Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles They call me Bboy Abstrak, thats A-B-S-T-R-A-K. that stands for able-bodied style trooper with rapid agility and knowledge there's a lot of layers to my background just like anybody else I'm really deep into martial arts last have been for the last seven years I am also into a lot of videography and filmmaking so I'm hoping to actually I'm I'm gonna really be releasing a lot of different things throughout the the months and years of passion projects that I have coming out other than that you know I mean I'm originally from New York Brooklyn New York and I was raised in Manhattan, lived in the Bronx for a little bit and from there in 1994 I moved to Florida and not until like '95 I didn't start really breaking you know I used to just go to these clubs and just freestyle dance against people and I wound up battling some guy in 1994 he was doing windmills and ever since then I actually have non-stop breaking and I actually got in some breaking because of a talent show in my school and I met this guy from California which is my Ryan Gonzalez he got me into breaking and uh ever since then I haven't turned back but before that you know my freestyle dancing was actually inspired by my boy from Connecticut him and his brother Janou and T, they were emcees but there also were hip-hop dancers and before breaking that's what I was doing I was dancing to Hip Hop and I was dancing to techno house and a little bit of house so that's my little brief history on that I think anyone around me, my little circle you know. From Ryan Gonzalez to my boys Janou and T, to my crew just seeing them from scratch just looking you know all of us everybody looks wack when they first started dancing you know and then they progressed to greater things if they keep pushing it so they're my biggest inspiration even up until this day and then beyond that was always you know like Ken Swift & Storm and Mauritzio, quickstep to name a few even rivalries were and that biggest influence because it would help me you know reinvent myself you know to be better it's difficult because you know the crew is not that together you know there's been a time a period of time that we kind of disappeared and um there's a period of time that we disappeared and you know we just recently started staying close together you know staying in touch so it hasn't been you know what people you know outside that circle think that it is you know it's it's uh it's basically like a family like you know there's difficulties and families all the time and you have to rekindle those relationships if you can the crew always tries to stay connected you know especially up until recently you know really it's ironic because before, if you know who MexOne is before MexOne passed away we were starting to connect with each other and when that day happened I really reached out you know to them, " look man we need to really connect with each other forgive each other as much as we can for whatever reason that we don't speak to each other so ever since then you know we are on a little Instagram chat group and we just send each other funny stuff and just try to keep each other entertained you know and know that you know we're there for each other no matter what no matter how far Even if it's through a text I know sometimes a text is impersonal but it's better than nothing and some members we haven't spoken in years so it's very hard to keep a crew together you know especially when it's like a family I've been dancing for 23 years so that's basically training for 23 years that's the way I see it so even if I don't get to practice you know I have a sense of movement and muscle memory but you know certain movement might not be as sharp but how did I sustain myself? Well I mean it's been a difficult last couple of years or five years you know you're kind of like, after a while you kind of lose, sometimes you might, you know you lose the desire the motivation to keep going. You question why are you doing this? So there's a lot of times where I question why am I doing it but ultimately I never turn my back on the dance you know. I'll tell you if anything I'll turn my back on a scene and that means you know just I don't have to go to a jam all the time you know. Even if I'm in my living room I'm still dancing it's part of my life is my lifestyle you know I'm saying I'm not you know it's not like I'm in a club and meaning like a set team club that I have to go to every now and then and you know perform this character because you know as corny as it sounds breaking is a lifestyle you know I'm saying it's you it's my life it always in my life it was my career for 12 years so whether people see me dancing or not and if you know depending, you know no matter how much time I put into the dance I'm still dancing you know, my meditation and I love it and it's what's created the artist in me you know from dance is what I have discovered many other talents you know it was a for dance I wouldn't have the desire to film you know I wouldn't have the love for movement, for doing martial arts even though one as a kid I did martial arts. Even as asked as a kid I did break. You. know And I stopped and I went back to it. You know because ultimately movement is what I love, I love movement and where it can take you know. How you can you know, redefine physics in a way. India overall was amazing. I mean, its like the guys- All For One, the guys that I met. they're like I mean I have so much love for those guys and I've met so many people throughout the years but there's something about them that's so genuine and they're just like my other brothers from the other side of the world you know and I still keep in contact with them you know I'm still in touch with them I want that bond to continue because it's times where I'll stay connected with some people for like a week after I leave there's their continent, their country and then that's it you know. But with those guys I don't know I have like a strong I feel a strong bond with them so Original Street Dance, the event and just the people was amazing you know I don't know it was just a different experience that just like in anything for you do it to know what it's like you have to experience it just like breaking like for people to that are looking outside in you know that don't understand what breaking is they would have the experience it's who actually understand it in their form. So India by far one of the best places I've been to and I just can't wait to go back I'm supposed to go back so it was definitely a beautiful experience and I want to continue that experience for years to come I did connect with a lot of the b-boys in India during the workshop after the workshop. That's always my intention when I go to these events. I want to connect with people in a personal level philosophical level just to see how they think. Not just me expressing how my philosophy of dancing is interpreted but I want to hear their voice as well you know there's so many other, there's so many people out there that have, you know their philosophy might you know influence mine. I always look to connect with anyone in any country that I go to and I did interact with a lot of the b-boys on a personal level dancing and spiritually, so yeah it was amazing. I wish I could have documented that but I actually documented A.F.O. you know, All For One Crew. I'm actually working on this project it's called momentum and one of the first one of the features is India and one of the first features is going to be Josh, incredible Josh from my crew. But I'll probably talk more about that later for me like I always say anywhere that I go you're always gonna have a handful of b-boys that are really dope and you're gonna have a handful of people b-boys that are, you know they're gonna be dope so I think it's like that everywhere you know and everywhere has their own foundation. Sometimes you can kind of tell when India I just see the happiness and the passion that they have in there you know. What stood out? what stood out was the person in the b-boy and that's what my the project that I'm doing is actually about you know it's the person within. You know some people's like oh so you know when you kind of like film an artist or any type of artist it's always like all the artists within the person but now like I want to flip that there for me what stands out is the person in the artist you see what I'm saying that means a lot to me so I think I think b-boys in India are just as good and great as any other b-boy in any other country Foundation versus blow-ups. I think that balance is Yin and Yang. Look Yin and Yang. I think it's needed you got you know I'm saying whether you want to look it like that or not you know. Blowups, foundation, there's foundation in blow ups as well, so it's it depends on what you like you know, the you know Everybody shouldn't dance the same anyways see what I'm saying, but my my my philosophy has always been, what if your foundation is your blow up? You know you don't have these blow up sets for me that's how I've seen my breaking the way I break, I feel like my foundation is my blow up you know well that whatever angle I hit, how I do it, direction, that's my blow up. So I don't hate on any dancer on what they do, I respec t every dancer on what they do as long as they got you know their intention is correct and what I mean about correct, like it's not they're not just a-holes about it you know I'm saying cuz you could be the nastiest dancer but if your intentions are wrong and just bad then you're just not a good person overall and I don't even care to be around you but um you know blow-ups I mean it's necessary you know. Its a great way to win battles. Like let's say if you have foundation and blow ups you know you don't have to use an entire set even if it's freestyle to win a battle. You could just go in and do like two or three blow ups and save your moves or your your rounds for another battle if that makes any sense. so I mean if people are not dancing it's okay because they will acknowledge that they need to dance eventually and what's happening now is what happened in the past you know we would go against as far as my crew or anybody from Florida will go against other people and weren't really dancing didn't get it and then years later along the line they started dancing and I'm implementing dance within their blow-ups and they just look phenomenal now like even if they're all school like they just look at all so eventually people will catch on it's always like that you know it's like they say history repeats itself. so you know just obviously just like anybody would say just work on your fundamentals dissect the music to to its core. You know you have different tracks, different sounds what they call stems in a track if the track has let's say one track has five stems that means that there has a melody, it has a drum, it has a bass line, you know it might have vocals and then it has a it can have percussion which I said drums already ready but anyways you get the idea you know break that down that's what I used to do it just break down music and you can go to different tempos because people think about worry about like a song being too fast or song being too slow even a slow song there is a even if you don't hear the tempo you can create the tempo so if you have a slow song and you have the idea like oh maybe yeah what's the fast part of that song and it could be the hi-hat that's not even there or if there is I hat right you can double that in your in your mind and you're still gonna be on beat so think about it like that you know I think that everyone's job as a dancer in anything in any form of art everyone should you know tap into the foundation let's say you know you have these blow-ups but you don't have like just a simple fundamental of how to play it off when you mess up something simple is a corkscrew something simple as a little freeze you know it doesn't mean that I wouldn't consider somebody a big way it's just people should learn how to dissect dance and music in general foundation is also what you create you know whatever artist creates their style that's their foundation you know so there's different ways of looking at foundation and to think oh but I want to be different everything has been done everything mostly everything has been done with the exception of like crazy movement but you know if it wasn't for a specific foundation of those crazy moves they wouldn't get to that level right so foundation is very important you know if foundation is like I said it's not just like top rock and freezes and it's it's the it's the simple basic tool or move to get you to the next level for that blow up whatever that is if it's a blowup The only advice I have I mean it depends on what you want to know you know some people ask me "What do you think I should work on?" so I ask them "Where do you want to be? how how skillful do you want to be? As far as what level what exactly do you want to be efficient at what exact what kind of movement do you want to master then you master those moves but also don't forget the fundamentals and it doesn't you know you don't have to do those fundamentals those fundamentals are there for you to break fall from. That means when you're in the middle of some crazy move and you're messing up You will adapt and you will flow into that basic move naturally it's just muscle memory those foundational moves are there for recovery for me that is the most important foundation is recovery. How do you recover from a mess up? How do you recover from a move? That's foundation. That is the most important foundation- recovery. So think about that. My advice my other any other advice set goals set goals so that goes for life set goals from movement, set goals for combinations now I would do that you know for my first year breaking I'm like I wanted this I mean I wanted this second year I should be having this third year breaking I should have you know back then obviously it was a little harder to learn because there's no videos if there were videos it was like VHS but you know I think my second or third year of breaking, I was like "I must have flare-90, you know. And I got it, I just worked at it you know, there's, work on different techniques that will build your muscle for that you know it doesn't necessarily it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to practice the breaking movement you know. It can be like a strength movement for instance like I think dancers should train like athletes because then you're gonna feel the pain later in life you know. That means the way you eat, the way you train, right don't just throw your something start trying to move you know stretch into it a lot of strength movement I think will help how you eat definitely will help and I I'm talking from experience because I never did those things and I was younger the only thing that I did do was actually try to train like an athlete I will go to the gym and lift some weights and then I would try to break so I could tire myself out so then if I am tired and I can create and I can actually do perform moves then imagine when I wasn't tired right? In the heat in a moment so you know try to create different methods for yourself of of training always always have different methods so some people were like oh I can't practice today because I'm not feeling it. Well those days that you're not feeling it like this mm-hmm your practice probably let me say should but I probably should consist of different methods right like I said so you know you have methods of just freestyling you just wanna you don't you don't want to practice like you don't want to feel like a machine so you just practice briefly so you have freestyle practices and then you have fundamental practices then you have you know I I don't you know what I'll call it but you have practices for just drills. Drill practices right, so my drill practice would consist of one move continuously like if you practice it like first as an example would be a windmill so you do with ten windmills you're gonna do five sets you can do fifty windmills. So you do five sets of ten so you do ten windmills, you stop, rest, you know jumping jacks whatever go into the next ten. So do drills like that for any type of movement if you can I think that's the next I would you know I would give Its Its for anyone not just for India. One more thing. I don't know if I mentioned it you know foundation or just dancing to music you know think of those waves and different tempos. So your breaking should be different tempos not just one tempo all the time
A2 US dancing breaking blow movement crew ups Interview- Bboy Abstrak, Skillmethodz Crew 24 0 Galil posted on 2019/06/23 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary