Many people have asked how I started breaking and how it led to a career,
|
Let's start off from the beginning, okay I'll admit it at first I learned breaking to get the
|
attention of girls (and yes it does work) there I was starting in Jr. high school (middle
|
school) at my school dances standing against the wall thinking Man! all the girls are in
|
the center of the floor dancing and I'm holding up this wall... there has got to be a way to
|
get over there. So I went home started practicing and practicing trying to learn everything
|
I could. At the time my older sister (who was in high school and in the"cool crowd")
|
actually was a great popper so being the younger brother I was I begged her to teach me
|
some simple popping moves. I was watching TV shows, movies, anything trying to get
|
a glimpse of a new move. Back then there wasn't breaking it was all popping locking
|
mime robot, I remember shows like "What's happening with Rerun( from the Lockers)
|
Sheilds and Yarnell( Mime show) Rod StewartsYoung Turks video( that was the first time
|
I ever saw a popper wave like that) staying up late to watch Saturday Night Live and this
|
guy called "Shabadoo" who was on there for a special(now everyone knows him by the
|
movie Breaking") and the group the "LOCKERS" and saying woah that's incredible... so
|
again back to more practicing. Needless to say all the practicing paid off, I started
|
winning dance contests at school dances, teen clubs, roller skating centers. I remember
|
the very first contest I won, I got a U2 War album (vinyl of course) then I started winning
|
money and thought VERY COOL. I was to young to work a normal job but here I was
|
making a couple of hundred dollars a contest, LIFE WAS GOOD and yes the girls came
|
to.
|
And then I reached the ripe old age of 15 and thought well I guess I should get a job
|
now. Okay don't laugh but my first job was with the golden arches yes
|
McDonald's.......Okay you can stop laughing now ;) One thing Mcdonald's teaches you
|
is there is a lot more out there in life, and at age 15 that was a good lesson. I remember
|
popping around while I was mopping the floors doing a little glide action when my
|
manager came down on me saying get to work...what do you think your doing with a
|
laugh.... I told her one day I'll get paid for doing this...she laughed it off ...guess I had the
|
last laugh... so mickey D's lasted all of 6 months.
|
Funny thing happened during that time a dance came out called BREAKING, I was blown
|
away the first time I saw someone spin on there back I was saying NOOOWAAYYY,
|
how the @%!?!...
|
You gotta understand no one had ever done something like that before ever... and to see
|
someone do that was unbelievable and then sixstepping..WOW, those moves were so
|
different then the locking moves I was used to...it was time to start practicing again.
|
I started my own group, then was in other groups and time went on, but my first
|
experience of actually working as a breakdancer came when I was in a group called HBO
|
"Home Boys Only" for those of you not from the old school let me break out the
|
dictionary, home boys is like saying close friend.. somebody you hang with. So here I
|
was under age performing at a night club now almost 16 years old thinking I'm in a club!!!
|
All my friends were trying to sneak into "adult" clubs and here I was perfroming at one. I
|
was still battling at teen clubs and entering contests but it woke me up to thinking this
|
kind of job could be a good thing. Then I was spotted by the manager of a larger
|
professional crew, working at one of the tourist attraction clubs, he was at a contest I
|
had won and asked me to audition at a try out, I couldn't imagine it then but this crew
|
would be the crew I would be in for 13 years and tour the world with and end up managing
|
while I still performed, the groups name was Night Force....
|
This started what I call my career in breaking. There I was working 3 shows a night 5-6
|
even 7 nights a week until 1 in the morning while I was still going to high school trying to
|
maintain my grades be class President, editor of the school newspaper and play on the
|
varsity soccer team ... talk about a tough routine but it was awesome, funny thing I had
|
enough credits to graduate early in my Junior year ( 2nd year in high school) but I wanted
|
to stay in school. So I took what I thought would be an easy no brainer class for my first
|
class my Senior year thinking I could sleep in and get there later... no problem right
|
...wrong... that happened to be the year they changed the attendance requirements
|
which then I almost failed my class not for my grades in the class but for attendance
|
...sleep was not an option...I even remember getting done with a soccer game that ended
|
at 8:30p.m and jumping into my car rushing to get to the show by 9:15 with no shower
|
and still wearing my cleets having 3 minutes to get into my performance gear... I would
|
be hopeing the audience wouldn't see the mud still attached to my arms from slide
|
tackling someone in the game.
|
|
