Break Dance Beginnings
It started back in middle school, when i first saw some other guys break dancing. As soon as i saw what they were doing I knew i was going to be hooked! I would practice before wrestling workouts, on the weekends, and my parents even bought me some break dance tutorial videos on VHS. I fell in love with the whole bboy culture of graffiti, dress, and of course  break dancing!
When YouTube came out i would spend hours watching the craziest break dancers on the planet. While watching all of these videos i found out about BOTY (Battle Of The Year) which is the annual international break dance crew battle. This is like the Olympics for break dancers, because each country can only let one crew represent them. So it’s always been my goal to attend BOTY!
Going To The BOTY USA Qualifier
As luck would have it, I was going to be in CA the same weekend that the USA BOTY qualifier was in LA. It was right off of the famous Hollywood Blvd. We showed up and it was a surprising small venue so we were able to get up really close to the action. As we huddled around the main circle, listening to the music, bass buzzing my pants, it was so surreal that i kept waiting for someone to pinch and wake me up.
When we got there they were in the middle of the 2 vs 2Â competition. They had people from all over the world there competing. Bboy and Bgirls from France, Russia, Asia, and South America all with one passion in common, break dancing! After the 2 vs 2 crews were done they had free for all circles opened up. It was fun to see so many different styles and moves of breakers. As each person came and went it just made me want to go more and more, but i didn’t.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7X7xstvcnE]
Next  they had the Crew competition, to see who gets to represent the USA in the BOTY competition in France later this year.  This was really cool because they were actually choreographed routines, which was a lot different from the 2 vs 2 battles. The crew that took the competition and is going to represent the USA is Battle Born they are the 3rd team in the video.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWIHDRtJGiU]
Bucket List Success – “Bust A Move At BOTY”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuDcS_Jp5rk]
After the Crew Battles, the free for all circles opened up again, and I decided that I wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass again for me to jump into the main circle. I headed my way over there and got into the front of the crowd. I didn’t have any time to stretch, practice, or even really plan what moves i was going to do. I kept waiting to go in, but the same kids kept jumping in doing the same moves over and over again. Finally i was able to jump in and do a few moves. I was rusty to say the least, but I got not only accomplish my goal of going to a BOTY event but also to leave my mark on it.
Leave a Reply