I'm guessing a lot of you have caught on by now - yes, at one point in my life, I was a bboy. 1992-1994 to be exact. It was my first style. I began bboying with my little brother; some of you probably know of him as Naytron from Headhunters and Renegades crew. In 1993, I got into a freak accident that involved a q-tip, Naytron, and a fair amount of blood. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were on vacation in the Philippines. I was cleaning my right ear with a q-tip when I heard my bro approaching the room. I wanted to give him a scare, so as soon as he walked in, I quickly turned around and shouted "boo!" Somehow, I hit my head on the wall, and little did I know, I forgot to remove the q-tip from my ear. Basically, the bump pushed the q-tip all the way down my ear and completely destroyed my eardrum. Blood gushed out. Anyways, enough making of you guys uncomfortable. Stupid me never got treated for it, and I lost about 30% of my hearing in my right ear due to the accident. I was lucky it wasn't more. When I got back to the states, I noticed that bboying was much harder than I remembered. Eventually I found out that the accident also affected my inner ear, and thus my equilibrium. I lost a lot of my natural balance and my ability to do spinning bboy moves (i.e. windmills). After a year of struggling with bboying, I eventually quit. Actually, because of my little "disability," it took me a long time to learn how to do the spins that I do when I dance house. You know what though? Nothing can stop you if you really want to achieve something.
Here's a picture of my bboy crew, Headhunters. Naytron is the one wearing a Ruby Lynn shirt. She's our little sister who passed away almost 5 years ago. The crew was established in 1999 and in 2008 several of the members were becoming inactive until we came back stronger than ever to audition for America's Best Dance Crew in memory of my sister. But I'll save that story for another day.
If you have any interesting dance stories, leave a comment and share; I'm interested to hear what you have been through.
Heh nope I didn’t even know Kathleen yet. That night I met Aaron and Alvyn. Apparently you were there too but I didn’t get to meet you :).
Wow, I have the same thing. I can barely hear out of my right ear because of an incident when I was young. Its inspiring for me to know of another dancer with the same thing.
Aaron: Yup! No excuses.
JW: Haha.. you’re funny. You should really give it a try, though ;).
Dani: Well, I didn’t start dancing house until at least 6 years after I quit. By then, I was primarily into hip hop dance. I didn’t necessarily find house more attainable – learning it was way harder than learning how to bboy, style-wise – but it was something that I enjoyed challenging myself with. Bboying just got too crazy because I just wasn’t physically capable anymore after my injury.
Tina & Sam: Thank you. 🙂
Tony: Thanks for the reply bro! I gotta write a post sometime about how Terry was my first in-person teacher; that’s really dope that he’s your first inspiration, because he pretty much was my first too.
BabyJsMama: Nice story! I never knew that bout you.. haha. Did I know the person that invited you to a house class? Was it Kathleen?
K Has: Sounds like you got a lot on your plate! Really grateful that you took the time to put in a comment even though your focus is on popping now.
Long story short: Ive been dancing for about 4 years.
I’ve been learning all kinds of styles such hip hop, waacking and breaking.
And i’m kind of ashamed of this, but I’ve always felt really bad about not being able to freestyle very well. Considering the fact that i’ve been dancing for 4 years.
It wasn’t until I started breaking in 2011 that I gained more confidence to freestyle.
My B-boy teachers put a lot of emphasis on the foundations and individuality. Unlike hip hop, we didn’t learn a lot of choreo. The teachers taught me how to put the moves together. Also taught me that I can break a part the moves which you also talked about in your musicality video 🙂
And it taught me that everyone has a different style, no ones going to do same moves the same ways…
I love house, but right now, I just want to focus on popping.
Wow! Thanks for sharing Jardy. No one would even guess about your little disability when they see you dance. As some here are saying, I better go practice my spins :).
I started dancing around 1996/97 when I would sneak into clubs that played dance music back in Puerto Rico. I befriended some of the bboys and just knew I loved the music playing and always danced to my own style. In 1998 I moved to NY and discovered more genres of electronic and went through a DnB phase of stomping around like a maniac heheh. Always cursing out those happy go lucky house heads *shakes fist*.
Around 2001 for some reason I can’t remember I started gravitating more towards house (maybe I was happier then!). Still dancing to my own music and steps. I moved to the Bay Area in 2005 and in 2007 after going to a Rhythm Ritual in downtown San Jose I met someone who invited me to a house class. The love of house came rushing back in :).
Thanks for all the work you do to help us all out! Much love :D.
Wow extremely motivated now….NO EXCUSES! Since you shared us some of your roots heres some of my house “roots” lol.
I came across a Brooklyn Terry vid back in 2006 and was MINDBLOWN by it. But at this time I had no idea what kind of dance he was doing I just knew it was DOPE. About 3 years later I got to MSU and a couple of my friends from the breakdance club took me to a LEAK (Lansing Electronic Artist Collective) party and they played house music. My friends started Housing and I instatly reconized it from that B.Terry vid. They told me it was Housin and they taught me like 3 steps. Back in 2009 I was just learning lockin and breakin so I didnt really practice house then since I was more focused on lockin and breakin. In the summer of 2011 me and some friends went to DEMF (Detroit Electronic Music Festival) and we saw some amazing house dancers from France and that pulled the trigger. I was aware of Jardys vids back in early 2010 so I went to those over this past summer to learn. In the summer in my garage is where I practiced. Then by the end of the summer Jardy made this blog (perfect timing) and we’re all here now lol. But honestly though Jardy really appriciate this. The fact that you take time out of your day to make these vids and its FREE!Plus learning through vids ain’t easy without guidance.
Wow, thanks for sharing that inspiring story!
Jardy, O M G . I had no idea. :]]]]] You are still awesome. That super friendly guy :]
That is awesome! (not that you destroyed your ear- that you were determined to succeed) And it’s also interesting that you find House more attainable. Perhaps, in House dance, the driving beat/rhythm and consistency is more clear? You can feel/sense those rhythms without necessarily needing to “hear” the rhythm. Not to say Bboying isn’t rhythmic (polyrhythmic) – but House, to me, seems to be more fluid in rhythm where you can almost find yourself resting into the rhythm. Marjory Smarth once told me- rest in the pocket of the music, and let the music rock you. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Awesome post!
So what I’m taking away from this is that I gotta puncture my ear to get good at dancing. Gonna go find a q-tip… :p
Wow. I didn’t realize you only had one working ear. I guess I have no excuse now, since I have 2 good ears lol. Gonna go practice my spins now…