Navigate: Home | Features | Beatboxing | Funkstyles | Hip Hop Theatre | Waacking | Calendar | About | Contact
Love street dance?
Please click the ‘like’ button to add us on Facebook
We’ll keep you up to date with the latest news and features
Visit the new TooMuchFlavour site site for the latest features -
Breakin’ Convention 2009 - Future Elements and Film Night
Even before the main event, conventions were broken.
Words: David Barros
Future Elements on Thursday was the night when kids "ran tings" with a line up of dance performances from young dancers and a showing of the Juicy Skank music video to an audience in the Lilian Baylis theatre to showcase future talent, followed by an after party in the cafe.
If "Juicy Skank" sounds like something rude to you, it's time to redefine what the two words mean in the context of the Future Elements night prior to Breakin' Convention: Juicy Skank is the name of a bright coloured fruity drink that makes you "skank out" (dance wildly) sharing the same name as the music video produced especially for Breakin' Convention, a BC first.
The song was written and choreographed by the kids, and the video put together in five days in time for its debut on Thursday night. Around the Lilian Baylis lobby there were also pieces of aerosol art hanging on the walls which were used in the video, contributed by the Future Elements team.
Hip hop legends were in the house for the film night on Friday. With the showing of the Urban Music Pilot Project documentary with DJ Pogo and the premiere of Ken Swift's documentary The Rock, it was no surprise to find yourself eating across the table from Salah or passing one of the rockers from VII Gems at the bar.
DJ Pogo's film by the British Council followed his travels to Cuba to do DJ workshops and meet local musicians to create an original piece of music in a short time, which has since seen him move out to Brazil to build the infrastructure of hip hop. Although it told the story, it wasn't going to win prizes for its grainy production.
The Rock was a documentary by the VII Gems to explore the origins of the original rock dance that originated in New York in the 1970s. Set in the Brooklyn Sole club, it was the inspiration behind Ken Swift forming the VII Gems Rock Dance Division to learn about the dance that preceded breaking, and the background story to their piece performed at Breaking Convention.
To anyone with no knowledge of breaking, the entire film would be complete jargon,
but for b-
Being pioneers of breaking, the film followed them as they spread the word around the American continent to shows and battles, which shed light on what rock battles are like.
After the screenings the audience was given the opportunity to pose questions to
DJ Pogo and the VII Gems about the documentaries. Hosted by Jonzi D it was conducted
much like his Hip Hop Surgeries. For a moment the cross examination almost stopped
when Mr Loose caught Jonzi out with his hard-
Brooklyn bites
Hastily written down Q&A extracts, answered for you in 30 seconds...
Why were the VII Gems formed?
Each of the VII Gems have their own story, and that's their message, they've come together to give their answers.
What are the differences between "rocking," "downrocking" and "rocking?"
You gotta dance the whole story and hit every bit of the song to make a story
Why is it called "rocking?"
That's what it was called in the 70s.
Jonzi’s video Diary for Future Elements and The Rock film night:
Future Elements night
The Rock film night
Watch and read the rest of the Breakin’ Convention 2009 entries on our Jonzi’s Diary page >>