Interview by Jenkin Au
Words by Alan Ng and Jenkin Au
Photography by Patrick Giang and Jenkin Au
The justalilhype! Crew caught up with the TwoFourSeven dance crew. Even though the crew is largely composed of many members of Xtreme Soul Style, the addition of new members into the group not only adds upon their collectively strength, but also allows them to build up routines with a whole new flavor. While most crew outsource the business and marketing side of dancing to people outside the team, their respective talents and skills have allowed them to run as one machine. These hardworking boys explained to us about the philosophy of the name and symbol they carry. They are all about utilizing their time to the fullest and they are also about being able to put in 100% effort in whatever they do in life.
What got each of you dancing individually?
Jerome: When I was young, I harsh copied dancing moves from Michael Jackson, ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys, and Usher.
Porson: I started dancing like five years ago. What got me dancing was I saw the movie “You Got Served” and when I watched that movie a couple of times, it got me into dancing. Then, Norman introduced me to one of the studios and I did my training there, started taking classes, and the more classes I took got me to dance more and more.
Justin: Same with me. I started dancing when I was 7 with Jerome. First it was just a hobby that our parents wanted us to get into. As the years went by, and the more events we did, I got a lot more serious into it. I got inspired and kept wanting to continue and pursue this. It’s like my passion now.
Norman: Basically, how I started was I just got really inspired by all these boy bands and wanted to copy their moves just like Jerome and like learn at home. I just got inspired by watching different dance groups on the internet and television shows. I got more inspired watching Fresh Grove and the rest of the guys from Xtreme Soul Styles and it just went on from there.
JB: What got me started to dance was that at first, when I was younger, I was into singing and I was getting really tired of that. At the events that I would be singing, I would see all these dance performances, and they caught my attention and made me want to start dancing, to try something new.
Ross: How I got inspired to dancing was actually seeing my sister’s first tap dance recital and I have never seen tap dance before. That inspired me to start taking tap. I took tap for 8 years starting from kindergarten. I always loved Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson so from there, I got more into jazz, rock, and hip-hop and have been doing that ever since.
How did all these individual dancers come together and form a group? How did this happen?
Jerome: I don’t know, because five of us danced together for like five or six years and for me individually, I kind of wanted to branch off on my own. With the help with all these other guys, we started a new crew with TwoFourSeven. We all wanted to start this thing together. Some people gave me ideas and I was picking people around, and we recently met Ross about seven or eight months ago? After that, we just got started up as a crew.
What couldn’t you guys do individually that fueled the formation of the crew?
Ross: We all play many pivotal roles in the group. Sometimes it’s not even dancing. Some of us choreograph, some of us mix music, and some of us deal with themes and customs and stuff. Some of us are really good at graphic design, that’s JB. So we all play a different role in the crew, that isn’t just necessary in the aspect of dancing
Can you guys tell us a bit more about each of your fortes? Where do your individual strengths lay?
Justin: What I do for the crew, most of the time, is that I make the mixes for the group. I also get our designs made and printed. I help Ross with money and stuff. I guess more business towards the group.
Norman: I am just mainly the dancer, to be honest. I am just learning off of these guys as a dancer. I am just trying to train myself and feed off their ideas.
JB: I am the designer. I’ve done the website, I worked on the logo, I’ve made posters that promoted our group, events and workshops. I basically do all the web, and graphic design.
Jerome: I always direct the formation with Ross. Basically, Ross and me work together and choreograph the crew.
Ross: He said it, I am all about story telling and theme so I always try to put some sort of story and background to our dance and working in a lot of theatre elements, that’s sort of what I bring. My choreography is a bit different than the rest of these guys because they have been dancing with each other for a long time whereas I am a new addition. My chorography style is a little off from theirs, so I bring that weird type of flavor I guess.
Porson: Well I chorography some of the dances as well. What I usually do is host workshops every month or twice a month. It’s our workshop and some of us teach at the workshops. We choreograph for other groups and I also support the group and stuff like that.
With a lot of dance crews, they either just dance or they have other people to do these odd jobs for them. They are not the machines themselves; they are just one part of the machine. You are all individual parts of the machine driving the whole TwoFourSeven crew and it plays a bit on the name. This TwoFourSeven alias, what’s the back-story behind it?
Justin: Some of us were on a trip at Worlds and we saw this magazine that was called 247, or a magazine store. I don’t know… how did it really branch off? We just saw the word “247″ and it just kind of reflects the way on how we dance. Sometimes, we would barely sleep because we are always practicing late at night. Because we barely sleep or we spend a lot of time practicing hours, I guess that’s the reason why we are called 247 because we practically dance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Countless hours. All day.
Ross: It also represents 100% dedication on what we do. Not just in dance. We want to portray to others that you should put in 100% in whatever you do, doesn’t have to be dance. 100% dedication.
What kind of styles does TwoFourSeven bring out towards?
Porson: Hip-hop, and street jazz.
Jerome: A lot of different influences. We are pretty much old school and new school combined.
What about the logo? The clock definitely ties in to the philosophy of TwoFourSeven but can you explain to us about the meaning behind it?
JB: Just because like how the clock and arm would always go by, it’s like time going by and we never really realize that time goes by so the arm crosses to make that infinite symbol; I don’t know it’s kind of hard to explain.
(Everyone laughs)
Norman: Instead of the arms of the clock pointing to a certain time, it wraps around creating an infinite symbol, which means forever.
Why did you guys feel the need to have a logo? Most people just have their crew name embraced in various styles of typography.
Justin: I just think it’s important for us to have symbols so people can recognize us by that. If you keep changing the font or typography of it, people won’t recognize it. If you have a specific design or symbol, once you see it, it triggers you to see TwoFourSeven. That’s kind of the thing that we wanted to go for.
What are some of the things that TwoFourSeven want to achieve specifically?
Porson: Well, we really want to bring the dance community together. Before this even started, we tried to get people from everywhere from Vancouver and to get the community together to dance. We wanted to leave rivalries outside and have family and love inside the dance studio.
Why do you think it’s so hard to get the Vancouver scene together?
Justin: Maybe because of the past times? Maybe some people might hold it against them.
What do you think about the Vancouver dance scene in general?
Jerome: It’s definitely growing, and it’s a very diverse scene compared to LA, where it’s just one style right now. I haven’t been to L.A. but I heard it’s really new school but here we have so many different styles like house, whacking, old school, new school, R&B and the list goes on.
Porson: It’s slowly growing but there isn’t much media exposure.
Jerome: We are not the dance map really. We are not really a city to go to for dance competitions. We are not a city known for our dance unlike New York, L.A. or even Toronto.
And do you think TwoFourSeven is working towards that kind of a goal of helping Vancouver be more established? Any plans on how to achieve that?
Everyone: Yeah! We wish to achieve that goal.
JB: I think for us, it’s just like performing as much as we can and not just here. We just came back from Portland recently and we’ve been to Seattle and we try to go to hopefully get down to the States more and hopefully leave the Vancouver name and expose it there. Hopefully spread our cities’ name and draw people to our city more.
Justin: Creating a network within us and the rest of the world is big. We want to keep a connection between us and other people so we can bring them down and they can bring us down to their area and just keep those going.
Recently we wrote something on how free things can destroy the scene. Within Vancouver, there are many dance crews that are willing to perform for free. How do you guys feel about it?
Ross: Well, artists in general I think are the most unpaid occupation around, right? For us, we do a lot of free gigs and we are all about giving back to the community but yeah, it’s based on this gig that we get. What the person is offering and not in a sense of what the value of the event itself. Not necessary money wise but what kind of exposure and how we are going to be treated. What kind of crowd they are going to bring to come watch us.
Has TwoFourSeven ignored the return value and performed for the sake of performing?
Everyone: Yeah, lots.
Norman: We are always performing to inspire as well. We want to find new students that want to learn dancing as well.
Being apart of all these past dance crews and backgrounds, how does it add value to TwoFourSeven?
Norman: Well, for me. I started off as a break-dancer so I am just pure about tricks. I am just here to bring a bboy to the routine whenever we needed it.
JB: I think putting that all together brings a unique type of product and not the typical hip-hop, but something mixed in with all types of different styles.
How does the synergy of the whole crew work together? What’s that synergy like?
Porson: Knowing each other for a really long time, I guess…except for him (Points as Ross). He’s actually fit in really well. It seems like I have known him for years and being with us is like such a family. It makes it so much easier to work in the studio and make a better product as a whole.
Ross, you are always the odd one out. How does it feel to be different than the rest?
Ross: I love it. I just love it. No, it gives me a lot of attention. It’s like all Asians and one White. If you take me away, then there are big changes to the group. It’s like the way I dance, too. I don’t try to be in anyone else. I try to bring in what I do to them so it brings a whole new element to the group.
What do you guys think is lacking in the Vancouver dance scene right now?
Norman: More events to promote the scene itself I guess. We maybe have only like one or two actual really good events, but if we have more, we can showcase what Vancouver is about.
Ross: We don’t have that many competitions. Danceology is one but we would like to see more healthy competitions to support for each other’s crew. More support for other crews would be good, just because we are training in our own studio and whatnot, we never get to see what other crews are coming up with. They are always performing at different venues.
Why do you think that is the case? How come there’s such a big lack?
Ross: Vancouver isn’t known for a big dance city so there is not enough financial backing for these events.
What is HYPE?
Jerome: Energy?
Porson: It’s actually a really hard question.
JB: Excitement?
Norman: Being full out?
Justin: HYPE is not just being HYPEd but getting HYPEd from other people, like when you are performing. We get HYPEd up from each other from shouting at each other on stage and feeding on not only ourselves, but even the crowd and we have our supporters and they help us out too.
Ross: HYPE is support too, like our family and friends and people that appreciate us.