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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! ^^

Korea played Switzerland on Saturday morning for a 2 - 0 loss~! shibalseki….

I went to City Hall in central Seoul to watch the game between the game, it looked a little like this.

Pretty crowded right?

Here is an upclose shot with Chung Mi and Soong Mi..some friends I went with.

Stilt walkers supporting Korea~ There were many people waving Korean flags, singing songs, face painting…it was crazy~

The game started at 4am and it was sunrise at 4.40am…the brighter Seoul City Hall became, the darker the Korean supporters became as it the chances of scoring enough goals to get through to the next round became slimmer and slimmer. Here is a run down of their campaign…

The Korean FIFA Campaign 2006

Korea vs Togo

The first game was against Togo, which Lee Chul (below) scored the first goal for Korea to equalize 1-1. ^^

Korea moves onto win 2-1 after a rocket of a goal by Ahn Jung Hwan in the second half.

And the Korean Football Goddess smiled upon the team and blessed them~

Korea vs France

This was an exciting game, Korea, who got into the top 4 in 2002 were against France who, although the champions in 1998, left round one in 2002 without a goal. France scored first early in the match. And Korea replied with less than 10minutes to go in the game…

Park Ji Sung picked up a loose ball inside the goal area and put it up over Barthez the goalie.

A moment of uncertainty while French defender Gallas tries to tap it out…

But the very awkard lob shot is good and Ahn Jung Hwan and Park Ji Sung celebrate~

The final score is a 1-1 draw, a mighty good result for little Korea against the super soccer powerhouse of France.

Advocaat, the coach for Korea was well happy. And the Korean Football Goddess smiled upon them again.

Advocaat: I’m cool~!                       Korean Football Goddess: Korea Fighting..><

Korea vs Switzerland

In the 23min Hakan Yakin delivered an inch-perfect cross from the resulting free kick. Arsenal’s towering centre-back Senderos made no mistake. It went straighht by Lee WOon Jae the keeper. Amid the celebrations, the gritty young scorer hardly seemed to notice the streams of blood pouring down his face after colliding in mid-air with Choi Jin-Cheul. (1-0)

  <The ass who scored>

Frei finishes the job

64’: Frei, number 9, striker for the Swiss got on the end of a lightning-quick counter-attack and slammed a screamer off the upright.

KSDP wants to congratulate MC Go from NY Crew on his wedding last Saturday 17th of June ^^

He is a long time member of NY Crew alongside Jay 1 and Ra and actually, his wedding is why Project 3 was moved from June to July…

The wedding had a very special guest filming, BBoy Ducky from Drifters Crew, Korea~ check his website and clips at www.duckydance.com He was actually performing with his BeBop Crew ‘Bopster Scat.’ Check out Bopster Scat style here .

Bboy Ducky: "Usually people are filming me.."

The wedding had a lot of people come and also, many, many, many dancers from Seoul~ It was like a big party.

It was at a big wedding hall reception place and as you can see from the photo, casual dress was ok~

I think on the invite MC Go said that hats and sneakers were ok. I guess not everyone had a suit. The boogaloo dancers and lockers did though, haha.

  Like me and Yosup from Song Pa family. Man, i love his shoes! I have to get a pair. He was telling me he wants a derby hat to match it. That would be dope.

Yosup is a locker, we practice together at Ra’s Dance Studio in Song Pa…anyway, back to the wedding… the food~!

You know you’re at a Korean wedding when you see this much Kim Chi… The food at the wedding was really good, and most importanty it was buffet~! That is something dancers rarely have the money for. Thank you MC Go.

They had these kimbup (sushi) chefs there and they had to work so hard because dancers were like taking 10 pieces at a time, cuz the sushi was so mashita! (delicious)

Here is the wedding photo with his family…we took one later of the dancers and the wedding couple, but we had to take two separate shots because there were so many people in the photo. ><

Here is Mr and Mrs Go. with Ra (he went to NUS Hip Hop Nite). Why is he in casual dress I hear you ask?! In Korea, it is customary for the married couple to leave for their honeymoon on the same day as their wedding ceremony, so after the food, they were off to enjoy

their honeymoon on the island of Guam in the Pacific. awww…

About MC Go-

MC Go is on Soul City at KBS TV station in Seoul. It is a TV show for bboys~! It’s dope, they have Hong 10, Ducky, Physix, Born and other famous Korean bboys on there as regular special guests. He is also a member of dance crew "NY Crew" of which Ra and Jay 1 are members of too. 

Here is is at Club Tool on New Years Eve with Ra and Haksu also from NY Crew.

MC Go is an MC in the old school party sense, he is the host of events and gets people hyped. Actually, he is part comedian as well and people always have a good event whenever he is there to MC it.

Korea Singapore Dance Project wish you love and happiness Go, Go kapshida~!

Well, it’s going to be Jay 1s first time to Singapore and we’re all pretty excited about it here at the Korea Singapore Dance Project. We had two project teams and soloists come to Singapore this year, Ra from NY Crew entered NUS Hip Hop Nite in February and Knu Funk Crew entered Floor Skillz in March.

Project 1: Ra at NUS Hip Hop Nite:

   "Ra" from NY Crew, Seoul went to Singapore to compete at NUS Hip Hop Nite in February, it was dope~ Here is a pic of Ra about to attack some Mango Juice at National University of Singapore. By the way, we are still looking for pics of Ra at NUS, so if anybody out there has some, or has some footage, let us know.

This is a clip of him at NUS HipHop Nite http://www.youtube.com/watchv=UVns8Pa0BKM

Project 2: Knu Funk Crew enter Floor Skillz

Knu Funk Crew are a bboy team from Seoul and it was actually their first time out of Korea~! Everyone except for Door, he went to China last year (centre back). They were excited just to be on a plane, haha.

^^            

Here is a video clip of their crew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12C88egZJfA

Project 3: Jay 1 Hip Hop workshops in Singapore

So this time around, because so many people asked us to teach workshops the last two times we were here, we thought we would run some Hip Hop, Popping and House classes throughout July.

So all of y’all who asked us to teach them dancing better come to this event ok?~ It’s even FREE~! Brought to you by Korea Singapore Dance Project and Youthopia aite?

What: Floor The Love, free Hip Hop, Poppin and House workshop

Where: Youth Park, Orchard Rd

When: Friday July 7th, 6pm

Who: taught by Jay 1, freestyle Hip Hop dancer from NY Crew, Seoul (same crew  as Ra from NUS Hip Hop Nite). He is a backdancer for Hyori and also freestyle battles in Seoul.

                                                                       Why: because we love Sg dancers ^^

This was taken at the photo shoot for Hyori’s video "Get Ya"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIAmJMqD6ow

Up there is a freestyle clip for Jay 1….

….and here is a clip of Jay 1 in the Hyori music video "Get Ya": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7hMFYVHWNM&e

And a clip of him performing wiht Hyori live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruGY_wa1b5Q

We are also running workshops throughout July at Dance on Us in the city (these ones are not free, but they don’t cost that much) near Far East Shopping Centre. it’s going to be dope, Hip Hop, Popping and for the first time (to our knowledge) House workshops in Singapore. Its $30 a class, $72 for 3 classes or $190 for 9 classes. Each class is 1.5 hrs and is either HipHop/Popping or HipHop/House.

You can find information at www.aznbboy.net/streetdance

So yeah, if you want to do something different on July 7th, come on down to *scape Youth Park, the  people that support you in urban creation relations ^^

It’s free on July 7th, we doing it floor the love…..hope to see you there~~

Korea rocked Togo 2- 1!!!! Anh Jung Hwan and Chul LEe scored for the victory~!!

DAE HAN MIN GU!!@@@!!!!

WE are so happy, lets be happy together~!

Korea Singapore Dance Project~~

I was in Singapore this week from May 22nd to May 25th on the way back to Korea from Indonesia and man it was dope. But reaally busy, meeting up with all these dance studios for Project 3 (now pushed back to July) collaborations.

I only  managed to have one good day of dancing in and that was when I met up with Prince Jack (who was 2 HOURS LATE) at Esplanade. We practiced locking and I showed him some simple house steps before I headed over to somewhere where i wanted to go for a loooong time….NRA at Ngee Ann Ploy!

Ngee Ann Poly is damn difficult to get to, haha. Xian Yan, if you are reading this, you should have picked me up at Clementi! ^^ just joking….

NRA’s studio is really ‘heng. I learnt that word from Xian Yan. There were 3 classes back to back and so we hung around outside the studio practicing while they were waiting for the classes. I gave Xian Yan a copy of Street Jam Korea 2005, Who is the Best of Pop Lock and Wrecking Crew Orchestra Japan. I hope Edison stops hassling me for videos over msn for a few weeks at least. Although I doubt it.

It was nice to see those Ngee Ann dancers again, we first met in Perth only for one day last year, but they left a good impression on me, very enthusiastic and willing to learn. I would really like to see your production in Oct/Nov, but I probably won’t be able to make it. Send me the clips ok?

After Ngee Ann my brother (who was there with me) and I took a taxi back to Esplanade for more practice. I met up with a lot of the old bboys I first met in 2002, Aaron from Fuyo, Felix from Radical Force, Norbin and Jarel from FTC, haha, even mofo Greg from Break the Rhythm Crew i met waaay back in 2001! It’s nice to see dance family again ^^

I also met Qing from D’Couture Crew. Previously, we had only talked on msn and friendster. Her crew is really young and keen to learn. One of the girls asked Qing if I could teach them some steps in Mandarin, but she didn’t know that I studied Mandarin at University, so I can understand a little (side note, I dropped out of that class after 3 semesters, haha). I spent most of the night teaching them foundation locking steps, wrist roll, uncle sam point, lock, stop and go, scooby doo, scooby hop, claps and ‘character development.’

It’s good to see people want to learn more about the history and context of the dance. It is important, it makes you a better dancer, strange as it sounds, it really does. I gave them a copy of my DVDs, I hope they learn from them well.

Wendy and Dong Mei sent me back home in a taxi (they even paid for it, it was so nice of them). DCC gave me real insight into how Singapore might be able to elevate itself in the future. They were keen to learn, curious, respectful to old times like me, enthusiastic and most of all, they had love.  I hope I get the chance to dance with them again in the future. Next time, i will pay for the taxi fare ok guys?

L o v e .

What is Love? Why is it important to the KSDP?

Love is very important in dancing. It is hard to explain, but trust me, it is. You have to have love. If you dance without it, it’s really obvious. And if you dance with it, that really shows too. But it’s not just to love your dance, it’s to love your dance history and your culture.

There is a nation out there that I want you to be a part of. It spans the globe, it has no army, it has no government, it has no borders. All it has is rhythm. And style.  And love.

Damn, love is important. I wish I knew more words in English so I could express what i want to say~~~

There are………many dancers out there around the world. And we are connected through appreciation of dance culture. And I’m not talking about MTV dancing. This distinction is very important. You need Foundation. You need Knowledge. That is important too. Next to love, those are the two most important things.

Foundation. Knowledge. Love.

Foundation is knowing the basic elements to the dances you are teaching. Learn the history of the dance movements, who named it, why did they name it that, where did it come from. Did you know that "locking" was invented by Don Campbell in a school cafeteria by accident? Not the music video glam profile some people may want, but them is the roots. He was trying to do the funky chicken and he couldn’t do it. He kep "locking" his arms and his friends said "Hey Campbell! Do that funky lock!"

Knowledge. A dancer needs music. It is like air. It takes time to study. A house dancer has to "loft" and "jack" to the snare of a drumkit where hip hop dancers "jack" to the kickdrum. You have to know the differences between what a snare and kickdrum sound like. Also, you have to know the difference between House jacking and Hip Hop jacking. And you have to listen to a large variety of music from 70s funk and disco to 90s new jack swing to 2000 new hip hop beats. You should memorize songs too, so you can freestyle better. Look at Hong 10 in BOTY 2003 when "Me and Baby Brother" by Wat was playing. He killed the beats.

And then you have Love. So what is Love? This is the hardest one of all, so I’m not even going to try. But we know it’s in Singapore because we saw love at NUS. And Singapore dancers have love, for real~! You better believe it.

And so with that, the KSDP invite you to "Floor The Love" from 7.30pm, March 16th at Youth Park. It’s a pun on "for the love," which means "free-ain’t-cost-nothing" which is exactly how much it costs~~~ ^^

Actually it cost us a lot to fly a team down to sg to compete in Floor Skillz which is on that weekend in Cineleisure and we COULD have charged money for workshops around Sg because we were asked by a lot of people after NUS, but we said no; we turned down every dance school that asked us, requests for private lessons for people’s crews… we were doing this one for free for Singaporean streetdancers.

For Foundation.

For Knowledge.

For Love.

I hope to see you guys there, let’s dance together.

One dance family worldwide…^^

Korea Singapore Dance Project 2006

NUS Hip Hop Nite was on Saturday March 4th at NUS. "Ra" from G-Tribute crew in Seoul / KSDP entered in the solo category with a 45sec showcase to "Blockbuster" by Rhythm Heritage. Round one is on the profile page now ^^ Thanks to the audience for putting him through. We love NUS.

In Round two, the freestyle round, contestants had to roll dice to see what song they had to freestyle to. Ra rolled some funny choices, but got through~~~the audience chose a song from the Chicken Little soundtrack. Wow..

The next song was hip hop and that went ok, so into round three…

In Round three, the choreo round, KSDP got knocked out. Ah, shibal. It was a fun experience though…we don’t have such fun formats in Korea.

If anyone has any pics, can u let us see at the KSDP friendster? Kamsamhamidda!

We’ll see you in the next battle~~~

18th Feb 2006

Locking vs House 10,000 won (about $16 SGD) battle at Song Pa Dance Studio! It is known to have mixed styles competitions and they are pretty damn money (’money’ means good). On the site is footage of Popping vs Hip Hop which took place in January which has G-Haksu (Hip HOp) vs Monster Woo (Popping) in the finals.

Anywhoo..quick history review…What is Locking? Locking, very briefly is a dance style that originated with a man known as Don Campbell circa 1970 in California. It is done to Funk, Soul, Disco and whose fundamental steps include the "lock," "uncle sam point" and "wrist roll." Dancers in this style adopt a kind of ‘locking’ presonality and appear to be very happy when dancing and smile a lot. Seriously!For more info go to Wikipedia, its surprisingly accurate.

And..what is House? House is a style of dance done to House music, one of the genres of electronica. Some fundamental movements include "jacking," "loose leg" and "lofting." It is more so than other types of dances i think, a continual movement, they never pause in a House set…always moving their entire bodies in one way or another. Go to www.housedancer.com for more background.

So the competition is open to all Lockers and House dancers and maybe 70 people came to the studio for the event with about 14 entries for locking and 16 for house. The finalists of the two categories meet for the "Lock vs House" battle. There was a 3 way for the Lockers in the second round.

I got knocked out in the first round for the Lockers division, but it was to a guy who got into the finals, so THAT’S OK! ~~^^ Here are some pics, i’ll have some footage up in a week or so.

Peace!

Chris