a month and a half. At the time I thought I could leave whenever I wanted after being hospitalized. Because of that, I only had barely 2 weeks of practice before I flew out to Germany. After all our hard works, we received the Best Show Award. Nobody knew about Korea back then and the fact that we were the first Korean Crew to go to BOTY meant so much to me, it was so special. Then and now, the 2001 Battle Of The Year Best Show Award is my first ever award, and it means the world to me.

I felt like we were going somewhere now. I was happy returning to Korea until the Military recruit letter came again. At the time I foolishly thought I would lose everything if I went to the army. I thought it would be better to die than go. Also, I was scared I could not protect my mother. She had been relying on me for support tremendously until now. Now when I see it, there are bboys who went to the army, and are still amazing at what they do. When I see these fellows, I regret my descision and wonder if things would have been better off now if I had gone earlier. Back then all my seniors were telling me that the Army was the end of my dancing career.

After that, T.I.P and I travelled the world, sweeping countless events as performers, competitors, judges, and we became a worldly-well known and respected crew. In 2006, T.I.P's original performance 'THE CODE' was chosen by the Korean Tourism Industry as one of the 6 Cultural prizes. In 2007 we won the U.K bboy championships and won a significant award of merit in 2008. Recently, some of us have debuted as the first Korean Hollywood Choreography directors and actors.

What I really want to say is that, we are now criminals who have broken the law. But I want you do understand that I made this foolish choice because of my lack of intelligence from my previous hardships in life. I humbly bow in embarrassment and ask you to see the good sides in us. Again, I sincerely apologize to everyone and promise to become a better T.I.P Crew.
-This has been T.I.P Crew Hwang Dae Gyun-

This is the 2001 show at BOTY Germany that won Best Show and influenced so many dancers around the world.

R16 South East Asia

2010-03-16T02:13:00.000-07:00

KSDP together with Music Garage have been working damn hard to get the R16 Urban Arts Festival up and running in Singapore over the last few weeks since Floor The Love. As you may know, the R16 is an international arts festival from Korea which showcase our dance, our art, our music, our knowledge and our photography from the people who are real streetdancer and breakers and mcs.

Here is the intro video to the R16 Festival.

The judging lineup has included over the years included original generation bboys Ken Swift, Crazy, Poe 1, Swift Rock, Lil Caesar, newer bboy dancers such as Ducky and Lilou, for locking category The Lockers' Tony GoGo and popping dancer Junior Boogaloo. Performers that have been asked to come down include Myosung, Dilated Peoples, Dumbfoundead and Tiger JK.

This is Myosung Crew's guest showcase at R16 2009. The R16 featured one crew performance from 16 teams, so if you were invited to do a guest showcase at R16, you had better be something amazing. And they didn't disappoint, I ~~almost~~ cried at the end of this performance, because I could really understand what they were saying with their dance. It was like they condensed a dancer's entire career into 4minutes.

2009 R16 Incheon from Woogie on Vimeo.

R16 2009 - Myosung Guest Show from chris su on Vimeo.

The '16' in 'R16' stands for the 16 different nations that are invited to participate in the festival each year and the 'R' in R16 stands for "Respect,' which is one of the most pillars of the urban arts community. It's only through respect for the culture, music, our intertwined history of dance, mcing and art and most of all each other, that we can best elevate each other and bring about positive changes in our community around us.

These art forms that we do today in Singapore and south east asia came from very humble roots in places that faced enormous struggles everyday with poverty, racism and alienation from the wider community but it was with a slow growth in respect for each other regardless of race or creed that real Hip Hop culture began - Peace, Love, Unity and Having Fun.

Thus, the R16 in Korea seeks to recognize the essence of the urban arts culture that began in these places and recognize the impact and contribution that it has had on people around the world and celebrate it and its original generation members in the largest urban arts festival in Korea and one of the largest in the world. We got to know where we from before we know where we at. Respect.

R16 South East Asia Urban Arts Festival

This year, the R16 Festival branches out around the world and to host prelims for the Popping and Locking categories with the solo champs of these categories representing their country at the finals in Korea July 4th-5th. The Popping and Locking judges for the competition are to be confirmed, but I heard some pretty OG sounding names being thrown around.....hint hint.

Breaking however, is still invitational. So, R16 is going to invite a dozen or so crews from around the world in recognition of their achievements in breaking in their part of the world as well as a number of solo bboys to take part in the solo breaking category. The 2 vs 2 Breaking winners of R16 South East Asia unfortunately, don't get to rep in either of these two categories at the finals, but instead take home a cash prize and of course, mad respect.

Jury Lineup from Korea

Locking - Locking Khan, Popping Pop JJ, Beatbugs, Breaking - Bgirl Mislee,

Entry to the event is free for spectators. It's all going down on April 10th at the Starhub Urban Freestyle Festival at the Padang in Singapore.

This festival is going to feature a remarkable Parkour run where contestants have to run across a track with some crazy obstacles and leap over, duck under or just fly across some insane stuff.

Ok, so probably nothing as extreme as the video just now, but all the same, a Parkour Run in Singapore will be dope.

So bring your friends, bring your family, bring your pet dog, your pet fish, we really want to see you there at the festival and need your support to keep the R16 in Singapore for 2011 with a huge turnout for R16 2010!

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To register for the R16 Festival in the Popping,Locking or Breaking category, go here

http://r16southeastasia.ning.com/

Leave your name, contact number, email and nationality in the appropriate thread in the forum for Popping, Locking or Breaking entries

Woo Fam Korea and FTL Waacking Jina showcase

2010-03-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

I seriously can't believe how busy March is for dance in Singapore. The above is a screenshot of the Events Section at www.lioncitystreetdance.ning.com which is a site that documents all the info for jams and competitions in Singapore.

That. Is. A. Crowded. Calendar.

This weekend is going to be nutso already....Friiday night = RF prelims and Respeckognize Winners Krump Session with 2Face, Saturday is RF Anniversary Jam day 2 at Zouk from 1pm to 9pm as well as Lion City Lockers anniversary party at 6.30pm at Studio Wu as well as Monster Woo Fam + Waacking Jina 4pm guest show at Takashimaya.

Saturday.Is.A.Busy.Day.

And that''s not even mentioninf Singapore's Best Dance Crew championships which are on Saturday too, Popping, Locking and Hip Hop Crew prelims.

Sunday the madness continues with Locking Aga workshops, Woo Fam workshops, Waacking Jina workshops and Monday won't give you any rest either because of Romp 5 at Zirca.

This.Will.Be.A.Busy.Weekend.

I can't believe that Bucky from Woo Fam is going to be in Singapore. Most people don't know Woo Fam outside of Korea I guess, and maybe would never have heard of Bucky, but god damn, Bucky is....BUCK. From 45secs in the video, it just gets crazy.

Two Korean Girls dancing in a club (not what you think).

She is also coming with 2Face and Youngster. Both are seniors in Woo Fam studio in Seoul and have learnt Krump under Monster Woo for several years already. Monster Woo was the first Krump dancer in Seoul and he learnt from "Lil C" from California. That's right, the same Lil C from RIZE.

Youngster is just a straight gangster.

Actually, come to think of it now, maybe people may have seen work that Woo Fam did, Monster Woo is a huuuuuge fan of Michael Jackson and organized the NYE Tribute Flash mob in Seoul with Khan. I was there that day too, haha, never thought I would do a Flash Mob, but at the end, it was a straight streetdance party. Putting the street in streetdance yo.

Woo Fam and Waacking Jina are doing a showcase outside Takashimaya at 4pm this Saturday March 13th for "Style vs Style,' an event by L'oreal. This would be such a good chance to see something really rare for free~ ^^ Who knows when another Krump dancer will come to Singapore, let alone 3 gangsters from Woo Fam?~

There are workshops the day after organized by Music Garage , $25 for the Krump session with Youngster and $25 for Waacking Jina's workshop. If you want in, email

sien_michelle@hotmail.com with your name, number and what class you wanted to take.

If you come to the show on Saturday, you can see me Krump and get buck, haaha, seriously.

It'd going to be a mad show.

Chris

RESPECKOGNITION AWARDS 2010

2010-03-04T01:31:00.001-08:00

The people were chosen because of their extended contribution to their dance scene, from popping to hip hop to breaking to choreo, to the mad science they have dropped or the humble pursuit of knowledge they are undertaking, to inspiring others to dance or improve their dance or being an otherwise meaningful presence to others around them.

Ben 'Psyk' Koh has had and continues to make contributions to the scene through his dance, teaching and music. He has had more battle rounds at FTL than any other FTL competitor in our history and won Hip Hop and Popping in 2007 and has placed in every finals since then. He creates songs that gets played at jams that he never gets to go (by KOD 2010 turntablist DJ Batsu, and at numerous popping jams in Seoul by DJ Mulder...) and his contributions to singaporegotdance have spread knowledge to many, especially his interviews. The scene is lucky to have him.

Michael 'Prince Jack' Sim has dedicated himself to the development of streetdance in Singapore, is a cornerstone of PAP/Wu Elite Poppers and has raised the dance level here through his training and work. Always seeking knowledge, he has travelled to Japan and the US to deepen himself on Soul dance, House dance as well as the funkstyles. He was also recently put into Imperial House of Waacking as part of the Singapore chapter which is a testament to his dance spectrum. His madness for streetdance will surely be an influence on more generations to come in Singapore.

Marcus Tan's influence on singaporegotdance is famous. The narratives he writes on streetdance culture and aspects of dance are studied by many and no doubt have helped many to improve. His commitment to the growth of funk in Singapore is evident in Project Disfunktion to raise the profile of Popping and Locking and his back to back win of the Popping category at the last two FTLs. For his initiative in communication and knowledge, Marcus deserves to be respeckognized.

Robin Tan has spread the love of Boogaloo to many and has always sought correct knowledge to share with his students. Always seeking self-improvement, he pushes forward popping every year with his battles at FTL which really stand out as being straight flavour and feeling. He encompasses the perfect dance teacher to me - someone who doesn't consider himself a teacher, but an older student. Robin is always humble in the face or praise and success even though he is clearly a gangster with the funk music and is considered to be a senior by so many.

Felix Huang of Radikal Forze is a straight g. In the Bboy scene here, perhaps he has done the most to raise the profile of breakers in Singapore and has held it down here since the mid 90s. Single handedly, and literally, I mean single handedly, Felix has organized Radikal Forze Anniversary Jam since 2008 and it has become Asia's most well attended independent bboy jam with entrants from around South East Asia, Australia, Europe, Japan and even Oman. It is even better attended than most sponsored bboy jams to tell you the truth. Having represented Singapore as both a battle guest at Red Bull Battles in Hong Kong, R16 in Korea and a judge overseas at the prestigious Circle Prinz prelims in Japan, the scene is better in Singapore because of what he does.

Larry Liu of Natasha Studios has been in the streetdance scene for 10 years plus and has had a hand in its growth and development as a member of bboy crew Fuyo and a director at Natasha Studios. As Fuyo member, he has thrown down, cyphered and battled at numerous jams in Singapore and showed his dance to many, inspiring many to dance and moreover, in his time at Natasha Studios, he has organized 'Fuyo Interschool 3vs3' which is a bboy/bgirl tournament strictly for school aged dancers. This raising of the new generation of bboys and bgirls is the heart of what it means to be a bboy - to always pass it on. He has had a tremendously positive impact to the spread of bboy/bgirl culture in Singapore.

"Broadcast Dance" or sometimes referred to as "LA style Hip Hop" has had such an explosive growth in Singapore that it was hard to select a few to be Respeckognized. But, going back to the past, I met Glen Ng, Chan Xuan Feng and Baobei JJ in 2004 in Perth, Australia when they were too scared to practice with us in the studio and have seen them progressively change into the dancers you see today through sporadic visits to SG and their You Tube trails. The difference from 2004 to 2010 is immense. Throughout their journey to become better dancers they have also helped New Revolving Age, their dance club at Ngee Ann Poly to crazy heights by training and sharing and sweating and bleeding with juniors, sharing their dance which is deserving of Respeckognition. Glen and Xuan Feng were in "If Your Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands" put Singapore on the map for Broadcast Dance by taking out 3rd place in Melbourne's Battle Grounds on their first trip abroad and JJ had a mad technical solo lead at Danzation 2008 where I still can't believe she isn't an actual dance major she was that good. Thus, because of the combination of their long standing dedication to development of their dance, their peers dance and dance achievements, they are Respeckognized.

Muhd Zaihar is a long standing member of Styles From Beyond and is that rare combination of bboy and standing dance styles. As member of SFB, he has performed at a multitude of events from Overdrive, to SSF as well as recently Code Edge Asia where he won best solo dancer over all the other Singaporean entrants as well as the international battle guests once and for all literally single handedly establishing Singapore as a force to be reckoned with in solo streetdance performance. For all his training into perfecting his showcase and the achievement of first place and the inspiration amongst local dancers he has given, he is Respeckognized.

Ian 'Chunky' Poh is as humble as he is respected in the Locking scene in Singapore and everyone pretty much loves him. Nigh singlehandedly carving out a niche for Locking dance in Singapore, he went at it alone for such a long time by slowly learning information about Locking from OGs in Taiwan, USA and Korea through the net and occasional visits to Taiwan and then sharing it with everyone in his awesome videos. Slowly but surely, as his Locking skills grew fearsome, he began to inspire people to take up locking as their primary dance style striking a win for funkstyles in Sg. He has taught so many so much and in addition, is the man responsible for taking the original concept of Lion City Lockers, which was an all-star team of Singapore Lockers, into the all-inclusive concept of every-locker-in-Singapore-is-in-Lion-City-Lockers concept which is so much better. With Sunset Alleycats partner Fong, he brought Taiwan Locking team 'So Funky' into an extra round at the Locking Finals at FTL2008 which goes down in history as the best Locking battle in Singapore. Ever. Chunky, we salute you and your chicken suit.

Ceekay Soh of Lion City Lockers has maintained the hub of all things Locking in Singapore, www.lioncitylockers.blogspot.com as well as on its FB page and helped organize Lockdown which is Singapore's premiere Locking event. No community can last past the initial excitement of formation without dedicated content and organzation and Ceekay Soh has delivered on this in a funky manner. His blogshop Soul Factory is responsible for making dancers here in Singapore look fresh and funky with locally made shirts as well as Taiwan label shirts. His dedication to the spread of Locking culture is worthy of Respeckognition.

Melissa Lim is a senior at Strictly Dance Zone , teacher at Natasha Studio and is one of a few genuine Freestyle Dancers in Singapore in the sense that she can crazy freestyle well in more than one dance style, drawing on her character, rhythm and hard technique training to dance hip hop, house, waacking and locking. She was recently put down in Imperial House of Waacking SG Chapter which is a testament to the speed of which she absorbs new information. She has entered Floor The Love in House and Hip Hop category in 2010 and Hip Hop category in 2008 which shows her confidence in overcoming her limitations and challenging herself to new heights and eliminated two international battle guests from Korea and the US in House category. In addition, she has also participated in recitals and choreograph based performances which shows her real all round flavour.

Jasmine Yap is the epitome of a young streetdancer, aware of the depth of culture she has to absorb, humble before others and willing to share what she knows in a battle or in a performance. One of the few breakers who also does standing style dances, Jasmine entered Floor The Love 2007 in Breaking category and got to top 4 and entered Hip Hop categories in 2008 and 2010 placing inside top 4 every time. Hip Hop, Waacking and Breaking, Jasmine is a genuine Freestyle Dancer and even if she doesn't know it, inspires a smack load of people with her sets.

It's very important for us to take a step back and Respect and Recognize people in the scene who are working to make the scene deeper and whose dance inspires others to improve. Especially those who put on independent jams in Singapore.

To take control of the dance scene for yourself and throw a jam for the benefit of the scene is such a peak in a streetdance's career. Participating in others' sponsored company competitions provides good experience for performing and battles and it does contribute to the scene in inspiring others with your choreo movements and battle flow. But, it is when you put together from scratch an event is such a labour of love, sweat, tears and blood that everyone in the scene should pretty much just go out and support it. Flat out, just go, pay the entry fee and watch. What The Funk Popping, RF Anniversary Bboy Jam, Lockdown Locking Competition, Floor The Love, Natasha Studio Freestyle Jams, are the independent events that come to mind at moment. That means, these people RELY on t-shirts and ticket sales to break even on an event. They really do do it for the scene and no one makes any money on any of these events and really, really seriously need you to bring a friend, buy a shirt, take a workshop from the invited battle guest to just break even on the jam.

Respeckognize these event organizers and events too.

Winners of the Respeckognition awards get a 'Floor The Love Dance Scholarship.' It's not cash, it is a private session with 2 Face from Woo Fam, Korea who will be in Singapore for the Style vs Style project. One day, when things are bigger, I want to be able to give them their awards at a ceremony but until then, I'm hunting them down one by one all over Singapore to give it to them in person. It is, once again, so important to respect and recognize dancers in the scene who have contributed, grown, worked for the streetdance scene in Singapore. Next time you see one, give them a hug. ^^

Floor The Love (part two) History and the Future

2010-03-01T22:44:00.000-08:00

Floor The Love 2010 brought together so many people from around the world to Singapore Management University for the event, that now a week later, I look back and I think 'Damn. Did we really do that? Did so many people really come from around the world to take part in this jam? Did that just happen? Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, USA and Hong Kong really all came to share their dance?' RIght now as I'm reflecting on the event, it seems so surreal~

I wanted to make this years' Floor The Love an event that would mad improve the scene. A scene is made up of the dancers, events, practice spots, sessions, jams and organizers. Sometimes, one good event put up regularly by a solid organizer can be enough to change the game for that city or even, for that part of the world. Like how Cross-1 did Freestyle Session by himself on the west coast and how Thomas did Battle of The Year alone in Germany and Felix does RF Anniversary jam every year and Poppin Yoo holds Street Jam in Seoul.

Street Jam (KR), Freestyle Session (US) BOTY (Germany) RF Jam (Singapore)

I don't feel that Floor The Love can be mentioned in the same breath as these events (yet...haha) with their years of history and support and love from their participants in scenes much older than standing styles in Singapore. I know that people look forward to FTL because it is the only streetdance battle tournament that starts and finishes on the same day in SG, thereby giving foreign entries a chance to join the competition. With people training, preparing and rehearsing for this event from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Korea an Singapore, I knew what had to be done.

I had to throw the best standing style dance battle jam that Singapore and South East Asia had ever seen. So, like John Lennnon said, I needed a little help from my friends.

DJ Lineup: Mulder KOGS, Korea. Yoshi, Kamata, Japan.

DJ Mulder is Korea's best funkstyle DJ for battle events. Every clip you see of popping or locking events in Seoul you see on youtube, he was spinning.

That's no exaggeration, it literally, was him. He was a Hip Hop dancer back in the day and so he understands the dancer's point of view from the dance floor and how important music is to them.

He has played at many international events including Keep on Dancing (Beijing) and 4 Da Next Level (Seoul)

Yoshi is a Singaporean-Japanese Bboy from way back in the day. Back in 2000, I used to practice with him at Orchard Road MRT station with his old crew Soul Reaction.

He has spun at Floor Skillz (SG), Spotlight Boogie as well as BOTY Asia.

Music is so critical to the success of a battle event. A DJ can really make or break an event because we have to rely on their music selection, knowledge and 'depth of crate' to see what kind of beats they dig up and put out there for us.

Battle DJs don't just spin tracks at random, they select songs to match each other, making sure the BPM count for one track can seamlessly mix into the BPM count on the next song at just the right moment to coincide with the hornbreak on that jam. Then, they have to manage the equipment too, bringing slip pads, their set of styluses, mixer, decks and cables. DJs haul a lot of equipments to events, they're always the first one there and the last to leave.

A good dance battle DJ can draw out performances from the dancers that even the dancer didn't know he or she had. Because a streetdance battle event plays music chosen by the DJ without the contestants having any prior knowledge of what song is coming up next, the DJ has such responsibility over the floor. Can't pick a jam that no one has heard before, can't pick a jam that is too easy, can't play a song that has been played already, or has been played too much recently....it's a lot of planning and thinking!

Judges are critical to hosting a jam because they possess knowledge. Their eyes can see things that regular audience members can't, not just because they sit in the best spots, but because, they know what they are looking at and how hard it is to do what the dancer does. If a competition has a judging lineup that all the contestants respect, then so much the better. And if the judge has a history of entering competitions himself and places well in them, then that is the kind of judge that will really make the best decisions and choices at an event.

And the judging lineup that came to Floor The Love 2010 - phenomenal.

AKA Ra, NY Crew, Seoul.

It was Aka Ra from NY Crew's second time as judge at FTL. He has been dancing since the early 90s and was one of the first streetdancers in Korea along with a small handful of others.

He is also the director for "4 Da Next Level," Korea's international solo dance championships. The influence this guy has had in the scene in Seoul is immeasurable. Popping, Locking, House and Hip Hop, he is proficient in all. But most of all, he is a famous teacher now too and has trained some of the best new generation dancers in Korea including Freestyle Ali and Locking Lia.

AKA Kin, Funk In The Heart Crew, Korea.

It's hard to be recognized by your peers as one of the best in your category of dance, especially in a city with as many dancers as Seoul. To be talked about as one of the best in one genre is respect right there, but to be considered to be one of the best in TWO categories?

That's just crazy.

AKA Kin is a funkstyle dancer and has a high level in both popping dance and locking dance. He has represented FITH crew in Japan, USA and Europe across many competitions such as Freestyle Session, Just Debout and Keep Dancing.

Reflection of Floor The Love

You might know that Korea-Singapore Dance Project has the following guideline for itself..'Knowledge, Foundation and Love." Everything that we've done is somehow centered on at least one of these principles. Sorely lacking in the streetdance scene around the world today are these three things, so that's why KSDP is holding it down like that on the Knowledge, Foundation and Love tip, ya heard.

We dedicated this event to the memory of Greg Pope, Fred Berry, Michael Jackson, James Brown and Skeeter Rabbit. And if you don't know who these people are, click here.

I know that there are many dancers in Singapore who recognize and respect their work, but there are also so many who have yet to discover it and I hope that even if they discover their work posthumously, they can still recognize the connection between their dance and what these Original Generation did for them to have their dance.

Competitors

The first thing that stood out as being different at this FTL was how many internationals came this year. Dancers came from all around Asia and even from the US. I started this jam for Singaporeans to have a battle event that could improve their dance skills, but I never thought it would ever get as big as this.

Korea
1G , Jrong, Jinu, Cho Rong, Seo Hoon, Min Ji, Ara , Sang Yang, Bangster, Dong Woo

Malaysia
1 2 Boogie, Fresh Pop, Dynamix, Bounce Boogie Jr,
Bounce Boogie, Chinese Phantom, Exist Soul, Infinity,
Phantom in training, aka Yong Tinshen, aka Silence

Indonesia
SuperSnipers

Hong Kong
Doug Lee Funk

Vietnam
aka Lion T, V Fox Poppers

USA
Marcus

Singapore

Funkimon, Pop Pies, Kworku, DK, JK,
Scrach MarcS, 37 BIT, Funk Soul Pop,
SMLJ, [Size don matta, Let's POP!],
Old Man, funky soul-ja, hongdae for the win!!!,
Anthony & Reuben, Danial(Doc orc) & Samuel Tan(Sam),
Team JC, pSyk x Jack, Engineered Pops,
AC & Josh, B.O.O.M. Brothers Of Funk,
Then You Suffer, Ryu & Lesner,
Flair Brothers, Airwalkers, Lost & Found v3,
MaD, Rebel, L.A, Red Line, DoubleBlue,
I'm Grooving It! , Bojangles, New IC, Too Hype,
2 A.M, White Kid and Stitch, Jas & Bun, J.A.B,
Up2u, Hip Hooray, Jeannie & Jaye, REPRESENT,
Running Ben's Got Fonky Beet, Groovy Aggression,
WASA, Funk Trouble, A.N.T.M (ain't no tough musclemen),
Course in 2 Crew, Locked Up, Lockers A.D. Left2Lock,
Y2K, Raving Rabbids, Sunset Alleycats, Lock Out Loud,
aka Allen, aka Terence Tan, aka Edison Cheng, Marzipan,
KK, aka Nick Fai, Me.L, Charles Li, Andee, Justin Peng,
Mianbao, Lem, Baoxin, Limin, aka Samuel Lee, aka SHA,
aka NicoleClaire, aka Zee, aka Winnie Wong,
aka ELKE, aka Willy Ong , aka Michael, Machi,aka Trinity,
aka Tappy and Ti - Max,

Holy smack. That's a lot. For most of these entrants, it was their first time to come to Floor The Love and for a few, it was even their first time to Singapore. Big shout out to Lion T and VFOX poppers from Vietnam for coming all the way down here and to Super Snipers straight out of Jakarta too! And to Doug Lee Funk who flew in from Hong Kong for the jam! And my man Marcus from San Diego via Seoul!

Supersnipers (Indo) , DougLee Funk (HK), Kin and Mulder and Marcus (US) plus team Vietnam.

Ara, 1G, Ra, Jrong, Dong Woo and Bangster from Korea.

People from different parts of the world have different interpretations to the same dance. What was really valuable for people at this FTL was the variety of dancers from all kinds of scenes, up and coming ones like HK and Hanoi to more established ones like San Diego and Seoul. Everyone brought something forward to the floor and when they finished their battle or finished watching a showcase, I think most people took away something valuable from the floor as well.

Next Level Crew (Korea) Opening Showcase

AKA Ra, 1G, Jrong and Jinu put together this show to open Floor The Love. I think it's very soulful.

VFox and Lion-T from Vietnam Guest Show

It was the first time for VFox to come to Singapore, they are part of Big Toe Crew which is a bboy team that has been to Singapore before. When they contacted me about coming to FTL, they asked if they could do a guest show to share their dance with FTLers and to represent Vietnam popping and house. I said 'Sure, go ahead!' and here is the result.

During the break time between battles, Ben aka Psyk from Singapore Got Dance managed to capture some of the House circle at the event. I was too busy running around doing stuff to notice actually, but I'm glad Ben got it down - Singapore's first House circles and it was so international as well.

Battles

We had 16 Popping, Hip Hop teams, 8 Locking teams and 16 House/Waack dancers for this year's FTL. With Mulder spinning for Hip Hop, Popping and Locking and Yoshi spinning House, I think that the level of performance that came out of everyone was so high.

These are some of my favourites, but there are so many on youtube now, just search "Floor The Love 2010"

Scratch Marcs (SG) vs Dong Woo and 1G (Korea)

One of my favourite battles of the night.

1G (Korea) vs Trinity (Malaysia)

1G has got some muhfugging swagger. Trinity brought it hard too, I like her character.

But this video is my favourite video of Floor The Love 2010, it was made by David "stickman" who was Hip Hop Champion for Floor The Love 2007. It's so cool!

Days of Future Past.

When things finish, people always think about the beginning. As I was writing this reflection on Floor The Love, I began to think about the previous Floor The Love events and the progress the scene has gone through in the last three years.

For you guys who don't know, the first FTL battle event was in 2007 (but actually, there were 2 Floor The Love events previous to those that weren't battle events~ if you deep in the streets and you can tell me what they were, email me and I will give you a Floor The Love 2010 Towel!)

Floor The Love has hopefully inspired some dancers to freestyle, create and experience streetdance outside choreography. Choreography is dope, well written routines with a combination of technical ability and soul is always tight, but sometimes, you just have to listen to music and use your soul to move.

Josh Lee tagged me in this picture in Facebook after he spoke to Kin about dance.

"Tribute to Floor The Love '10 and every single funky soul who came down.

This image sort of appeared in my mind after ftl when we were all interrogating aka kin. He was talking about dancing with feel, how dance should come from the heart, not the brain. He pointed to the speaker, then to his ear, then out from the other ear and made that 'X' sign with his hands. he did it again, pointing from the speaker, to his ear, then his heart, then spread his hands out to his body.

Inspired, i got home and created this as a small reminder to all, as much as to myself, to dance with my heart. Probably not as good as anything on photoshop, but still sincerely hope that everyone can understand what the picture means.

Speakers --> Ears --> Heart --> Body. "

I'm glad FTL is giving people the chance to exchange ideas with each other.

Anyways, like I was saying, when you reach the end, you invariably think about the beginning. And this FTL made me think that because especially of how Jinu, one of the judges from Floor The Love 2007 came back as a battle guest in 2010, everything has come by in a full circle. He's one of my closest friends in Seoul and for him to come down to support my jam by getting his own ticket for him and his gf really says something about him. What a guy~ ^^

Jinu, Chris and Cho Rong, before Jinu left on the Monday after FTL.

And, what a girl~! Waacking Jina, another judge from Floor The Love 2007 is coming back to Singapore as well~!~!

Jasmine and Jina at FTL 2007

She is one of my best friends in Korea and gave an intense solo waacking judge showcase at Floor The Love 2007. I think we held the first waacking workshops in Singapore way back in 2007 I think it was the first waacking solo performance in Singapore ever. Waacking Jina has been a member of Dream Girls Korea (with Princess 1G), Next Level Crew (with Ra, J-Rong, Jinu) and is now a senior member at Funky Lia's Insane Brain studio and Lockdarina, Korea's all star female streetdance team in Seoul.

She was really excited to share Waacking and Girls Hip Hop in Singapore (with the help of our translator Youn Mi) especially because it was her first time outside of Korea. Yes, she had to make a passport to get ready to come to Floor The Love 2007!

Since then, she has lived in New York, Japan and has been travelling a lot. I guess Singapore gave her the travel bug.

Jina with Dream Girls

Black and White from left to right,
Kyoung Mi, 1G, Yu Jin, Jina and Eun Ju

Colour photo from left to right
1G, Yu Jin, Jina, Eun JU and Kyoung Mi.

Waackin' Jina solo Judge Show in Busan

Waackin Jina's workshops are on the 14th March at Music Garage Studios (the same place 1Gs workshops were) It's only $25 a pop. Register at sien_michelle@hotmail.com

The guy in the picture is my man Youngster of Woo Fam in Korea. Woo Fam is one crazy Krump crew. If you keep your mind open and see real Krump live once (and not that b.s .Krump that was floating around Singapore a few years ago. You know who I'm talking about) shit will make you say daaayyaaamm.

I normally don't plug peoples workshops on my blog, but damn, this is a good opportunity to learn high level Waacking and Krump from some phenomenal dancers. Waackin' Jina and Woo Fam Youngster in Singapore?! That is unbelievable.
FTL 2010 Results

Popping: Scratch Marcs
House: Jinu, Korea
Hip Hop: Neuron Crew, Korea
Locking: Y2K, Singpore

Judges: aka Kin, aka Ra
DJ Mulder and DJ Yoshi

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History of Floor The Love -

As I was finishing the reflections on FTL 2010, I thought I would continue and blog about the previous FTL jams because some people were asking me about FTL this year. So, presenting to you...History of Floor The Love.

FTL 2007

When I look back at the past, at FTL 2007, it was a really simple and small jam. FTL came about quite by accident to tell the truth. Back in 2007, I had been working in Seoul for 2 years and I was looking forward to going to Singapore for a week break. My friend Freestyle Ali wanted to come too, cuz he had only ever been out of Korea once (for a competition in Osaka). So I thought, cool, we'll run some workshops and have fun for a week.

Then, House Jinu and Waacking Jina wanted to come too, so I thought..'Aite! Let's all do workshops and chill in Singapore for a week! While we here....why not put on a jam as well?' I used to throw bboy jams in Australia way back in the day, let's do a jam in Singapore! 2 vs 2 Hip Hop, Popping, Locking and 1vs1 Breaking!' It was literally, that level of preparation. Hahah.

I spammed 800 people on Friendster (haha, remember that? lol) with my event video for Floor The Love and the above flyer. It took a freaking long time to manually do that people.

I remember reading up on the rules for a lot of Singapore Competitions and they were like "Originality 10%, Costumes 20%, Stage Presence 15%..." so i thought I better do one as well.

Thus, the notorious Floor The Love Judging Criteria was born;

Costumes 0%

Makeup 0%

Crowd Response 0%

Choreography 0%

Rhythm and Timing 100%

Some dancers came up to me after the event was over and told me that they came to the event because they were impressed with the judging criteria.

And so, FTL 2007 happened at People's Association Oboxx Studio at Kallang and it was the boomz yo. The lineup was House Jinu, Freestyle Ali, Waackin' Jina and me. FTL 2007 had 100 spectators, 3 Hip Hop entries, 4 Locking entries, 8 Popping entries and 20 bboys. We had to get one more Hip Hop team from the audience on the day before we could start! lol ^^

Here is a very rare photo montage of one my all time favourite FTL competitors Jasmine Yap with us at FTL 2007. Thanks Jasmine, u know, we didn't even have a camera that day!

There was such a sense of purity at that event, it was everybody's first time to enter a tournament battle competition, everyone was new and everybody was positive. Even though I only had CDs and no mic (shouting and announcing the whole damn day), I had a good day. After the event was over, a lot of people said to me "Great jam, it was mad, you have to do it again next year!'

A real dope jam in my opinion doesn't need a big stage, lighting, makeup, cameras, a huge audience or anything like that. If you and your friends can go and dance to good music and make some new friends while you're there, that's all you need. Actually...a microphone would be good too.

Floor The Love 2007 Popping Finals, Saru 80 vs W.A.V.E.

After FTL, we had some workshops at Natasha Studios, at Claymore Rd downtown. It was good, it was our first time to be able to chill with Singapore dancers and hang out together. If you look at the pics carefully, I think you can recognize a lot of people!

In Freestyle Ali's popping workshop, he would tape the students doing a freestyle solo in class and play it back for them afterwards and show them what they needed to improve on. Public embarrassment is a time honoured old school Korean method of learning. ^^ But everyone got a lot out of it and Ali could give exact insights into every student's ability.

House Jinu had House and Hip Hop classes and if he looks familiar, that is because he is the same Jinu who entered Floor The Love 2010 in House and Hip Hop categories. Only now, his hair is really short.

Jinu: My hair is short now.

Jinu had one of the first house workshops in Singapore (previously, Jay-1 from NY Crew had a house workshop at Youth Park) and also one of the first Hip Hop classes that had an emphasis on the beat (as opposed to words - yeah, that's right, I said it).

When he came as battle guest at this year's FTL, he said that he couldn't believe that the event had got so big and the dancers had changed so much. It's only been 29 months since he came as a judge at FTL 2007 and there were mad numbers of House dancers and Hip Hop teams. 29 months... it doesn't sound like that long ago when you put it like that.

Waacking Jina's solo judge performance at Floor The Love 2007 was intense.She got it so bad, she's even coming back to Singapore this month! See above for details.

The Floor The Love 2007 lineup. Jinu, Waacking Jina, Angel, Chris and Freestyle Ali.

Popping Winner: WAVE
Locking Winner: Saru 80
Hip Hop Winner: Bearsticks 10
Breking Winner: Mahmud, RF, EG

Judges: Freestyle Ali, House Jinu and Waackin' JIna

Floor The Love 2008

This year, Bboy Larry of Natasha Studios hooked KSDP up with Eurhythmix, the dance club at Singapore Management University and we had a much bigger turn out than the year previous. 40 bboy entries, 22 Hip Hop teams, 21 Popping teams and 12 Locking Teams..we had to have prelims! I couldn't believe how many people came to the event. I'm lucky I hired a microphone that year. ^^

AKA Ra and Freestyle Ali were judges for FTL 2008. And obviously,they thought someone on the left won.

Locking category was the stand out side for me, because So Funky from Taiwan decided to come down and represent at the competition. It was the first time that experienced streetdancers came to Singapore to share their dance in a battle tournament and everyone learned a lot. So Funky Elmo and Yao Bai can really get down. But, Lion City Lockers' Sunset Alleycats Fong and Chunky were so funky, the judges had to ask for an extra round before they gave it to Taiwan. Lion City is strong!

Wow, I sounded so excited on the video. But, it was an exciting finals, all the finals were that year I remember. But~ the footage was lost, thanks to someone misplacing the tapes, so I only have a handful of footage for FTL 08 which actually bums me out quite a bit.

The memory is there though and it's a good one. I would say that this event is where the scene started to really come together and people started developing their ears and styles for freestyling and battling. A lot more combo tags than the first FTL, people were 'saving routines' for critical moments, but most of all people genuinely had fun at SMU. Such a cool day! ^^

Lion City Lockers gave the opening show for FTL, choreographed by Ceekay. Super Funky.

Locking Winner: So Funky, Taiwan

Hip Hop Winner: An and Hei, Singapore

Popping Winner: Strobin MArchine

Breaking Winner: Oneski, Singapore

Judges: Freestyle Ali and AKA Ra.

Floor The Love 2010 (part one) Shoutouts...and Brighter New Days

2010-03-01T04:24:00.000-08:00

This is the first chance I've gotten since FTL that I've had the chance to sit down and reflect on what has happened in the last week. It's been mad crazy busy everyday since and including the days before FTL, boom, boom, boom, one schedule after another, relentless like a heavyweight boxer moving in for the KO. Maybe, like two heavyweight boxers moving in for the KO.

Floor The Love 2010 was held at SMU by Korea-Singapore Dance Project and Eurhythmix, and first and foremost, mad love and thank you to Eurhythmix of SMU for their continued support of FTL with manpower and venue because without them, FTL would be like it was back in the day, with me spinning CDs in a rented hall, aite!

Next time you see an Emixer, give them a hug!

Don't they look huggable?

Outgoing president Pan Hui Yan and current president Nicholas Phua, you two are certified in my book, I got your back and your front, you heard?! The infamous late night msn conferences (why are Emixers only available for meetings after 11pm....><)

And also, to Angel Tan, the mysterious ninja-esque Singapore Co-Ordinator for Korea-Singapore Dance Project, you guys never see her around, but she is there, making sure things run smoothly and without her, I wouldn't be able to put the jam together guaranteed! She is like an opposable thumb to me. ><

And also to an old supporter of FTL from day 1, Michelle Ang of Music Garage Studios who stepped up and helped manage the project and members for 10 intense days (soju, bacardi, maekju...keke) of transport, hotel changes, training and general mayhem in addition to her own full time workload as dance teacher and design lecturer. She is gangster, respeckognize. FTL 2010 would have hurt without you and Music Garage fam.

aka Kin, Michelle and Chris, we all smiley.

To BBoy Felix of Radikal Forze, thanks a lot for helping me source audio equipment. Without you and ETracks, it would have been a silent competition, so big shoutout to the A/V team!!!!!!!!

To all the teams that joined the competition, thanks a lot, you know this jam is for dancers by dancers and I'm humbled you came to support the project because I know that it meant maybe hundreds of hours training for battle, writing and practicing battle routines, rewriting routines, finding time to train and for some of you guys, it was also an international trip! I want to especially give a shout out to Lion T and Big Toe Crew from Vietnam, Supersnipers from Indonesia and all the Malaysian teams that entered, Raydio Academy, Exist Soul, Soul Rhythm, Dancologist Bounce Boogie and Bounce Boogie jnr, Yong Tin Shen, Hong Kong Doug Lee Funk (i'm sorry we couldn't get more time to talk at the jam) and Marcus from San Diego.

I never expected that Floor The Love would attract so many people from different countries to join. Thank you for sharing your dance with Singapore dancers.

To Lion T, my main man in Vietnam, your guest show was off the hook! VT poppers representing. I wanna see the Vietnam scene get bigger too.

To my peoples at NY and Neuron Crew and Funk In The Heart and KOGS~ thank you for coming to the Lion City. We spoke a lot already, so u know how it is. One day, I'll come back to Korea, maekju and anju mani mogosoyo~ you guys pick up the tab this time! Singapore maekju cholla pisa da.

aka Ra, j-Rong, Dong Woo, Ji Hye, Byung Eun and Ara at Code Edge. Missing from photo, Jinu, Min Ji, Seo Hoon, Boram.

DJ Mulder, KOGS. He really, really loved playing in Singapore and didn't want to go back!

And to Singapore dancers, thank you a lot for coming to dance and get down. When we came here once, you called us visitors, when we came back twice, you called us family.Thank you. Especially to Lion City Lockers, LCL were so funky that night, everyone levelled up for sure. Locking was Ra's favourite category~ (next time, let's Soul Train again)

Everyone is getting better, some are crazy, Jinu who was a judge at Floor The Love 2007 when we had no mic, only CDs and only a dozen or so teams said he couldn't believe how different 2010 is to 2007.

Popping and Locking skills have definitely improved so dramatically. Robin Teh, you certified!!

And House dancers and Waacking dancers are soooo many! I didn't expect that at all.

Aus Ninja, 1G and Psyk at Floor The Love 2010.

The streetdance scene is growing. It is becoming more deep. Deep is important, more important than size for me.Everyone is learning, especially me! A special thanks to Aus Ninja for dropping the science on the mic at the jam, we don't get the chance to hear history and knowledge on the mic a lot in Singapore (or Korea for that matter), I'm glad u put it out there for us.

And lastly of course, this Floor The Love was dedicated to the memory of Greg, Michael, Fred, James and Skeeter Rabbit. Did you hear the noise we made for you guys up there? I'm sure you did. Next time it will be louder with more voices, I promise you guys.

Ben Psyk Koh and Michael's popping team name was "Good Ol' Days" and it got me thinking....were the old days really that good?! Remember when we were alone by ourselves dancing to cassette tapes guys?~! Haha, have you still got your mixtapes, I have mine.><

I hope Singpaore dance scene can add to the "Good Ol' Days" to have many great "Brighter New Days."

Chris

Floor The Love
Korea-Singapore Dance Project

Floor The Love Workshop Series

2010-01-16T02:42:00.001-08:00

Floor The Love is back for 2010.

Bringing to you live and direct, in full effect, with most respect playing them Seoul City beats in those Lion City streets ~

We're very happy to be able to throw on this jam for the third time. Brought to you by the notorious EMIX with partners in crime, Korea-Singapore Dance Project, we're going to do things bigger and better than anything else we've ever done before with music support from Mulder of Korea and Yoshi of Japan. We also have invitational entries this year from around Korea.

Costumes - 0%

Crowd Response - 0%

Choreography - 0%

Rhythm and Timing - 100%

Floor The Love, you know how we do.

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EVENT DETAILS

Date: Feb 20th

Venue: Singapore Management University, ACC Hall

Time: 4pm

Judges: aka Ra (4 Da Next Level) and aka Kin (Funk In The Heart)

DJ support: Mulder (KOGS, Korea) and Yoshi (Kamata, Japan)

MC: Chris Crown

Battle Invitationals: - Dong Woo, 1G, Seo Hoon, J-Rong, Min-Ji, Ara, Cho Rong, Jinu and Bangster.

To Reserve a Ticket, leave a message in the "January Tickets Thread" on www.lioncitystreetdance.ning.com

Tickets reserved in Jan are $25

Tickets reserved in Feb are $30

Tickets at the door are $30

We only have 225 tickets left as of Jan 18th.

We have 199 tickets left as of January 22nd.

Wacking - 1G, Next Level Crew, Imperial House of Wacking Korea Chapter

Wednesday 24th February

7.00PM - 8.30PM

Music Garage Studios

Cost: $25

Weon Ji Hye aka 1G has been active in the streetdance scene for close to 10 years in Seoul and has participated in many competitions around Asia and several in Europe and Japan. First of the girls to be put down into Imperial House of Wacking Korea Chapter by Tyrone Proctor in 2009, 1G has also been a guest performer at Keep on Dancing, China, City of Heaz, Korea, is the Taiwan Girl Nation Champion for 2006 and 4 Da Next Level 2009 Wacking Champion.

To register for the workshop, please email rhythmsneakers@gmail.com to reserve a spot. Class is $25

Hip Hop - Dong Woo, Neuron Crew.

Tuesday 23rd February
7.00PM - 8.30PM

Music Garage Studios

Cost $25

Dong Woo's team Neuron are widely known for their proficiency in battles as well as performances. He has had more than 10 years experience as a dancer and has achieved many milestones including winning Soul and Control 2008, a solo hiphop/house battle in Korea, going to the finals against Niako (FR) at Mad Season, an international solo hip hop battle in Korea as well as being the 4 Da Next Level 2009 Korean National Prelims Hip Hop Judge.

To register for the workshop, please email rhythmsneakers@gmail.com to reserve a spot. Class is $25

House J-Rong, NY Crew Korea

Tuesday 23rd February

8.30pm-10.00pm

Music Garage Studios

Cost: $25

Member of NY Crew, one of the oldest streetdance teams in Korea, J-Rong has had the opportunity to establish himself as an original generation house dancer and has taught many throughout the years. Asked by JYP , SM and Good Entertainment to train the next generation of artistes in Korea, he has been a personal dance trainer to Lee Jae Jin of FT Island, Wondergirls and Shinhwa. J-Rong has also won many competitions in his career including New School Championships Korea, Street Style Standing vol. 3 Korea and a finalist at Grandmaster Freestyle Battle in Tokyo. He appears in the video below as the first dancer out. He is battling Bboy Ducky of Drifterz Crew.

To register for the workshop, please email rhythmsneakers@gmail.com to reserve a spot. Class is $25

Locking Workshop with Aka Kin

Wednesday 24th February

8.30PM - 10.00pm

Music Garage Studios

Cost: $25

To register for a Locking or Popping Class, email rhythmsneakers@gmail.com

Popping Workshop with aka Kin

Friday 19th February
7.30PM - 9.00PM
Singapore Management University, ACC Hall
Cost: $25

Kin is an accomplished dancer who runs "Funky Studio" in Seoul, home of Funk In The Heart crew. He has over 10 years experience in streetdance and has participated at many international events such as Juste Debout (France), Keep on Dancing (China), UK Bboy Champs (UK) and 4 Da Next Level (Korea) where he was the 2009 Popping Champion.

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Waacking, Hip Hop and House Workshops are at Music Garage, located at "The Sail@Marina Bay"

Directions to The Sail @ Marina Bay

Raffles Place MRT

Find Exit J

Walk towards One Raffles Quay. The Sail@Marina Building is just behind it.

At the Building Instructions:

Press 0306B at the intercom
Say Your name
Wait for the buzz to enter
Elevators are in the lobby.
Press Level three, and look for unit #03-06
Music Garage Studios website:
http://makemusicalifestyle.wordpress.com/contact-us/

Registration: Please email me at rhythmsneakers@gmail.com to reserve your spot. Tell me what class, your name and number. THANKS!! ^^

Floor The Love Workshop Series

2010-01-12T05:15:00.000-08:00

Floor The Love 2010 Workshop Series

aka Kin: Popping

1G - Wacking (TBA)
Dong Woo - Hip Hop (TBA)
J-Rong:House (TBA)

AKA KIN from Funk In The Heart Crew Korea is going to have a Popping Workshop the day before Floor The Love.

Kin is an accomplished dancer who runs "Funky Studio" in Seoul, home of FITH crew. He has had over 10 years experience in streetdance and has participated at many international events such as Juste Debout (France), Keep on Dancing (China), UK Bboy Champs (UK) and 4 Da Next Level (Korea) where he was the 2009 Popping Champion.

Workshops are $25, 90 minutes. No need to register, just come on the day.

7.30pm, February 19th, Singapore Management University, ACC Hall.

Happy New Year Everyone

2010-01-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! We're going to make 2010 the best year ever, worldwide in the same step, in the same direction. We thought we'd share a video of a project we helped out on with Monster Woo Fam in Seoul. Woo fam gathered about 600 korean streetdancers(poppers,lockers,new school dancers,b boys,krumpers and everybody) to stop all non-sense for MICHAEL and to unite for MICHAEL and perform beat it and to celebrate the new year for MICHAEL.To show that we will never forget him and that we will always love him and we will follow his music, his message for love,peace,and unity.

See everyone soon!

Chris

Floor The Love 2010 - Audience Tickets and Battle Registration

2009-11-26T06:06:00.000-08:00

Floor The Love 2010 Tickets and Battle Registration

Floor The Love is back for 2010. Bringing to you live and direct, in full effect, with most respect playing them Seoul City beats in those Lion City streets ~

Costumes - 0%

Crowd Response - 0%

Makeup - 0%

Rhythm and Timing - 100%

Floor The Love, you know how we do.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Feb 20th

Venue: Singapore Management University, ACC Hall

Time: 4pm

Judges: aka Ra (4 Da Next Level) and aka Kin (Funk In The Heart)

DJ support: Mulder (KOGS, Korea) and Yoshi (Kamata, Japan)

MC: Chris Crown

Battle Invitationals: - Dong Woo, 1G, Drop, J-Rong, Min-Ji, Ara and Bangster.

Doong Woo, 2nd place at Mad Season, Korea 2009

1G, Imperial House of Wacking, NYC.

Judge aka KIN, at 4 Da next Level 2009. he was the popping champion.

Judge aka Ra, at House Dance Conference 2009.

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AUDIENCE TICKETS-

December: $25

January: $35 $25

February: $40 $30
At the door: $30

You can register for your ticket on www.lioncitystreetdance.ning.com in the forum thread for tickets. It opens on December 1st. All ticket orders for December 1st will get the early bird $25 tickets. Ticket orders placed in Jan will be $35 $25 and door tickets will be $30 too. There are only 300 Audience tickets! So get in there early!

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BATTLE REGISTRATIONS

FTL has 4 categories; 2vs2 Popping, Locking, Hip Hop and solo House. Competitors from Malaysia and Singapore can enter by posting up their details on the relevant thread in the forum on www.lioncitystreetdance.ning.com.

Foreign entrants who can't use English websites well can email me at rhythmsneakers@gmail.com

Each entrant pays $20 to enter. Entries close when the category reaches 30 entries or February 18th 2010. Participants can enter in more than one category.

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Floor The Love Workshops

Workshops are planned for Friday February 19th. More details coming soon.

Keep up to date on the event on www.lioncitystreetdance.ning.com and on www.floorthelove.blogspot.com

One.

Chris

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UPDATE DEC 9th: THE FLOOR THE LOVE 2010 F.A.Q SHEET

I've been getting a lot of emails and messages about Floor The Love 2010, so thanks to everyone for hitting up with your questions and queries.

Our number one most asked question:
Chris, why ain't there no breaking side at FTL this year?

Good question! FTL07 and FTL08 had breaking categories (2007 champ Mahmud, RF,EG and 2008 Champ Oneski RF) but I decided to not bring it into 2010. You see, back in 2007, Floor Skillz Asia, Singapore's old 3vs3 bboy competition stopped and there was not much in the SG bboy calendar back then, so I decided to have a bboy category at FTL. And again, I put in a
breaking category in 2008. BUT~I've never had a breaking judge for any of those events. My judges are great dancers, approaching high level even in their own styles, but not breakers.

The Singapore bboy scene has grown to a stage where they need a specific breaking judge and breaking DJ to at a jam. I can't do justice to the bboys and bgirls unless I can provide this. So, because i don't have breaking judges, I don't feel right about asking breakers to join.

Our number two most asked question:
How can people outside Sg pickup and pay for tickets and battle registration
Everyone from out of town can handle payments on the event day itself, February 20th.

And our number three most asked question:
Why is the price so high this year?

If you get tickets in December, the price increase is very moderate. It's only $10 more than last year. You get a jam with aka Kin and aka Ra judging. 7 battle guests from high level teams in Seoul (Crossover , Next Level, Neuron) as well as DJ Mulder on the turntables. On that note, you get turntables this year instead of me on mp3.

Brief Resume
2009 UK Bboy Championships Korean Locking Champs
2009 4 Da Next Level International Popping Champ
2009 4 Da Next Level Korean Prelims Champ
2009 USA Step Your Game Night Popping,Locking, Hip Hop Top 8
2009 JYP Entertainment Star DanceTrainer

2008 Old School Night Japan Top 4
2008 Just Debout France Locking Top 8
2008 USA Winter Session Vol. 4 Champion
2008 Just Free Contemporary Show
2008 Korean Performing Arts Conservatory lecturer
2008 JYP Entertainment Star Dance Trainer

2007 Japan What's Cracking Locking Champion
2007 Korea, Battle Cats Battle Champ
2007 China, Keep on Dancing, Locking Top 4

2006 The Real, Hip Hop House Champ

2005 Korea Pop Lock 2 on 2 Champion
2005 USA Best of the Best - Hip Hop Finalist

And that is a brief resume only for the judges.

The seven battle guests, Ara, 1G, Dong Woo, J-Rong,Min Ji, Drop,Bangster also have a lot of accomplishments from across Asia and Europe. Furthermore, the battle guests this year are all paying their own airfare to come to Floor The Love. KSDP is kicking in for hotels and food. It's $2040 for accommodation alone, and that's at Hotel 81. I'm not kidding, go look up the cost for 4 twin shares for 3 days at Hotel 81.http://www.hotel81.com.sg/hotels_bencoolen.shtml

Each battle guest is coming out to meet Singapore dancers and see the Singapore scene. A lot of SG dancers have come out to Korea over the last 4 years and now, some Korean dancers want to return the favour by coming out to SG. They had the chance to meet many people from the SG scene and we like you guys. No Singaporean cat to date has left Korea dissatisfied with the hospitality and welcome that we gave. Now, we're taking up on the invitation to 'come visit' as every sg cat who has ever been to Kr has asked. And so, they are. We are.

So why are you pissed, Chris?

By saying 'i don't want to go, it's too expensive' is a big 'fuck you' to all the people who work hard on this event througout the year, spend hundreds of hours training for battles, to Eurhythmix who put on the jam, the other international guests who also independently made the effort to come to Singapore to meet SG dancer and experience the SG scene.

This is the type of impression and welcome they get in SG?

Last year, I was playing mp3s. Plus we all stayed at a friend's house. That's why the cost was so much lower at $15.

Now, it's $10 more to cover hotel and food for seven battle guests, hire for 1 world class DJ and the eyes of 2 world class streetdancers. I am stretching this motherfucking $10.

This jam will be the greatest event in SG standing streetdance history.

My advice - GET IN EARLY. Tickets are ONLY $25. It's a STEAL.

So why the price increase in Jan and Feb?

I really don't want you to pay $35 in Jan or $40 in Feb. Really, I don't.

I want you to get a $25 ticket in December. When the first week of January comes by and my bills are due on my personal credit cards which I'm using to pay for this jam, I need cash to pay it off.

Yes, you could say that FTL has sponsors - my Visa and Amex. Would any other organizer in the scene put their own credit on the line to do an event? Not many.

The stark price increase over Jan and Feb was supposed to motivate people into getting tickets early. I am sorry if people were freaked out and decided to take moves to 'boycott' FTL in protest, but again, that is a big fuck you to all the people who work hard on bringing it to you every year, the battle guests who paid themselves to SG (and quite frankly, how many competitions do foreigners pay their way to Singapore in a competition? Only RF 11th Anniv and Step it Up Bboy jams - real dope events.)

If you don't want to support these independent jams, then what else are you going to support?

Gatsby-H20-Samsung-Levi's Jeans corporate sponsored events? You support these jams, but do these jams support YOU?

But we're only students, we can't pay so high!

Yes I know you're a student, I was a student once too. But bear in mind- KOREA SINGAPORE DANCE PROJECT IS JUST ONE GUY. I CAN'T PAY SO HIGH. You know that KSDP is totally independent, right? No one gave us a dollar to do anything. The stage set up at City Alive cost more than my whole FTL2008 budget.

For people still not believing that Floor The Love is really for the love, consider when I brought down THREE judges in 2007 and had a tiny crowd to watch 8 popping teams, 4 locking teams, 4 hiphop teams and 8 breakers. And no microphone. And a $2000SGD loss.

And do you know why I spent 3 days manually spamming the promo video on FRIENDSTER 800 times for FTL? Because there is no marketing budget. It's just me. Chris.

And I still put in mad effort to hold FTL in 2008. Why? Because I love streetdance. And if you can't understand the significance of that last sentence, then nothing I say is going to stop you bitching about $25 tickets.

And so the ticket prices?

Fine. There will be an extension until the end of Jan for $25 tickets. And at the door $30. But there are only 300 tickets, so we will turn you away at the door if we sold out because the event hall can't hold so many. And if you're still hating on FTL and not getting a ticket for this year,I still got love for you, you're young, you're id overpowers your super-ego and you don't understand that what you do has ramifications on others - it's not your fault.

And...

You'll hear about the wacking and house battles at FTL 2010.
You'll watch the videos of the the battle guests on You Tube.
You'll see how this one event changed the scene forever.

And I'll see you at FTL 2011 and I'll be humbled that you came.

Peace.

Respect to all the crews and studios who work hard to bring independent commercial free jams and events to the scene without sponsors, you know who you are, real recognize real.
Mad love to the people who signed up for tickets early too., thank you so much.

My man Dumbfoundead summed it all here for me on the video he made- I Love You

Floor The Love 2010

2009-11-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

Floor The Love is back for February 2010!

Once again coming at you live and direct in full effect from SMU courtesy of our partners in crime, the notorious Emix clique, we're going to be live in the Lion City with prelims and battles on February 20th of 2010 with workshops date on February the 19th.

The lineup is to be debuted slowly but surely, as things fall into place and rest assured, things will be tight with a few surprises on the day.

But the one thing that I do want to let everyone know today is the judging criteria. As always, for those of you who have come to a Korea-Singapore Dance Project jam before will know, but for all the new cats out there it is as follows..........

The following things are worth a combined total of 0%

Makeup
Costumes
Crowd Response
Stage Presence
Choreography

And the following is worth combined of 100%

Rhythm and Timing

The winners for each battle will be judged on dance ability, nothing else.

MC - Chris
Judge - aka Kin (Funk in the Heart - Korea)
Music - DJ Mulder (Korea) and DJ Yoshi (Japan)

Entries open for Singaporeans on December 1st on http://www.lioncitystreetdance.ning.com/
International entries can email me on rhythmsneakers@gmail.com Chinese, Korean and Japanese language is ok.

And here is a reminder on why you should come down to the jam!

R 16 Korea (part two)

2009-11-09T07:14:00.000-08:00

Radikal Forze from Singapore battled Top 9 from Russia in the very first match of the day for the R16. Top 9 are a longstanding old school crew in Russia and have placed in the top 8 in many competitions around the world such as Battle of The Year and UK BBoy Championships. As a matter of fact, they battled for the title against Gamblers Crew at this years' Battle of The Year final in Germany.

Here is the footage from the jam, and in my opinion, it was the closest battle that Top 9 had all day. They really held back in their battle and underestimated the RF flow. In my opinion, it was a pretty close battle.

R16 2009 SHA7OWS CUT from Mason Rose on Vimeo.

You can see a Radikal Forze run in the intro clip for the R16 DVD that is currently in the mix at Cartel Creative productions - the DVD looks like it's going to be fresh.

The Respect 16 competition is not just about breaking, there is also a popping and locking category too. This year, entrants from Japan and Taiwan came to compete in the R16 Popping and Locking side with Junior Boogaloo as Popping judge and Tony Gogo as Locking Judge.

Last year's Floor The Love Locking Champion Yao Bai came to represent Taiwan in the Locking side, but unfortunately, he didn't make it through the pre-selections (!) Haha, I think Tony Gogo made a mistake there, Yao Bai is as funky as day old cottage cheese.

This has got to be the best pop and lock showcase I have ever seen in Korea! It was so much fun to watch. It was a special one time only all star cast of Korea's best popping and locking schools from Originality Crew, KOGS, Sweety Boogie, Funky Street Prince, Lock'n'Lol and more. It seriously put the FUN in Funky.

Tony Gogo: "Yep, the FUN in Funky."

Locking Khan: "I agree."

One of the proudest moments in my life was starting the Soul Train at the R16 this year. MC Go called for a 20minute break inbetween rounds and DJ Light kept on spinning funky music. Tony Gogo got up and started clapping his hands to encourage everyone to come in. I was filming off centre and thought "Yeah, it's my time now baby!" So with my camera in tow, I started strutting down the centre of the stage and before I knew it, I was strutting in a Soul Train.

Afterwards Tony Gogo came up to me and said that he'll never forget that it was me, the guy with the camera equipment who wanted to get down the most at the R16 Locking champs. I've always thought it was weird that so many dancers don't want to get down in a cypher or a soul train, but have no hesitation in dancing in front of 2000 people. There's so much pressure at a competition, in a soul train, it's just all fun.

Locking teams lineup for their freestyle prelim in front of Tony Gogo

Khan and Tony Gogo enjoying themselves in the Soul Train

The photo was the moment when Tony Gogo let through KOGS poppers in the top 4 of the Locking battles. As you know, KOGS poppers are a famous POPPING team in Korea, not lockers. They entered the locking category in R16 as a joke to play around, but with their strong characters in dance, they went all the way to the finals against Lock'n'Lol. It was hilarious. The finals are below

2009 R-16 20th Sept (part one)

2009-09-23T09:01:00.001-07:00

R16 2009 kicked off in Incheon on the 19th Sept, but as you avid followers of the Korea-Singapore Dance Project blog know, I was busy MCing at "Tribute Night" in Seoul. But I got up early the next day to take a 2 hour train ride to get to Incheon (once again, including 'lost' time) to get to the venue.

And the venue was dope! Next to the mainstage where people were warming up for the battles there was the Street Markets and Wall Lords Graffiti competition that was also part of the R16 craziness. The winner gets to represent Korea in Shanghai later this year for the finals.

There were several categories including handstyles and throwups. Contestants had a set amount of time to complete their pieces and then the judge would come and choose the winner.

I'm very impressed that the Korean Tourism Organization actually spent resources in promoting graffiti culture when 99% of government agencies around the world spend their time trying to stamp out graffiti in their cities. I know in Singapore, this exhibition would not likely get a lot of support from the local authorities, hahah.

The Street Market was full of stuff to get, especially hard to find stuff like dancer clothes. "5 Things" is a Korean streetdancer label as is "Critic." The guy in the green hat in the photo above is Physicx from Rivers Crew and he's buying something from Woong in Originality Lockers, the man behind Critic.

There were these crazy "RUN DMZ" shirts at the Armory stall! Of course, it's a pun on RUN DMC, the infamous hip hop trio and the Demilitarized Zone, which is the no-man's land between North and South Korea.

MC Ivy said on the mic that "We run Korea, we run Seoul, yo, we run the DMZ."

Bboy Ducky from Drifterz Crew walked into my shot here as I was shooting the graffiti and it's my favourite shot of the day. ^^

This was my favourite piece, so I posed with it. It says "I Have A Dream That One Day" and at the banner below it says "Martin Luther King" and "Rosa Parks." Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther King could walk and King walked so that Obama could run and Obama ran so that your kids can fly.

Respect!

I like this picture of I think its LiquidFire crew packing up and trying to get everything back into it's box after the competition was over. In most cities in the West if you get caught hauling that many spraycans and marker pens, you're doing time, guaranteed.

]

Bgirl Ara, posing next to some of the artwork. I told her to pose there because the colours match the clothes that she was wearing.

Anyway, as far as Autumn days in Korea are concerned, this day was perfect....perfect for breaking!!

I like this photo a lot of Ivy and Charlie Shin of Cartel Creative.

Superman Ivy in full effect.

Lots of updates and videos to come. Crazy battles all day everyday, you know how Cartel Creative and R16 get down. This is the first of many clips, so come back daily!