Freestyle Fridays
Words by Alan Ng & Jenkin Au
Photography by Jarvis Ho
On October 2nd, the justalilhype! crew went to the Oakridge Auditorium. As we approached the Auditorium, the hip hop music was flowing into the dark and eerie side hallway. But as we opened the doors to the auditorium what we saw was quite different.The Oakridge Auditorium was home to the first Freestyle Friday. The intention of this was to provide youth and other dancers a place to groove, pop, break and lock on a Friday night. With this in mind, organizers proceeded to making a successful event.The justalilhype! Crew was impressed to see people of all ages there. BBoys and BGirls of all ages and races were present at this event. The stage was arranged with chairs surrounding circle. The audience included family and friends of the dancers on stage. The emcee hyped up the crowd in giving shout outs to these junior BBoys and BGirls. The gym floor soon filled up with many different people, and was very interested in observing the talent of these young ones. Even established dancers like Groovy G’s showed up, stripped down to casual wear to show their support to the dancing community of Vancouver. Jheric Hizon, one of Vancouver’s leaders in the bboy / hip hop community, together with Anita Perel-Panar of A Star Studio, are the prime organizers of this event.
Throughout the crowd of young ones, we were fortunate to have a chance to interview Nathan, a nine year old BBoy that has demonstrated us his slick moves throughout his battles on this grand opening night of Freestyle Friday.
Hi, what’s your name?
Nathan!
Hi Nathan! How long have you been bboying for?
Since I was three years old.
Cool! What inspired you to start dancing?
One day, I was watching T.V. and I flipped to channel 24. I saw these people doing headspins so I tried doing them and then I got inspired.
How long do you practice per day, or per week?
I practice every day for two hours.
Wow! Who are some of your favourite breakers or dance crews?
N.O.N. (Now Or Never).
What is your most favourite thing about breaking?
It’s really cool and it’s just fun.
What are some coolest things about Freestyle Fridays?
Well this is the first Freestyle Friday. It’s just fun becuase there are kids that I know so I can just battle with them.
In the future, what do you want to become?
A break dancer!