Beyond the Dance Floor

Abechan(BORN 2 FUNK/NAACALS)

Abe definitely has an unique perspective on things with his wide variety of interests and marketing and business background.  We talk about his history, the origins of the Yoyogi house and some of the stories there, his curious mindset and how that helped him with business, his thoughts on growing the scene and not being too narrow-minded and more.  One of my favourite talks to date and I learned a lot.  Hope you all learn something too and enjoy it!  Peace.

Momo (DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH/THE HOODZ/QWEEN OF QWEENZ/ROBSON 800)

Today we talk with Momo from Diamonds in the Rough, The Hoods, Qween of Qweens, and Robson 800, originally from Tokyo, Japan but now living in Vancouver, Canada.  Really fun talk with Momo about her experiences living in Canada and what brought her here in the first place, the differences between the Japanese and Canadian scenes, connecting with the younger generation of Japanese dancers, being more than “just a mother”, and more.  Really great talk and I hope you enjoy it!  Peace.

Jamieson (GROOVY Gs)

Today we talk with one of the first people I met in the scene and a guy that’s been very influential in the Vancouver Popping scene, Jamieson De Guzman.  Jamieson and his crew, the Groovy Gs are in part responsible for helping build the popping scene in Vancouver which was almost non-existent when they started.  Always great catching up with him and his smooth calming voice.  We talk about the early days of the Vancouver popping scene, the formation of his crew Groovy Gs, learning from the Electric Boogaloos, his dance company and its focus on teaching the joy of dancing, what we feel makes a good teacher and more.  Hope you enjoy the talk.  Peace.

Flex (BAG OF TRIX)

Today we talk with Flex from the legendary Canadian crew Bag of Trix, from Toronto, Canada.  Really an honour to have him on and share his knowledge with you all.  We talk about Bag of Trix history, growing up dancing in the clubs, being on Much Music’s RAPCITY, flipping moves and creativity, the UBL, and more.

Wooty (DANCE BROOMZ/THE HOODS)

Wooty is one of the first dancers I met from the US and has always felt like a part of the Vancouver scene.  A really straight up dude, and my crew is the way it is in part because his crew is the way they are.  One of the best talks I’ve had to date.  We get into all kinds of things like Seattle/Tacoma history, Dance Broomz history, only teaching those who want to learn, his physical training he does in the gym and on the field, cross training and the creativity he finds in it, and most importantly NOT WASTING HIS DAMN TIME!

6kicks (HELPHADAG/ASHIMANZOKU)

Today we talk with one of the young rising stars from Okinawa, Japan, Hiroshi Degawa aka 6kicks.  First I really want to thank Hiroshi for taking the time to do the talk even though he’s not super confident in English.  He did a really good job and it gave us a chance to get to know some of the lesser known people in the Japanese scene.

Frostflow (GROUND ILLUSIONZ/20th CENTURY BBOYS/CONSCIOUS SOLES)

Frost has been a huge inspiration to me in large part because of his ability to connect what we do in breaking with the rest of our lives.  This is exactly what this whole podcast is all about and I’m really glad I got to talk with him and have him share his insight on all of this.  We get into his crew’s history, a bit of Toronto history, his approach to teaching, mentoring, building arts programs within his city, being professional as a dancer and more.

Sugy (CYPHERSONS)

Co-host of Tales of the Cypher podcast where he documents a lot of the history of the Quebec scene, Sugy has been an invaluable source of inspiration and help during this whole journey through content creation.  One of the more natural conversations I’ve had on here, we get into all kinds of things from content creation, his podcast and the importance of documenting history, the importance of a good host at a jam, and more.

Justroc (MIGHTY ZULU KINGS/FLOOR GANGZ)

Member of Mighty Zulu Kings and Floor Gangz, Justroc is a straight up student of hip hop culture.  We talk about his history growing up in Manchester, moving back to Hong Kong, living in Korea, his series of talks on Instagram, Conversations with Royalties and the Jung Connection, the importance of sharing knowledge and history and more.

Riley (GROUNDWORK SESSIONS)

One of my favourite bboys from Canada these days, Riley just has that essence of what a bboy is in my opinion.  We talk about his time learning in Whitehorse from some of the best in the world including Wicket, Kid David, and Roxrite of the Renegade Rockers, his time Arizona being mentored by Ynot of the Rocksteady crew, Cypher for Change and what it did for the Canadian breaking scene and more.