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Korea Singapore Dance Project launched Project 3 yesterday at Youth Park with Ji Won from Seoul in another ‘Floor The Love’ session. For you guys that don’t know, KSDP and Youth Park *Scape collaborate on a free workshop and dance session series called ‘Floor The Love,’ whenever a Korean member of KSDP comes down.

This time we have Ji Won, member of NY Crew in Seoul (same crew as Ra who came down to NUS Hip Hop Nite) in Singapore for the month of July and we are started Project 3 off at Youth Park with Floor The Love 2 on Friday July 7th. Jeaah..^^

Korea Singapore Dance Project is founded as you know from reading the blog (…… ^^ ) on Foundation, Knowledge and Love. Have a look at our previous entry if you haven’t checked it out yet (I Want to Talk to You About Love..). So, Ji Won began the workshop with a history lesson on Street Dance. He explained briefly the origins and history of Popping, Locking, House, Hip Hop, Be Bop, Salsa and Bboy. We even had a whiteboard~ kekekeke

Ji Won explains the history and origins of different Street Dances at Floor The Love 2 at Youth Park, July 7th.

The workshop session began with Popping. Popping is the tensing and relaxing of muscles in the arms, legs and areas around the joints to the music (typically Funk / Soul from the 70s). Popping originated in the greater LA area in California around the 1970s with people like the pioneers Popping Pete, Boogaloo Sam, Suga Pop from Electric Boogaloos.

Here Ji Won is showing the ‘Fresno,’ a foundation movement that one has to start with in the study of Popping.

Hip Hop was covered too and just to clarify, it is NOT the type of dance you see in MTV videos. That kind of style is more like Street Jazz most of the time. With Hip Hop, fundamental techniques you should know are ‘Jacking’ and ‘Bouncing,’ which give you a kind of rhythm and timing that you need for Hip Hop. Timing is very important…

House was done as well and to briefly give a synopsis of House Culture and Dancing, House dancing originated in the club scene of New York in the 1980s and draws from a lot of influences such as Disco, African, Tap, Salsa, Be Bop, Hip Hop, Jazz…..It has a series of foundation movements that must be learnt too, such as ‘Lofting’ and ‘Loose Leg.’ It is a very graceful dance, with a lot of focus on rhythm and continous movement. It was the first house dance class in Singapore..if not, most definitely the first free one. keke.

Ji Won covering basic House techniques at Youth Park,                               Floor the Love 2, July 7th 2006

Korea Singapore Dance Project runs a different kind of workshop..we like participants to learn about the nature and foundation of Streetdance styles along with good technique and no MTV stuff. That’s why we have whiteboards and not a neck full of fake bling. ^^

KSDP Family photo:

Front Row: Ji Won, (NY Crew, Seoul)

Back Row: Ivy (Da Couture Crew, Singapore), Yan Ling (DCC, Singapore), Hamidah (Youth Park *Scape), Qing (DCC, Singapore), Angel (KSDP Singapore Co-Ordinator), Wendy (DCC) and Dong Mei (DCC)

Korea Singapore Dance Project is a combination of dancers from Singapore and Seoul, with Inertia Bboys (Sg,) Da Couture Crew (Sg), Knu Funk Bboys (Seoul), Ra and Ji Won  (NY Crew, Seoul) Royalty Lockers (Seoul) and Skillet from aznbboy communities (Sg). I (Chris, Royalty Lockers, Seoul) want to thank especially the newest members of KSDP, Da Couture Crew Singapore for pulling together for Project 3 and helping out with the Floor The Love session. ^^

Let’s dance together again soon…

For all you Sg dancers, KSDP is running Hip Hop, Popping and House classes all throughout July from Fri-Sat. Details are at www.aznbboy.net/streetdance or hit me up at this blog. Try a different kind of class, learn some foundation and knowledge ^^

A big shout out again to Hamidah from Youth Park for supporting the Dance Scene in Singapore~

Peace~!

Chris aka Monkeyking, Royalty Lockers - Seoul.

Elite Force Crew’s Terry came to Seoul last week to judge "Battle Houz," a freestyle dance competition in Hong Dae. A brief bio of Elite Force Crew, they have been together since the 90s and have choreod ‘Remember the Time’ for Michael Jackson, ‘Dreamlover’ for Mariah Carey, ‘MIB’ for Will Smith and a whole lot of other good stuff. See www.eliteforcecrew.com for on them.

"Battle Houz" was held at Club V and is an open style dance comp (poppin, lockin, house, hip hop…) done to House music~! Crazy format, but it was ill.

Ji Won (in bluie) got the job of hanging out next to the scoreboard and writing the winners name down. The turnout at Club V was maybe 120 people from various dance clubs and crews around Seoul. Entrants included Cyborg G members, NY Crew members, Korea Singapore Dance Project members, Funk in the Heart members…a real collection of the best in Korea actually. It was MAD.

Here is a shot of the Korea Singapore Dance Project members there..

Project 1: Ra (in centre. he entered the comp and came 2nd~! He came to Singapore for NUS Hp Hop Nite in February)

Project 2: Knu Funk Bboy Crew (Chelsea on the left, he and his crew came to Singapore for Floor Skillz Bboy Comp in March)

Project 3: Jay1 (on the right,he is coming to Singapore in July to teach Hip Hop lessons starting this Saturday~!)

I was really happy to meet Terry, that is why i am smiling so much…^^

Terry with some Song Pa family dancers. He looks pretty impressed. ^^

"Brooklyn" Terry Wright, is a House and Hip Hop dancer in Elite Force Crew. His technique and innovation is simply amazing. Peep his Singapore Dedication Clip on the KSDP friendster, or better yet, check out his You tube clips at datdanzkid on You Tube.

I was talking to him about dance and hip hop the next day at Ra’s Studio (where i took a workshop in House from him) and he was dropping some pretty insightful knowledge. We made some loose plans to collaborate one day in Singapore…^^

I will post up some Battle Footage when I get it of the event.

Btw, only 6 days left until Floor The Love at Youth Park and Ji Won comes to Singapore~! Aren’t you guys excited…we are! ^^