Ok, it’s me, Twist, I’m back. Not much of a puzzle I know. It was hardly going to be Pope John Paul II – back with a vengeance ……… on my blog…

Anyway, there’s been a distinct lack of updatage going on here on my once nurtured website. For that I apologise to any die hard fans who enjoyed my frequent random ramblings. Fear not, I’ve been getting up to loads of mentally awesome stuff!

To save me time and effort describing evvvvvvvvverything I’ve been doing in my own little b-boy world here is our shiny new showreel that I spent hours labouring over and includes some of the highlights of past months which I’ve wanted to post updates about, but am too lazy haven’t found time to do:

Blood Masterz – Professional Breakdance Performance Crew Showreel

So it is evident that exciting new things have been hip hop happening. Importantly – the fusion of MixBloodFlow dance crew and the Drunken Masterz crew to form the Blood Masterz professional breakdance performance crew available for hire. Contact us to hire a breakdance show for your next event!

Blood Masterz?

Yes! Blood Masterz – once upon a time (about the end of July) myself, Bobak and Just Me from The Masterz crew joined MixBloodFlow b-boys Crackroc, Leeroc and Joe on a wacky and wonderful adventure to The Secret Garden Party 2010 to perform spontaneous breakdance shows around the festival site… AND THAT WE DID – CONSTANTLY!

From the moment we arrived, midnight on Wednesday, we wound down the windows of the car in the queue before even entering the festival gates, pumped out some funky tunes and unleashed our pent up b-boying moves on the grass to receive applause from fellow performers queuing up to get in! From then on we pretty much danced solidly until Monday!

We even had our own circle of tents with a lino in the middle. Every time a random passer by tried to take a short cut through our circle we made them bust out their best move on the lino!

Oh, there are soooo many crazy stories to tell about The Secret Garden Party, this post could go on for many scrolls of your mouse wheel but I’ll conclude in a couple of paragraphs and you can check out YouTube etc. for more about The Secret Garden Party 2010.

Here’s a sly video for you anyway from some other random festival goers that I happened to find. Our perspective of the festival was entirely different obviously and we didn’t even see most of this stuff going on, which just shows how many crazy things were happening the whole time:

Basically my point was (I think I had a point about all this…) we started off at the festival as two separate crews – The Masterz and MixBloodFlow but within a few hours, let alone the 5 days we were there together we fused and formed Blood Masterz Since our return from the rabbit hole we’ve done a couple of performances together at nightclubs in Wakefield and corporate events in Leeds and more! We’re looking forward to performing together at more weddings, corporate events and nightclubs as well as battling in the near future! Watch out, Blood Masterz are coming for you with more flavour than a Pot Noodle!

Contact us to hire a breakdance show for your wedding, corporate event or nightclub promotion!

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.  ~Jules Renard

After Flo’s awesome workshop, reviewed in the previous post, I spontaneously decided to enter the battle at Attention to Detail, even though I hadn’t been training very much due to recovering from my sprained ankle.

So obviously my name came out of the hat first to battle, against Si – B-Boy Crackroc (which is spelled incorrectly in the video below, my bad).

So lets get straight to the point, here’s the qualifying battle:

As it transpired, Crackroc won and even though he got lucky hitting that beat at the end of his throwdown, he had a lot of style and different dynamics. So well done to Si…

Next time I won’t be holding back

The rest of the jam was awesome as always, incredible cyphers and battles with a few bboys from Scotland there representing.

Unfortunately the next Attention to Detail jam is on 21st March when the Masterz Crew are performing at a Castleford Tigers rugby match. So we’ll be dancing around on the pitch, but you should still go check out ATD in Wakefield, it’s the best regular bboy jam ever in the Universe!

“Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.”

Gore Vidal

B-Boy Flo’s Workshop

Last Sunday me and Phil ventured down to Wakefield for Attention to Detail to attend Flo’s workshop.

Here are my key points I took away from what was covered:

• Style – use all your body parts in creative ways to add original flavour to your moves. The feet do most of the moves, but your heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes add the style
• Create new top rock moves and interpret the same moves on the floor to come up with new footwork.
• Musicality – listening to the track and picking up on the recurring accents such as cymbal crashes every 8 or 16 beats etc. Make sure you go down to the floor at the start or end of a bar (on the accent beat and not randomly part way through a count of 8 beats) and hit your freezes on beat.
• To contrast with freezes and fast footwork try to add slow elongated moves when there are long droney notes and accents in the music – this adds another dimension to your throwdown instead of everything being aggressive and as fast as possible. Mixing up the tempo and dynamics adds style and makes your set more interesting.
• Power moves – for whipping and kicking power train sweeps, both directions with both legs. Then practice entering the power move from sweeps. Sweep to flares, sweep to mills, swipes etc.

Practising power moves brought us to the end of the workshop…

I had previously done one of Flo’s workshops covering the same areas a year or two ago, but it was great to be reminded of the key aspects that a lot of people are unaware of when they’re breaking.

It’s all about the music, it is a dance after all!

I just wanted to write down these key points to review what I learned before I forgot again, but maybe you will have gained some useful knowledge from it too… and if Flo holds another workshop you’ll know to check it out because it’s all amazing stuff, going much deeper than just how to do this move or that move, instead covering the stuff that really matters for those who already have a bit of experience breaking.

Laters potatoes!

And why not a quote from Flo for this post:

“Her life long ambition is to go see Stevie Wonder?!?

What kind of an ambition is that??

My life long ambition is for Stevie Wonder…to come see me!”

Florent Gonthier

Although I haven’t been posting recently due to recoving from a sprained ankle and not having many awesome training videos to share there has still been a lot of things happening in The Masterz Crew world. Exciting things… eeeee, I’m excited, aren’t you?!

I hope so, because I shall be adding a few new posts in the next week to get you up to date with recent goings on.

Seeing as I’m lazy and somebody else has already edited and uploaded this video, I’ll start with the Masterz Crew show that kicked off an MMA event inside a cage! Which I’m not even in, as I was working in Edinburgh doing rhythm activities with 3000 Girl Guides.

You can see a brief bit of The Masterz skills at the start of this video:

So if you’re interested in hiring The Masterz B-Boys to perform a breakdance show at your event, just get in touch to discuss the details and obtain a quote.

Check back soon for video delights of The Masterz awesome Oceana Chinese New Year show as well as battle footage from recent events! If you’re lucky I might even include a little bit more footage from the Martial Arts Xtreme show.

Click here to subscribe to the ICameToDance.com RSS feed, so you can be notified when I get round to adding new posts.

See you soon home boys and girls.

“He who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.”

Ben Jonson

Play that funky music right!
Play that funky music white boy!
Lay down that boogie and play that funky music till you die!

Ahh, nothing like a bit of Wild Cherry, anyway that has very little to do with this post…

Seeing as B-Boy Sprained-Ankle hasn’t been training very much recently I thought I’d share a video of me playing a funky groove on my conga drums instead:

If you’re interested in learning the basic techniques of how to play a hand drum, or make rhythms using other easily available percussion, check out our website for free instructions Bass – Tone – Slap – Drumming Techniques

In recent news

Our crew has a couple of shows booked in for this month. You can see us rocking the stage at Oceana on Monday 15th February for the Chinese New Year party! As well as a show to start off a martial arts competition… inside a cage haha! Unfortunately I’m gonna miss that as I’m in Edinburger playing drums for the entire weekend.

Since spraining my ankle landing a front somersault like a spazz, on top of the physio to strengthen my ankles back up, I’ve been doing a bit of training and breaking that doesn’t require the use of my left leg. Which is even harder than it sounds! I always use my left leg to push off to do pretty much everything, so I had to switch it up and try getting into handstands the opposite way round, even forwards rolls felt weird! But this is a great lesson for all b-boys and b-girls to really build their co-ordination, make new neural pathways in the brain and increasse your versatility…

Try doing moves you already do the other way round.

A lot of us already know this is a good idea and probably practise it to a small extent, but we get lazy and stick to ways we are used to. Take a ttep outside of that lazy thinking box and try this:

If you do a lot of your footwork like six step clockwise, learn it anti-clockwise. Master your freezes on both arms – baby freezes, 1 handed handstands, elbow freezes, shoulder freezes, chairs, air chairs etc. Then when you’re getting the hang of that and feel like an absolutely ridiculous challenge to work on – try learning your power moves in the opposite direction! Miss having awful bruises on your shoulders and hips… then why not learn windmills again the other way round! Enjoy the pain all over again, hahaha.

“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”

Og Mandino

Wow! Who would have thought my Dad would have been the one to show me the coolest thing I’ve seen at least all week! … And I’ve seen at least 2 cool things… probably more.

This is an absolutely amazing/hilarious video from Brett Domino giving a demo of the cool new Stylophone Beatbox: Portable Beats Machine. I’d seen the product in the IWOOT catalogue a while ago but never realised the incredible potential until my Father told me to check out this video featuring some classic b-boy tunes and other hip hop beats. Prepare to be astounded, hahaha:

Brett Domino: Hip-Hop Medley – Stylophone Beatbox

Click here to buy your Portable Beats Machine on sale for less than £10!

It’s got a build in loop sampler! I WANT ONE! IWantOneOfThose.com are charging £20 – no thanks…

I think I’ll be placing my order very shortly with findmeagift.com – click here to get your Stylophone Beatbox on sale for under £10!

“100% of the shots you don’t take don’t go in.”

Wayne Gretzky

Aww man! Just as I was getting the hang of somersaults – standing back and front tucks…

At training on Tuesday I was trying to practice a new throwdown idea. I got warmed up thoroughly and had a little stretch, but I was still aching and my muscles were quite tight from training on Thursday, Saturday and Monday as well as Bradford Gym on Sunday. Perhaps the aching and tight muscles are the cause of what happened next…

I threw a standing front somersault but landed with my left leg wide, which resulted in my knee bending inwards as my legs absorbed the impact. Consequently I heard and felt (definitely felt!) a crunch in my ankle… Oooooo, that wasn’t good! I’ll just walk over to… ohhhh Jebus, that’s starting to hurt… Ahhhh – Ed, can you go get me an ice pack please? I’ll just hop over here and sit dOWwwwn.

To the hospital Batman!

My brother kindly drove me to A&E as I wanted to make sure I hadn’t broken or fractured anything. Luckily the dude at Casualty, who saw me after a painful 1 and a half hour wait, rubbed my feet and ankles a bit and told me my bones were fine. Jolly good But my ATFL (anterior talofibular ligament on the outside of the ankle) is damaged. So I’ve sprained my ankle, awesome. Off I hobbled to get the bus home, on second thoughts – let’s just stop here at the end of the street and book a taxi.

Here I am 3 days later… still in bed with my leg elevated on a pile of pillows and my handy Morrisons Value Frozen Garden Peas on and off my ankle. (Get yourself some – 89p for an ice pack is well worth it in an emergency!) I’m getting back ache from being in bed for so long. On the plus side I’ve been productive and done a lot of work on my laptop, even though I can’t actually get to my room in the attic where my PC is haha! Damn it!

Today I’m feeling a bit more comfortable putting weight on it, I can hobble to the toilet and downstairs for food without very much swearing involved. Tuesday night was a different story however, I’ve never experienced intense shivering from pain before! Gotta try everything once I suppose

Man up, Twist

Anyway, I’ll survive and if I don’t – avenge my death! I’ve just got to keep going with the ankle strengthening exercises and make sure I don’t dance on it for at least a few days, although a few weeks is probably wiser and more realistic.

Standing front tucks are evil I tell you! They look cool, but I’ve hurt myself similarly, less seriously, at least 3 times in the process of learning them. From this I have 2 lessons to choose from: stop doing somersaults… or after I’ve recovered and strengthened both my ankles and legs properly train for them a LOT more to make sure I get some mega height every time so I can land safely.

That’s enough of my wining – I’ll have to be fine by tomorrow, I’ve got a magic job to perform at.

Now how about some comedy from the gym on Sunday

Training with Bruce, B-Boy Just Me, is awesome fun – the dude knows his flips and is a really good teacher! He had my brother landing front somersaults in 20 minutes! I’d already learnt the basic technique for fronts on my own, but he helped add a bit of height to my jump and spotted me doing a few back tucks. The Allstar Aviators tumbling class in Kirkstall helped me learn the technique for back tucks, but I’d never attempted one on my own. Within a couple of minutes of Bruce spotting me, I went for it and did it all by myself, aren’t I a big boy. The first couple were pretty funny, almost burying my face in the floor, or falling over backwards. But in a few minutes I was landing, I use the term ‘landing’ loosely here, them on the gym floor. Yey!

By the end of the session I was going less backwards, much more vertical and nailing the landing better than in the following video, but this is the funniest one from Sunday:

As you can see, I clearly bailed that first back tuck before I’d even taken off the floor hahaha. Obviously I didn’t do that again! You’ve just got to go for it! Although I won’t be going for much for the next month or two

Hope you’ve learnt something from my experience – practice your flips safely now kiddies!

Time to take my frozen peas off my ankle.

Instead of a quote to end with today, I feel like adding something even more fun. I am pretty bored after all!

Yesterday was my main man Phil Tang’s Birthday, whoop! So I made him a little video montage of his recent b-boying greatness, unfortunately I didn’t have time to upload it before we had to go out and have the best night ever with the b-boys!

So here it is a day late, or 364 days early…

Happy Birthday B-Boy Philthee

Last night town was absolutely dead, hardly anybody anywhere – it was freezing and there’s an abundance of snow everywhere! However, WE ARE THE PARTY, so we had an absolutely awesome night jamming where ever we went… some were even breaking on the street… in the slush and snow! Dedication or what!

Phil was of course killing it, busting out flares to the max and everyone else was repping hard. I even popped out a couple of front flips and everyone went mental, cause they’d never seen me do it before ha ha Phil started throwing down on the road while the traffic lights were on red, then the Police turned up and told us they’d seen us obstructing traffic on CCTV… Bruce’s response – “Yeah it was sick wasn’t it?! He was killing it!” hahaha.

Monday was also Aahid’s, Afro’s and Shane’s Birthday and if I’m right in thinking Jingle’s Birthday on Tuesday too? I might as well just say Happy Birthday to all the b-boys who’s Birthday it was recently, you’re all lovely and I hope you enjoyed yourselves!

Now I’ve got to go do some real work, so here’s your ‘quote’ for today…

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Philthee
Happy Birthday to you!

Me

So 2010 is off to some sort of a start, has it been good for you so far? Well, I’m rather enjoying it at least, although the snow is getting a little bit annoying now! I might venture out into the garden and make a snow b-boy before it all melts, if I can be bothered braving the harsh conditions!

One of my resolutions for the New Year is to learn somersaults! So, just 4 days into the year I used the motivational words of Arnie – “Do ittt! Come onnn, do it nowww!” to give me the courage to just go for it and try a front somersault on a hard floor for the first time ever Trevor and… nobody died! Quite the opposite, I’m very much alive and it felt pretty good to land it without injuring my ankles as I have in the past when practising standing front tucks on grass and thin mats. Booyah!

So I suppose you want to see this miraculous event…

B-Boy Twist’s first ever front tuck somersault on a hard floor

You might also notice some new moves thrown in for your viewing pleasure there too. I’m still working on that, so shhhhh, don’t tell anyone!

I’ve just been training at the gym today with my brother and at the end of the session I managed to build up the confidence to try another front somersault. I seemed to be thinking about it a bit too much and scared myself a little, so when I eventually came to do it I didn’t feel like I set it up properly. As soon as I jumped I thought ‘Ahh, I don’t think I’m gonna make it!’ but to my surprise I landed it perfectly :O whoop!

So the moral of the story is – stop faffing about and DO IT!

I plan on practising my front tucks a lot more to ensure I can do it consistently and then I’ll start practising back tucks. Which should be a lot easier in terms of getting plenty of height in the jump, but slightly more terrifying at the fact that you’re throwing yourself in the air and using the momentum of your legs to trust you rotate over your head 360 degrees and land safely on your feet again… and not your head.

At least with front flips you’re pretty much guaranteed to rotate enough to make sure your head isn’t in danger of the floor contacting it at high speeds and severe bleeding occurring as a result. Unlike we’ve seen happen to drunken idiots who think they can backflip when we’re breaking in clubs on nights out. The moral of that story – if you’re an idiot and you’ve been consuming alcoholic beverages – keep at least 1 foot in contact with the floor at all times, somersaults aren’t a wise idea pisshead.

“I ain’t got time to bleed.”

Blain – Predator

Happy New Year b-boys and b-girls

We rang in 2010 at Chen’s party this year. I had an absolutely incredible night starting seeing school friends at a local bar and then joining the crew at Chen’s. Just a few minutes after the countdown to the new year and there was already a cypher going on the living room floor. Which soon turned into the very first battles of the decade, despite alcohol consumption levels soaring…

B-Boy War vs Technical Tony followed by Zeus vs Philthee:

That’s probably the best I’ve ever seen Tony dance, skillz! (I substituted the last ‘s’ of ‘skills’ for a ‘z’ there because I’m just that street.)

Resolutions for 2010

So, no doubt you’ll already have been asked what your New Year’s Resolutions are. I wonder if you’ve even managed to make it till now (5th January) on your quest to give up eating chocolate or smoking or whatever you were pretending to do… Normally my New Year’s Resolutions are general minor things like ‘keep having fun’ and ‘meet even more sexy ladies’ because I usually can’t think of any improvements on my amazingly fun life, ha… However, towards the end of 2009 I’ve realised several things and that I need to take action!

Now is the time!

So, I shall be working away to ensure my business thrives this year in this currently unsatisfying economic climate amongst other positive actions to enable me to continue to have fun, meet  sexy ladies and avoid having to listen to my brother Rob’s life advice. Shut up, being a self employed professional magician and drum circle facilitator IS a job  and there is no way, at all ever, that I would apply at McDonald’s!

Anyway, after all the business productivity New Year’s Resolutions comes b-boying. This year it’s gonna be on like Donkey Kong! The first training session of 2010 was super bad ass and I’ll explain…no, show you why in the next post.

Until then – remember to wear layers and don’t run on the ice… unless you’re aiming for a masssssive fun slide, in which case I recommend running on a dry spot first then jumping onto a lengthy polished patch of ice for maximum fun, speed and distance…

“Now, in order to answer the question, “Where do we go from here?” which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. “

Martin Luther King Jr.