RFH/Fusion Iowa Battle + Jukebox thoughts

This video sums up our entire trip pretty much.

EDIT:: See below the the videos for random thoughts about the trip.

The video you’ve all been waiting for! DopeSauce Crew!

Watch as Nick Kim tears  it up during the funk showcase.

I know for me, it was after battling that I was the most motivated to work on my skills. I think everyone who battled felt that way. First time battlers Josh and Joe, but they had a good opening as you can see. Made some friends through breaking, Chi town Crooks crew haha. Even Nick, who didn’t break, but hit up that funk styles showcase came back with a new love for popping and locking. I had a dream the next day after getting back that I was in a bboy battle haha. It was about 8 hours round trip, but it certainly didn’t feel that way (except for the butt cramps). That first video sums up our just messing around, talking, listening to dance music.

If you want to take your dancing to the next level, you’ll need to get off campus. Take classes, meet chicago crews, go battle, go to shows. If you’re shooting to be at the top of the NU level you won’t go far. I believe that this is something Matt tried to inspire in us when he was still a student. He saw something bigger and took ReFresH to new levels of dancing than there was in the past at NU. But he went to those classes and shows and then brought it back to NU. Same with Jason, since he’s been here, I’ve been to three battles with him (partner in 1) and in that time, I’ve seen my breaking go to new levels.

As for me, I recently took a house class because I’ve always wanted to try it out and now I’ve found something new that I love and want to pursue, but it never would have happened if I didn’t get off campus, out of what’s comfortable and usual. For some of you, the next steps will be doing show, choreographing a piece, for others it will be taking a class or auditioning for a group. If you never stretch yourself, your growth will be hindered, and of course it’s easier to do things together. That’s why RFH is here =). Seriously, rely on each other, if you see this jazz class that you want to take, be like “hey debbie, want to go take this class with me?” and then we’ll go and get owned together (“wait that rolling thing u just did… can u break it down?”). This pretty much applies to anything, but since this is a dance blog, let’s talk about dance.

Peace,

Kcheung!

More of my youtube picks!

Aite, it’s about that time again. I’ve got a whole crop of videos that have been inspiring me recently, so here we go. I’ll try to keep it short, but no guarantees.

Enjoy! Comment on any of yours below!

Red Bull BC One in NYC this year!

For those who don’t know, the red bull bc one is one of the biggest international bboying events. Controversy and anti-BOTY/BC-one sentiment aside, it’s certainly going to have some exceptional talent from all over the world. Last year’s winner was one of my personal favorite bboys, Ronnie (yes, of Super Cr3w on ABDC).

Anyhow, I’m thinking of putting together a group to go watch it. It is unfortunately on November 18th, which is a Wednesday, but for anyone who isn’t above being truant for a day and has the cash to travel to NYC for a day, respond in the comments below or hit me up. Tickets go on sale Oct. 9th, so you’ll have to make a commitment to travel by that day. Tickets to the event are $15 plus tax and fees. More info can be found here:
http://redbullbcone.com/battle/red-bull-bc-one-usa-2009

Comin up: BBOY battle in Iowa Oct 3

Here’s the details,

What: It’s a 3v3 battle down in Iowa

When: October 3, leave around 2 pm get back around 2 am oct 4

Where: Iowa haha

Right now we have 5 people going, and with 1 more, we can have 2 teams. We’ll split the cost of gas, and if 6 people go, we’ll have to split the cost of a rental car and gas. If we somehow get 9 people, we’ll split it again.

Cost: 5 people (6$ each), 6 people (20$ each), 9 people (14$ about)

IF YOU WANNA GO BATTLE, LET US KNOW!!!

Links to Poster1 and Poster2

Bboy Mantiis on Biting

What’s up people.  A while back, Jason put up a really interesting blogpost on a note on facebook on biting.  Earlier this week, I had a discussion with a few people on the concept of biting, and I thought that this blogpost did a pretty good job summing it up.  (My views are probably along the same lines as his)

The writer is Bboy Mantiis, a breaker widely respected in the bboy community.  So it mainly focuses on biting and breaking, but I think it can definitely be applied to other styles of hip-hop dance.  And whether you agree with it or not, it’s a pretty fast read and it definitely merits the attention of any aspiring dancer at any skill level.

Enjoy!

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=2716029&blogId=347945376
The whole thing is a must read (especially the second part about ‘influence’ vs. ‘biting’

ka-ka-kaleidescope

Sorry for the bad lighting.

Congrats to Jason on his first show with usssss!!

BTW the better version of the vid is up on the sync in sync2RFH(kcheung)>videos

Syncplicity

I feel bad writing over the Dopeness post because that was very epic. READ THE PREVIOUS POST! Fuego.

Anyway, I’ve been asked the question a lot, what is syncplicity? In short, it’s a program which allows real time sharing and automatic updates of files on a specified folder on your computer and in our case, dance music and videos. Jason Hwang was very kind and made a picture guided tutorial of how to install and set it up found in the following link.

http://testbunny.bravehost.com/sync.html

Please take the time to set this up because it’s a great way for us to stay connected. Those who have it have all uploaded music or videos that have been inspiring and we can all share in them together. Vids of our run throughs are up on there as well. If you still need help, don’t hesitate to ask me, matt, jason, nick or any of the other people who have it set up.  PLEASE read the rules regarding this program, found in matt’s original post. If you need the password to the blog, ask one of one of the execs or OG’s who’ve been around for a while.

That’s all I can think of for now, happy sharing!

Dopeness

So earlier today, a couple of us went to Willard to give a little workshop and a freestyle session for the freshmen to show what ReFresH is about, kinda like last year when Alan was a CA there. Unfortunately, they were on a tight schedule and could only do a session for about half an hour or so, so pretty much each of us, as in myself, Dwu, Jason, Kevin, Chris Nho, Joe Kim, Sam Jang and Han got to freestyle only once, some of us were lucky enough to dance twice, and then gave a very very brief workshop on how to break and pop. It was all good, got lots of people who were impressed with us, and hopefully we’ll get some new members.

Afterwards, Chris thought it was too short and randomly says, “Hey, session at the arch. Now.” He grabs his battery powered speakers and we head out to the dimly lit arch, and had a ridiculous session for an hour. LEGIT. We had crowds of people going, “Dude, that so sick.” Sometimes it got too loud, a cop car drove up to us to keep it down! I have to say that I always wanted to dance in front of the arch. But what made it epic was that it was at 12 AM!! Yeah, that’s right. We’re just that awesome.

Sure we had haters shouting random shit at us from passing cars, but screw those guys. They’re just jealous they can’t do half the stuff we can. We even had random people come up and do stuff for 2 seconds! I’d have to say that tonight was a pretty frickin’ epic night for ReFresH, and hopefully it’ll attract some new members. I’d definitely love to do this again sometime! I’m already excited for the new year!

Set building

Hey guys,

So with a lot of the founding members of refresh gone this past year, a lot of people are stepping up to take up creative and administrative responsibilities this upcoming ‘09-’10 season. I’m real proud of where we’ve come these four years, and I’m looking forward to see what you guys can grow into this year.

Since a lot of people will be trying out new artistic roles, whether it be choreography, transitions, or creating a set from all it’s parts. I’ll be happy to give advice to anyone who wants to talk about it, but I’ll also keep being active on the blog. Like now. SoReal (who is from Texas, in case anyone forgot), recently competed in Body Rock, which is one of the biggest competitions in Cali. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from watching all the different crews competing in Body Rock, from The Camp to Choreocookies, Poreotics to Jabbawockeez. Obviously, this was a big milestone for SoReal, now that they’ve been on ABDC and have gotten their name out there. They had a lot to live up to, and prepared like crazy for it.

They posted a fantastic pair of videos on their youtube, documenting the development of their set from the first artistic thoughts to the last minute performance prep. I’d recommend them to anyone who’s gonna be dancing in a group this year, no matter where.

So without further ado, I present to you, SoReal Cru – The Home Team.

What goes down at rehearsals

Reminder, full run through vid is on the sync. Let’s rock Kaleidoscope!!