R16 International B-Boy Contest

Do you know the difference between "locking" and "popping"? Well I do now because this weekend ten friends and I took the bus up to Incheon and watched the R16 B-Boy championships. Whats a B-Boy you ask? Well, a B-Boy is another term for male break dancer or hip hop dancer. I have been heavily exposed to break dancing in the media and I though this is my chance to see it done live. Before this my only live break dancing was those Asian kids in High School in front of the student store...

After a four hour bus ride we arrived in Incheon. R16 was on a "Worlds Fair" fairgrounds and we explored the largely underwhelming exhibits for a few hours. Good news however, the Swine Flu was shot right off of us.

The 2 on 2 "Locking" battles started at one. Locking is a bouncy dance style in the spirit of James Brown whereas in "Popping" poses are frozen and shortly held. The 2 on 2 battle was pretty cool at first but I got bored quickly and took a short nap in my chair. Forgive me, I woke up that morning at five. I Woke up just in time to watch the final battle. In the end a team of two girls won and they walked away with a million Won (~900 USD).


After a break it was time for the main event. The crew battles. A "crew" has from 7 to 12 people on it who are involved in freestyle or routine dancing. Or in some cases extra crew members do nothing...I'm looking at you Ukraine! There were 14 crews competing from 13 different countries (two from Korea). Two crews battled at a time and then the winner moved to the next round. Thats right, You Got Served style ie what happens when someone dances and you don't dance back. The teams pulled some great tricks like jumping though each others arms, hand slides, headspins and acrobatic flips. I took a video of the final battle (Russia vs Japan) but somehow the video became corrupted. In the end Japan took first place perhaps because they were lead by a dead-ringer for Rufio out of Hook.

The contest was over late and we returned to Seoul for the traditional exhausted hotel room search. I often wish I lived in Seoul as it is Korea, from events to population everything happens there. One good thing about living in Daegu however, is that I have seen much more for the country than my Seoul counterparts who rarely (and in many cases never) leave the city.


In other news I am going to Japan this weekend! I have a three day weekend and some friends and I are taking a ferry to Fukuoka/Nagasaki. I have wanted to go to Japan my entire life and know this jaunt will just wet my taste buds for more!