The Dead Beat Ninjas are a dance crew that can dance to any song. There are eight of them and from left to right: Avery, Corey, Matt (above), Anthony (below), Miles (in Japan jacket), Paul, Marvic and Derrick (missing). They are one of the goofiest dance crews around! From talking about how they all met up to dance theories, check out their story and see how they got to where they are today.

What style of dance do you guys do?

As a crew, we specialize in breaking.

Corey: We kind of do our performances to mainstream songs and things that other people have heard of and things that they can relate to rather than a random break-beat or something no one knows. We kind of want the crowd to be comfortable and just happier to hear and see what they’re hearing and seeing.

Anthony: We use songs that that they can connect better with us, but because we do use more mainstream things, we try to do what the song is making us feel. We do what we FEEL! We try to do what other people tell us to do as well, and we try to put character into it.

What are your favorites artists that you guys like to dance to?

Everyone: JT (Justin Timberlake)! Anyone that can throw a good beat.

Anthony: And MJ

Corey: Michelle Branch?
(everyone laughs)

How did you guys start up?

Corey: Matt and I, we met the first day in high school, high five, and about grade 10 or 11, we met Avery, and we started practicing-

Avery: The first day you met me you gave me the middle finger!

Corey: We also met Derek and he started up with us, and then we met Anthony, and then pretty much we just started dancing together.

Matt: Wait wait, I met Miles when I was ten and he asked me to trade my Charizard for like an element card, what the hell!

Corey: Derek couldn’t make it, but he’s been dancing with us for about the same amount of time, since we started up, and then Anthony brought up Paul. After that people just came in and just started up.

What is the concept behind Deadbeat Ninjas?

Corey: We were on MSN (MSN Messenger) and we were like, “we need a name. I like ‘deadbeat’”, but after that, we needed another word because it would have just been retarted. Matt and I just kept brainstorming and then Matt added ninjas because we all liked ninjas and the rest of the group liked it. It kind of just stuck after that and that’s pretty much it.

Matt: No man, there’s more to it than that. Remember how we were talking about after high school, we all just got lazy and just became deadbeat?

Corey: Yea, that’s why I like the word!

Anthony: I remember we took beats and after we used them, they became dead, so they were dead BEATS.

Photography by: Jarvis Ho

What sets you guys apart from other dance crews?

Miles: We can perform to any song, man. We can pick any random ass song and just create a whole choreo (choreography) to it and just make it our style.

Anthony: I think we’re just goofy.

Matt: We’re more about the audience and play with them more.

Corey: A lot of people just bring the hip hop to the table, but we bring something more, something that the audience can get into and just feel. We want the audience to have a good time not just by watching us, but being with us.

Paul: I think we also want to see that friendship that we have too, I mean, we’re tight!

Would you like to see more people to the team, less people, or is it just right?

Anthony: We’re not a crew that goes out and scouts out for people. I mean, there hasn’t been any additions to the team since Marvic. This is because we’re all great friends and pretty much like family.

Matt: I don’t have any friends outside of this group. This just isn’t my dance crew, these are the people that I would call up to come out with me whenever. It’s not just about skill, it’s about the friendship that comes with it. The friendship definitely comes before the skill and the dance. Yea, it’s like how music comes before movements.

You guys are currently using the J.N. Burnett as your practicing place, and only two of you are left in this school. How did this start up and what are the Deadbeat Ninjas going to do when everyone graduates?

Miles: Marvic and I just started breaking here after school and once we had it going, we called the rest of the crew and just set aside days for practicing.

Corey: Matt and I went to this school, so we’re like alumni legends. The principal’s are nice and they let us use this place because it’s for legit work.

Marvic: In exchange, we do some shows for them here and there.

Corey: After Miles and Marvic graduates, I’m pretty sure it would still be fine because Matt and I used to come here before we had it as a practicing place. We also got other places like Thompson and South Arm and other places too.

Have the Deadbeat Ninjas ever been in any competitions?

Everyone: We’ve done a lot of two on twos or three on threes but nothing really as a crew. We’ve all been in various competitions here and there, but for us, there hasn’t been a lot of actual crew battles.

Anthony: I got this beef, yo, and I just got to say this. When it comes to high school dance crews, and I went to Palmer, so I’m not hating on anything, I love how the dance is just spreading everywhere. But the problem is, they’re naming it wrong. They’re all naming it hip hop crews but there aren’t even any  elements of hip hop in it! They’re basically just doing pop dances and their bodies aren’t even grooving to the music. Like when you’re dancing, you body has to groove and your body has to move! All they do are like pop stuff or like isolation where only bits of their bodies move. As cool as it is that they’re all dancing together, and they’re good at what they do, no doubt, it’s just the wrong interpretation of what it is.

What is a fatal flaw with the dance scene right now?

Matt: Media

Miles: Practices

Everyone: What?!

Miles: You know, because some people don’t come out to the practices, or people don’t practice.

(Everyone laughs at Miles)

Paul: Nice try man! I think media is definitely the biggest problem because they put the wrong people on too high of a pedestal, like Chris Brown! Too many people get too much props for not doing much and not enough people get props for doing a lot. It’s like whatever the media decides to show the audience, then it’s considered good. It’s rarely the right stuff, but sometimes they do get the right people.

Have you guys thought of going with other dance/music styles?

Anthony: As a crew, we’re more concentrated on breaking but we’re trying to branch out to locking and a bit of house as well. Marvic and Miles are into hip hop with their other dance squad and what not. Avery has been doing some pop stuff too. Myself, right now, I’m with another dance company called Project SOUL Productions and then we have classes and been learning a whole lot of stuff. I’m hoping to pursue as much as that stuff as possible. Maybe pole dancing haha!

What do you think is the biggest problem with the Deadbeat Ninjas is?

Matt: We’re really unorganized! Really, deadbeat says it all! Greatest strength and greatest weakness cause being deadbeat, we’re all loose and easy going, but at the same time, we’re just so unorganized.

Anthony: We take the name to whole ‘notha level!

Corey: Yeah that pretty much says it all. We cram things at the last minute and practicing at the last minute.

Anthony: To detail that, you guys never answer Facebook! Reply the f***ing thread man! Hitting LOL period isn’t a response!

Paul: A lot of us are just pretty damn busy with jobs and school, so it’s hard to get things organized! Half the time we practice, we sit there and just talk.

What is HYPE to you guys?

Avery: HYPE to me is the audience feedback and how the HYPE is hitting the audience.

Paul: HYPE to me is feeling. Yeah, just feeling the dance coming out of your body.

Corey: HYPE is like a rush of energy or something you love. HYPE is unrivaled excitement.

Anthony: When I get HYPE, I don’t think about it. It’s just like “damn, I have to do this!” and then it just takes over my body. I feel like I’m having a seizure, all HYPED up.

Miles: When I’m HYPED, nothing matters, I just groove to the music.

Marvic: When I’m HYPED, nothing matters, I just groove to the music. I just can’t stop smiling.

Corey: My eyes water when I’m HYPED, and its only happened about three times.

Matt: Real HYPE is the feeling when you’re no longer moving to music and music is moving you. You don’t control it; music is controlling you. When you’re up there, you can’t think about what you’re going to do, it’s the music telling you what to do.