|
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| B-boy extraordinaire: Speedy
Legs
|
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B-boy
Masters Pro-Am
Details:
Wednesday, May 16, to Sunday, May 20,
Registration is $85; daily passes cost $10-$20.
Call 954-340-2192. Log on to http://www.hiphopelements.com/
Where: The Ramada Resort, Pink
Ballroom, 4041 Collins Ave, Miami Beach
| | |
| | Break
dancing is back (minus the parachute pants). A renaissance of
popping, locking, uprocking, head spins, robotic jams, phat flips,
and contorted poses. Truth be told, the energetic street dance that
busted out of the Bronx decades ago never really left -- it was
shuffled out of the fickle consumer spotlight of American mainstream
is all (remember Beat Street?), quickly obscured by a more
easily commodifiable, often more negative, aspect of hip-hop: rap.
At least that's what breaker Speedy Legs will passionately
expound on for anyone willing to listen: "Once I get into somebody
who wants to know about what the dance is, I start talking, yapping,
and it's hard to stop me," laughs the 35-year-old, who grew up
Richard Fernandez in Hialeah. "The most powerful message it has is
what it does to the youth," he says. "It just captures them." The
veteran break dancer (b-boy), MC, and DJ has been fairly unstoppable
not only verbally but also physically, representing break dancing as
a competitive art form and sport -- teaching kids at the Hollywood
Police Athletic League, forming the company Hip-Hop Elements,
hosting regular break dance "Roc-Athons" at South Beach's 21st
Street Recreation Center, and organizing for the past five years,
along with partner Zulu Gremlin, the B-boy Masters Pro-Am
conference, which hits Miami Beach this week.
According to Speedy Legs, the five days of nonstop performances,
workshops, competitions, and a graffiti show also capture a diverse
local, national, and international crowd of about 1000 dancers, MCs,
and DJs -- even from places such as Japan, New Zealand, and
Nashville. Old-schoolers who will be on hand include Ken Swift of
New York's break dance Rock Steady Crew; hip-hop icon Afrika
Bambaataa of "Planet Rock" fame; and Don Campellock, a Seventies
Soul Train regular and inventor of the "lock dance." Speedy
Legs measures success in continuity: "I've had people that have come
to the event, like older people and some artists, and they say,
�Damn! Hip-hop still lives.'"
| miaminewtimes.com
| originally published: May 10, 2001
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