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Culture Shock LA 20yr Anniversary 2vs2 Battle

For the first time in a long time, I decided to enter a 2vs2 All Styles Battle with my little sister (and crewmate) Jessica “Ica” in Torrance, California.  It was an outdoor jam thrown to commemorate the 20yr anniversary of the renowned dance company, CULTURE SHOCK LA.  The battles were live!  I haven’t had this much fun at a jam since I don’t know when.  Even though it was extremely hot outside (I think my skin is 3-4 shades darker now -_-) the dancers didn’t let it get to them.  There was so much talent, energy, passion, and entertainment out on that dance floor that I couldn’t help but cheese the entire time.  Although the wait time for my battles to start was a little bit ridiculous since they decided to host the entire 2 vs 2 Bboy Top 16 through the Finals first with intermissions and showcases included before allowing the All Styles Battles to start.

I’ll start with the breaking first:

Mike Rebong & my fellow crewmate Matt entered the breaking battles.  Their Top 16 round was dope and clean and I had high hopes for them in this competition.  However, their Top 8 battle wasn’t up to par and they both messed up on their sets.  I knew and have seen them do way better than that, but they both told me they didn’t think they had to go so hard since their opponents were young teenagers….Lesson of the Day: Don’t Underestimate Your Enemy lol.  Nonetheless I was proud of both of them for driving so far out and repping (representing) hard.  They hit up the cyphers appropriately and DID WORK SON lol

  As far as my battle was concerned:

Both Ica & I thought we didn’t do well in our prelims.  I personally felt like I could’ve done a lot more with my dance, but the end result wasn’t bad at all.  After watching the footage later, I concluded that we both did a lot better than we previously thought.  We made it to the Top 16, but were knocked off.  I thought we won for sure, but the judges saw it differently.  It was fine though, I was excited to be there and excited to meet and vibe with all the other dancers there that day.  Unfortunately we left right after the top 8 battles concluded, so I didn’t get to witness the finals.  Anyway, congrats to Shockwave and his partner for taking the entire thing (from what I heard).

This means I need to train twice as hard and wreck the competition next time.  I wish the competitions in Okinawa were as LIVE and energy exhilarating as the ones out here...oh well, hopefully they will when I return haha.  Until then, stay up!

One Love

Even though I've become a professional dancer, I can't help the negative thoughts from entering my head.  Thoughts of "What you're doing is not good enough" to "This or that person is better than you"...sometimes it haunts me on a daily basis...and I think about quitting.

This was especially true for me yesterday, as I was trying to learn an accomplished dancer's choreography at a quick pace (like how they do in auditions).  Now granted, I realize that I have just recently started practicing choreography since I am more of a freestyle/battle type of dancer.  However, when it comes to myself, I'm an extremely tough critic.  I was (for lack of better vocab) utterly disgusted with myself at how slow I was picking up the choreo...and disappointed at the fact that I couldn't memorize the moves as quickly as I thought I should.

Honestly, I was ready to give up.  But, through experience, I've learned to calm myself, and try and be positive about things.  I realize that I do need to practice more choreography, and that it's bogus for me to think I can pick up advanced choreo so quickly when I am still relatively new at it.  Also, when choreographing, I just need to do MY OWN STYLE.  I keep seeing how other dancers choreograph routines...and I get caught up in it..thinking I need to look like them.  But I realize now that it's not about what THEY look like, it's about ME and how I WANT TO LOOK...that's the point of making MY piece....

That's the point in Dance.  SELF EXPRESSION...if I don't look like everybody else, it's okay because that's how I CHOOSE TO EXPRESS MYSELF. That's how it should be...I just need to remember that always.

This probably seems like a pointless "duh" posts, but hey it's MY BLOG and I'll post w/e the hell I want to post haha

Anyway, back to the lab..

One Love,

One Love