Out of 40-50 popper's intense preliminary round (where the judges gave scores within 10 points to each poppers), SUGALOO passed the prelim with the highest score from the Judeges!
SUGALOO VS Jon Lock(NY) TOP 16
Watch this in HD, and watch Jon's second round......INSANE....
By the way, SUGALOO got too excited that he screamed for no reason before Jon's second round
Good thing Poppin Todd screamed right after that to make SUGALOO look less weird lol
SUGALOO VS Mark Flux (D.C, Boston, LA) Top 8
The way he expresses the music is truly amazing. Not only does he have great technique but he is a great popper that can create "WTF?!" moments within his get down. Much respect.
SUGALOO and Poppin iLL had a great time during this event. We reunited and met with many poppers from all over the eastcoast.
The battle was on fire through out the event and it was VERY ORGANIZED. I think both of us did not complain at all.
We enjoyed getting down and represented What The Funk?! Crew to the fullest :)
Check out Daveshi's youtube channel and subscribe!!! Daveshi Youtube
You can watch all the battles AND a judge showcase by Monsta Pop, Slim Boogie, and Poppin Todd.
sup yall its been a while but we've been working...
I (SUGALOO) been going out for a lot of events for the couple month and picked up some new concepts about POPPIN
What I found most interesting was the knowledge I got from Kid Boogie(Machine Gone Funk).
What I learned was something called "Pop Separation" Basically what it means is that you learn how to pop ur body parts separately.
If its the forearm, u only pop its muscle. If its the triceps, u only pop that muscle. If its the chest, u kno what I mean. lol
By doing so, u'll gain more control of ur body bc u'll be more conscious about how u body moves and that will help u to have more solid popping.
So me and poppin ill been worked on that for couple days. Trying to dance using the pop.
and it actually dramatically changed the way we dance(especially Poppin ill).
We were more calm, relaxed and were taking time towards the music. It may not look that amazing to u yet since this was after 3day's of training. But hope u can see the difference between ourselves in the past.
P.S btw Poppin ill edited the clip so it looks stupid LOL
ok this happened at the same day when SUGALOO and Poppin iLL did the street performance in Union Square.
After the performance, we visited Popshop and met Poppin Tito and Crazy Sun who came all the way from Philly and Washington D.C
After Popshop Tito, Crazy sun and SUGALOO when clubbing and got down for 6 hours, having fun, exchanging techniques and practising new techniques.
On our way home, Tito encountered a fateful meeting which led him to create his new crew.
At first I misunderstood Tito's word and thought he was joking. However, Funky Fusion Crew is spreading among East and West Coast and has been very active since I last met him.
They have also posted rules and goals and one of them include having a "Healthy Competition" with What The Funk?! Crew.
Thus, Funky Fusion Crew is our first rival crew and we are really happy about this cuz having a rival would motivate our selves to improve more.
This vid is how Tito came up with the name of the crew!! Enjoy :)
sup yall! Sugaloo posting this when he should be working on his final project but F**k that and hear me out!!! LOL
On Saturday, 24th, me and Ilya "Poppin' Ill" will be street performing in manhatten, NY!!! XD
I often go to the city to teach or practice and have seen people street performing but never actually done it I've always had interest but never wanted to do it by myself lol
But since Ilya will be coming all the way from Parsippany,NJ,by train, I thought it would be a good chance to try it.
I'm really excited about this because of two reasons
1. Want to find out how much our performance is worth lol
2. Performing on the streets means performing in front of audiences that are NOT familier with Popping. In other words their feedback is PURE AND REAL. How COOL IS THAT!!!!!
We would probably be performing at Union Square from about 3:30PM, so if u happen to be around, come check us out!
We would be dressed some what formal and will be popping :D lol
And if possible, we would record some of our performance and post it here or on our youtube account
Also after street performing, we would be going to POPSHOP to practice with dope poppers in NYC, Popping Tito from philly, and Crazy Son&friends from D.C!!!!
POPSHOP will be at PMT studio from 5~7PM! damage is $3!! The address is same as SUGALOO's Popping Class
And then we are going to a club event @ THE PARLOUR!!! Its open from 8PM but we would probably be going around 9 or 10. The address is 247 West 30th Street,New York, NY!
wooooo its gona be a LOOOOOOOG day!!!!LOL
If u wana get down with us, feel free to come to these places on Saturday!!!
I have a problem. Multiple problems. I kept blaming my physicality. As I mentioned in my last post, it is an incredibly important part of dance. However, it is through constant practice that I noticed my biggest problem, and now am man enough to acknowledge it.
I'm a little bitch.
By that I mean that my mentality is lacking. I get frustrated easily, and when I am, I lash out against anyone and anything. I blame my body for the weakness, the lack of control, the false movements. But where do all the original commands stem from? THE MIND.
So let me put it this way, I am young and inexperienced as a dancer but I'm sure most cannot argue with me about the following statement. Dancing is mental first. If you are unclear or unsure about your dance, then it will most definitely show in your movement. Just as you train to control your body, you must train to control your mind.
This is not to say that everyone must be at the perfect level of balance and mental peace. Frustration is normal. Frustration is good. It displays the desire to improve, the will to surpass an obstacle. It becomes bad when the frustration turns you away from your goal. When you let it get to your head and end up feeling upset with yourself. All those thoughts must end. Remember, control your mind to manipulate your movement the way you want it to move. Master the mind.
Hope yall ar enjoying a great weather we ar having today!
So last weekend I went to Baltimore to Judge a popping 1 vs 1 competition (also reppin What The Funk?! to the fullest like u see in the pic with 2 other popping judges Mike the popper&Jett Jaguar from the Regulators).
The place where the event took was really nice but the size of the event were small. This was due to lack of time and management to put together an event(that's what I heard from the organizers themselves) and it would've been much better.
For example -The place were steaming hot cuz they could not open the window due to the fact that the building right outside had a Easter ceremony going on. -With the size of the space they had, they could've sold some goods like drinks and maybe sponsored T-shirt or smt to improve its financial planning.
Although it seems many people had a great time at the Jam:) I believe this was due to the unexpected high level battles on both Popping and Breaking Battle.
There were less than 15competitors on both sides but I saw something very interesting and fun to watch on every battle.
Popping side was especially interesting since the competitors brought many different styles and flavor.
There were Animators,Funk Stylers,G-Stylers,and straight up trick dancers;D lol
One of the epic battle of the day for me was
Tito(Philly)VS Wookie(Baltimore)
This is Tito(somehow I had his pic but not wookie lol)
The two represented there style to the fullest and it was really hard to judge. Tito had west coast funkstyle mixed with animated feeling. Wookie had Asian flavor Beatfreaking Animation style.
Tito stuck to the basics while wookie presented his unique style and was the crowd pleaser of the battle.
Tito changed his style as the music did from round 1 to 2 which was amazingly done, however, I thought he wasn't able to maintain the energy and the intensity he brought on the 1st round. Wookie stuck to his favorite style on both rounds. Although he managed to maintain the energy and was able to change the way he approached to the beat.
This was a REALLY CLOSE BATTLE and now I think back, I feel like we should've done a tie breaker since both are great poppers
The winner of this battle was WOOKIE
I gave my vote to wookie because of the reasons written above and cuz I thought wookie attacked to the beat more. It is really important to go with the flow of the music in dancing, no doubt. But when u are battling u have to attack the beat with ur flavor and show supremacy against the opponent and prove that u can rock the beat better than the opponent.
Overall I had a good time at the event!! I kinda regret that I judged cuz there were a lot of great poppers to battle against!
so NO JUDGING FOR A WHILE!! gona stick to practicing and battling :)
Big props to the organizers for putting together a good event,all the competitors who is keepin popping and breaking scene on MD real and to those who won the event!!!
This is the first event Im going to be judging out of my home state, New Jersey, and I'm really excited to see how the poppers in Baltimore will get down in battles!!
Like the prior event, Step Up of Get Smoked, I will write a review and hopefully some footage of the event so keep checking the blog!
One thing that often slips people's minds, mainly the beginners, is that dancing is HARD. Even the simplest of steps requires a certain level of skill and physicality. I can recall a conversation I had with a "dancer" who laughed in my face by the end of it. I told him, "man, dancing is training. You gotta be physically fit, technically sharp, and mentally stable. It is hardcore training." He laughed. His ignorance surprised me, and since then I've tried to keep away from him. But that is not the point of this post...
Many dancers have physical boundaries to overcome to begin with. I, for example, have terrible knees, to the point where I am supposed to be in physical therapy three times a week. However, that is expensive, and I can replicate the same exercise with relative ease. On top of those immediate barriers, comes the lack of physicality/reaching the proper physical ability to improve your dance. That means eating healthy, staying flexible, and systematically working out each body part for your dance. I recently watched a video describing a similar topic and it mentioned the training habits of several famous dancers, such as Gucchon and other Japanese poppers doing 100s of squats, pushups, and crunches in each class. Or Madd Chadd's ability to high jump over 7 feet.
This all makes me feel like I am lacking a major component, not only physically, but in my dance as well. A dancer's instrument is the body, and it is the dancer's responsibility to keep it tuned and in perfect condition.
Ok so I will be starting a poppin class EVERY THURSDAY @ PMT Dance Studio in NYC from 1st of April!!
This is a great opportunity and a dream come true so I will work my butt off to teach my students and let them have the best class they ever had.
If any of you ar interested in learning poppin, def come to my class!!!
Here is the my course description:
Solid Poppin Foundation - Do you want hard hits, sharp movements, and clean poppin technique? If so this class is definitely for you! This class will be focusing on hitting, popping and isolation drills to cultivate necessary techniques for the beginners and for experienced poppers who wish to improve or solidify their poppin foundation. There will also be a routine using movements associated with poppin styles such as Boogaloo, Waving, Botting etc. The instructor will help you achieve clean angles, the understanding of movements and the way to incorporate the moves into you freestyle.
For more info, go to: PMT Dance Studio and check out "TEACHER PROFILES"-SUGALOO
Recently, most of the members competed in Step Up Or Get Smoked!--as mentioned in earlier posts--and everyone did well. However, there comes a time when one has to accept the performance, take it into consideration, and resume training even harder than before. With the SATs over and this beautiful March weather shining, it is the perfect time for me to resume this rigorous process. Therefore, I like to look at a certain philosophy that I can apply to what has happened recently, and how to improve. I thought, what better way to examine a battle than taking something from fighting, since I personally believe fighting and dancing are incredibly similar. These wise words come from Bruce Lee's "Tao of Jeet Kune Do"
"The six diseases: 1. The desire for victory.
2. The desire to resort to technical cunning.
3. The desire to display all that has been learned.
4. The desire to awe the enemy.
5. The desire to play a passive role.
6. The desire to get rid of whatever disease one is affected by."
DID YALL COME TO THE EVENT?????? I HOPE SO CUZ IF U DIDN'T, U'VE MISSED AN AWESOME BATTLE EVENT!!!!!!!
As I've explained on the earlier post, we've had 3 styles
The event started off with the House Section. This section had less competitors than expected, thus, some non-House dancers (including our member Karlo "Mr Panda"lol) registered to fill the spot.
people were having fun with this section since we were able to see serious battles and some battles we can laugh at lol
The Winner of this section was Glytch from Intermix/Groove Kings crew!!! His unique groove and creative dance moves entertained the judges and the audience through out the battle, Mad props.
I don't have the footage again so plz wait till I find them on YouTube lol
Next was Hip Hop
Now a lot of trouble happened in this section.
1.The judges of Hip Hop section decided that since Hip Hop is too broadly defined, they've made a rule restricting some dance styles,specifically Break Dance. This caused some controversy between some of the competitors and the judges throughout the event. Thanks to Spex, we were able to make things settled.
2.The judges had tie decisions continuously because I believe the music they had for this section was not really for battling.
3.The judge announced THE INCORRECT NAME OF THE CHAMP AT THE FINALS!!!!
So yea, there were lots of drama lol
Although the battle was SICK
Many raw and fresh talent went head to head against each other and the crowd was going CRAAAAAAZZZYYYY!!!!!
The winner of HIP HOP was Dezmin"Alph Alpha" Staley from SOUL'D crew!!! His combined style of Hip Hop Party groove and sharp and precise poppin move shined on the battle field and smoked some of the coolest hip hop dancers in NJ! MAD props
Don't have the Champs Battle footage but here is one of the battles
The Final Section Was POPIN!!!!!
I was able to judge the poppin section but lets just say that I regret doing it cuz there were too many dope poppers to battle that night!!!
From Philly we had BOOG from 360
From NY we had Killa Watts from Part Time Models
From D.C we had C-lo,Wu Bott and Jett Jaguar from Regulators
and from NJ we had What The Funk?! Crew and Boogie Mind from the Boogie Bots who competed at ABDC season 2!!
Now all these names u see some of the best poppers from their states, and so as u can guess, this section had one of the DOPEST BATTLES OF THE NIGHT !!!!!
All the battles were on fire and were really difficult to judge. We were really glad to have Spex, one of the oldest and experienced dancer from NY to judge with us that night. Therefore, I feel like we able to judge the battles fair and reasonable.
The Champ of this intense section was Jett Jaguar from the Regulators!!!
His musicality and creativity outmatched the rest of the skilled dancers and took the title of becoming the best popper at Step Up or Get Smoked 2010
Here are one of the hottest battle of the night, Jett Jaguar VS Boogie Mind!
Congrats to all the Champs and a great job to all those who competed!!!
Cant wait to attend the next Step Up or Get Smoked!!!!
