Paris is a city that offers much more then its 1000’s of years of history and monumental statures. It is also a city of true urban life forms that all derive from Hip Hop. Its home to some of the world’s most famous Graffiti work, under ground beat box champions, skateboarders and the now world popular breakdancing.
Breakdance, breaking, b-boying is a street dance style that evolved as part of the hip hop movement among African American and Puerto Rican youths in Manhattan and the South Bronx(where I grew up…riiiiight) of New York City during the early 1970’s. It is normally danced to electro or hip hop music, often remixed to prolong the breaks, and is a well-known hip hop dance style. Breaking involves the elements of toprock,downrock, freezes, and power moves. A breakdancer, breaker, b-boy or b-girl refers to a person who practices breakdancing.
Breakdancing may have begun as a building, productive, and a constructive youth culture alternative to the violence of urban street gangs. Today, breakdancing culture is a discipline somewhere between those of dancers and athletes. Since acceptance and involvement centers of dance abilities, breakdancing culture is often free of the common race and gender boundaries of a subculture and has been accepted worldwide.
As I often do, I roamed the streets of Paris in search of a new urban life story. I am extremely intrigued by breakdancing and as a huge fan of hip hop myself love to “attempt” to breakdance. I inquired about the hot spots to find the street dancers and to my surprise was able to find a crew one day performing in front of a crowd of people. I wiped out my video camera and started shooting some footage as if I were the last Asian with a camcorder. The group was off the hook and full of energy. I didn’t want to interrupt their show but I felt it was imperative that I got some time behind the scenes to talk with the boy’s. They told me to come back later that night to get a chance to hang out a bit and chat. So that’s exactly what I did.
Later that night I returned to the spot they refer to as “the gathering” where I had the chance to talk to them one on one, up close and personal. They call themselves “Optical Illusion” and formed the group two years ago and have a combined 12 years of experience. They have hit up spots in Barcelona, London, and Amsterdam and all over France and through down performances. Neville, Simpson and their leader Alfie plan on taking on world wide domination with their street movement. They have extreme talent and I truly enjoyed getting a chance to hang out with them. Yeaaa boiiii!!!
To all those of you who have interest’s such as mine I urge you to get out there and explore what life has to offer. There is nothing like getting to know complete strangers and learning a bit about what makes them get up and go everyday. Sooooooooooooo, what are you waiting for. Go, go, goooooooooooooooooooooo
.gif)
