B the best boyz!
Two dancers from the city will battle it out at this national level qualifer in June
By : soumashree sarkar
Update: 2015-05-16 00:06 GMT
Your ‘toprock’ may be top notch, but are your ‘freezes’ up to the mark? These terms might be strange to you, but to a large number of b-boys and b-girls who are raring to show off their break dancing skills come June, it could get them a berth at the very first Red Bull BC One India Cypher in India. Following an intensive round of qualifiers at Mumbai, 16 of the country’s best break dancers will battle it out at the One India Cypher for the chance to represent India at the One Asia Pacific Final 2015 in Seoul in October. Already among the 16 finalists are five wild card entries — two of whom are from Bengaluru!
As cult fans of b-boying register for the elimination rounds in Mumbai, the five who were chosen are already raring to break dance in what promises to be a competitive finale — most of which they will be spending showing off their gravity-defying freezes. They were handpicked by the Allstar team of 11 worldwide winners, three of whom are coming to India to judge the competition. B-boy Likith, a city boy who began dancing in 2008, says, “My day job is at the offices of Hewlett Packard.
Luckily, my work begins later in the day, so I can devote my mornings to practicing breaking. What started as a hobby is now a full-fledged passion and I have gone on to create a team called the Black Eyed Crew. In spite of the obvious difficulty in getting gigs that pay well, I have travelled to Chennai and Hyderabad in the peak February-April stretch to perform. It’s not easy to juggle a tech job and b-boying, but my boss is a great help when it comes to accommodating my love for b-boying. When I was chosen, every one around me including myself, went mad!”
Known for its global reach, the high octane break dance videos that come out of the championships are seen by thousands of viewers across the globe. And this is what excites our second Bengaluru wild card entry, Shawn. The 19-year-old who teaches to supplement his livelihood, says, “I was born in Goa, but I came to Bengaluru, just to pursue my love for b-boying. My family was not okay with this choice, but I wanted to stand up for my passion. B-boying is my whole life and I am so glad that the people I was inspired by are going to be judging me on a recognised platform now.”
While many city dancers wish that the qualifiers happened in Bengaluru, they are still excited to be travelling to Mumbai with friends. B-girl and hip-hop aficionado, Ashika says, “I am a bio-tech student and everyone knows how difficult juggling a dance hobby and a science degree can be. I have followed the cipher for a long time and really wish I could go this time. What makes it worse is that all the boys and girls from my crew are going, while I am going to be stuck with my exams.”