THE PIONEERS: JONZI SPEAKS

Checking out the international battle scene can be a bittersweet experience. The UK B-Boy Championships and B.O.T.Y in Germany are part of my annual Hip Hop event calendar. Observing the sickest new moves and new crews from around the planet b boy is always sweet. But the bitter aftertaste is the lack of UK representation within the upper echelons of world b boyism.

I remember in the early eighties how dancers from Denmark to Japan would travel to London for inspiration. Old school crews in the first wave of UK Hip Hop like London All Star Breakers, Danny Francis, Dolby D, and jazz funk dancers like Jerry IDJ were well known and highly rated outside of the UK. Then around 1985/86 the scene changed. In came acid house. Breakin' just wasn't cool anymore. Original Hip Hop went 'out of fashion'.

Since Second 2 None, the UK hasn't come close to producing a world winning b-boy crew. What happened??

Meanwhile, I'm exploring ways to make things better...

The Pioneers program of teacher training courses seeks to address this problem. Many countries including France, Germany, Japan etc have had Suga Pop, Popin Pete and Ken Swift fly out to teach master classes for over 10 years.

Not many dance forms exist that can boast living pioneers, let alone ones that are still performing and teaching.

The degree of separation between original foundation teachings, and that fearless 13 year old in Stratford, will be greatly reduced.

The goal of this course is to equip teachers with practical skills to help pass on the knowledge to the wider UK street dance community.

I know we can't change the game in 3 weeks, but this is just the beginning...

Peace



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