Sunday, March 15, 2009
Jack Of All Trades
Cypher City Kings threw a jam yesterday called Jack of all trades. It included a new competition concept which the jam served as a testing ground for. It did quite well, Julian of Infinant Mischief won. (Actually, not sure if that crew still even fucking exist but whatever i'm writing it in. lawl) and Mad the Villin won the Cypher King award. (who i think happens to be one of the dopest bboys out there, also reppin the Illinist Villins crew who also happen to be one of the baddest mutha fuckin crews out there) The turn out was ok, but i wish it was better. I'm not exactly sure how we could have promoted more, i'm still pondering on this. I was sad to see not a lot of the older bboys came out, i think our battle concept could have been beneficial to them even and, dare i say, fun. There was some controversy with how the judging worked, but that all got squashed in the cypher LIKE IT SHOULD BE DONE!!!! Mad respect to the Illinist Villins Crew b.t.w. Anyway, the concept was new so i'm sure the judges had a little bit of confusion but we will be continuously working on this to make it better and refine it to it's diamond form. Thanks to everyone who came out, all the competetors did great and i hope everyone had fun. If there are any questions, comments, or concerns please comment this page, our crew myspace, or sned a message.
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6 comments:
You didn't explain in your post what this new concept is.
I believe it's about time I comment you after always reading......
I think the jam went well, considering it was pretty much an experimental run. The concept was fuckin tiiiiiiiiight - I think beneficial and quite humbling for those who participated - especially those with a reputation. Sometimes it can be hard to see your shortcomings when you've established a name for yourself. It also gives a chance for everyone to understand that there is always room for growth.
In terms of the execution of the jam, it could've used some work. But then again it was the first time you guys have used the concept so getting a feel for it will definitely prepare you guys for next time.
I think that having people on deck would've kept the flow going, so that you don't have to worry about dead air and having to wait for people. Another good thing would've been having joseph the gay be up and ready to deal cards so that we wouldn't have to wait for him as well. In terms of the battles, make sure to clarify what exactly the expectations are so that no one comes out feeling shortchanged because of a simple misunderstanding and you don't have to keep on clarifying every time the battle comes up.
Other than that I believe it wennt well :)
Sorry storm
Name:
Jack Of All Trades
Concept:
Like it's name implies, Jack Of All trades is a battle concept to test the well-roundedness of a bboy and his on-the-spot creativity. There is a deck of cards with a certain amount of categories (12), when the two dancers are called unto the stage to battle one is chosen to take a card at random and that categorie of card will be the battles handicap. For example, if a dancer takes the "freshest back spin" card then a back spin has to be incorperated into the whole set - and the judges will make their decision on who incorperated the back spin the best as well as the over all round. This concept gets a little tricky because some categories require the whole round to be consumed by the categorie (i.e. the categories of footwork, toprock, power, etc.) - meaning that the dancer will on be able to do that one particular thing.
A little tricky, bout you can see how this can test a dancers skill on many different levels.
and ann, thanks. Your thought and consideration will be taken into consideration for the next jam, that was actually super helpful.
Hmm.
[going to write my thought process on this]
I don't know, I think that concept is gimmicky. I can see how it could be fun, though, in a "let's hang out and eat Doritos and play some Halo" way.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the risk taking––trying to do something new & different, trying to add some spark to same ol' same ol'.
Having said that, If I was a b-boy, I probably wouldn't be attracted to that idea. I wouldn't knock others if they have fun taking on the challenge. But, for me, I wouldn't like the restrictions on my art. Dancing is an instantaneous creation (unless your doing choreography) and you go with how you feel at that moment. To compare it to graffiti: if someone told me that I have to create something on the spot, but I can only use red, or I can only do a character (which isn't even graffiti, but is comparable to power moves as they, by themselves, are not breaking), then that would probably turn me off.
Or maybe not. Maybe I'd like the challenge, afterall.
I think what I don't like about the idea is that it promotes separating the aspects of b-boying. And Chance is left, perhaps, controlling the outcome. If one b-boy, who never practices backspins, get the backspin card, then he's going to lose against someone who can do it. But that doesn't say anything about either b-boy, other than one is good at a particular move while the other isn't. It doesn't have anything to do with dancing. Again, to compare it to graffiti (because it's another art), it's a person's style & flavor that makes their art, not the words or the brand of paint they use.
But, again, I don't want to seem like I'm dissing the idea. If it's fun, then why not do it? Sometimes we need challenging things like that to break up the monotony of the scene. I just wouldn't take the results too seriously as an indicator of what good b-boying is. And if you can look at it that way, then it'll be much funner, less serious.
Y'know, the idea is different than I thought it would be. Just by the title of the jam, I was thinking it was going to be different dances going up against each other. but I guess that doesn't really make much sense. haha. Not sure why I thought that.
One thing I do like about the Jack of All Trades idea is that you get to see how people react differently to the same challenge. Thus, you see how their style and thinking differs. You find out if a guy cares about backspins or not. If the power card came up, you might find out who can & who can't, but you might also discover who cares & who doesn't.
But, then, after that taste, I'll want to see their style on their own terms. Too bad everything has to be a contest just to get people to b-boy. Not that I don't like battles, but isn't a battle always funner when it just happens? Or when there's a rumor that two crews might go at each other at the next jam. Because THEN you know it's real style vs style. It's not about trying to get the judges to vote for you so you can win the prize money. That's what made Rainen calling out Joey fun; it wasn't set up. It just happened. And it's hard to do that at contests because everyone is saving their stuff for their next round. Plus, sometimes they won't let people battle because they want to continue with the contest. I remember one time a battle broke out at a contest and the b-boys kept battling, even when they were told to stop. The promoters wanted to get back to the contest, but that battle was better than anything else that happened that night. The DJs ended up stopping the music to force the battle to end. But it was like, "Shit, we can go home now. the real battle just happened." haha.
Nowadays, it's like, if b-boying was basketball, no one would play at the park or shoot by themselves. They'd only play when an organized league had a competition. That's why the competitions are always more crowded than pure dance events. When you think about it, that's really lame. Where are the real b-boys? Do they still exist? Yeah, they do, but there's not enough of them to have much of a jam. Because the average "b-boy" just wants to enter contests. When you think about it, why should a contest bring anymore people out than a jam? The money? If that's the case, then what's that say about the reason they are dancing in the first place?
Hey, you're Clark Kent. Why don't you go to the Fortress of Solitude, and then come out and save everything.
= )
word storm, i feel your reply.
Our real goal for the jam was to make it fun and not serious at all, there was no cash prize of any kind only a home made canvas. We really wanted to put people on the spot to see how they can be resourceful creatively through their art, this is not saying that one person is better than the other, it just so happened that thats how the cards played out. (no pun intended) This was really something for the younger bboys because we want to encourage them to come out to jams, to have fun, to try new things, to explore ideas they might of have but others might have dissed.
I totally agree that it seems like it may be separating aspects of the dance but, like i said before, this shouldn't be taken seriously and we even stated at the jam that the purpose of the battle concept was to explore weaknesses, strengths, and new ideas and to help excersis spontaneous creativity.
I totally agree with you with the whole basketball analogy. It seems that theres not a lot of bboys out there willing not to dance for the sake of having fun and dancing to good music, enjoying good company and makign new friends. theres always a underlining motive to benefit them and their reputation or their "skill level". I don't enter competitions because i think their pointless, the only reason i do is if its for my crew, otherwise i'm just at a jam to jam, to groove, to feel funky, to just have fun. I also wish that there were more jams like danceteria and more people went to these said jams but then again i am in no place to estimate what peoples circumstances are, where they learned to dance, what their influences are, what they beleive hip-hop and bboying are, etc. all. I can only say i try my best and i like to dance. Thanks Storm, i'm gunna take all of your feedback and take it into consideration for all of our next jams.
This was really something for the younger bboys because we want to encourage them to come out to jams, to have fun, to try new things, to explore ideas they might of have but others might have dissed.
I was thinking about this.
Is it that young guys don't have a place to go? Is it that they don't have a place where they can feel encouraged? I'm just thinking aloud; it's not really related to Jack of All Trades.
I mean, the b-boy scene is what it is. It's a result of the people. But just like anyone else, we can influence that. Jack of All Trades influences things. So does Danceteria and all the others. B-Boy Summit and Freestlye Session influenced things a lot in San Diego (and everywhere else). But do only contests or contest results influence the scene?
Maybe it's the era we are in. Everything is instant and accessible. That's cool, don't get me wrong. But at the risk of bringing up one of these back in the days stories, I sit and think about what people did before DVDs and the internet. And are those two things (DVDs/internet) enough to change the desire behind b-boying?
Maybe.
Before that stuff, all you might have had, if you were lucky, were some clips on VHS. But even then, VHS wasn't so common yet. And I'm only talking about the 80s; there was even less in the 70s. So you probably saw some stuff occasionally on TV, maybe caught Beat Street in the theatre, and the rest was first-hand experience. Most of the inspiration & influence came from seeing other people do it in person. Maybe it was your friends or a guy at a jam. And while there were a lot of jams & contests, it wasn't like it is now. So a lot of the motivation probably came from people just having fun b-boying.
Hmm...but it DID die out, didn't it? The pubic was told that "Breakdancing is a fad", and everyone bought into it. So there was a flaw in the reason people did it back then that allowed the dance to almost disappear from culture. I wonder if it's because, even back then, it became too much about just moves, which made it less interesting, more predictable? If all people are doing is trying to one-up each other with the same combos, then it gets old quickly.
Now, I think that people these days actually understand more about b-boying, have more style, and see it as a dance more than people did back in the 80s. There's way more access to information, and people have more powerful tools to communicate ideas with each other. So that's a great benefit of today's technology. I mean, just look at this conversation on your blog.
The one thing I do like about the past times more than now is the spirit. Even the early B-Boy Summits had it. Maybe when there's $20,000 1st prizes out there, that changes the way a b-boy looks at things. I mean, it's cool that a b-boy has a chance to win a prize like that, but how does winning contests alter the natural expression in people? Although, do we blame the contests or the people for allowing the contests to influence them? Chicken & the egg?
Anyway, I'm not sure if I even had a point. haha. Like I said, I'm just thinking aloud and adding to our conversation here on Ambiguous Inspiration. and I admit to being distracted by Japan playing Cuba in a live broadcast of the WBC in San Diego. haha.
But, hey, as it turns out, it doesn't take Freestlye Session message boards, after all, to create a good b-boy dialogue.
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