Bboys host Urban Floor Degree contest

The Hopkins Bboys hosted the first fall Urban Floor Degree, a professional breakdancing competition in the Mattin Center.

Although Urban Floor Degree is typically an annual event, it was not held last year and is usually held during Spring Fair. However, Jason Hu, president of the Bboys, decided to hold it in the fall this year in order to attract a larger number of participants.

“There’s usually a lot of these competitions during the spring so we have to compete with a lot of these events in the spring. But if it’s in the fall there’s less competition and you can get a better turnout,” Hu said.

The all-day event included two pre-competition workshops, an All-Styles seven to Smoke competition — a “king of the hill” style competition — and a 3-v-3 competition.

Although Hu did not participate in the competitions himself, he picked four professional b-boys to judge the competitions.

“They need[ed] to be in the scene, so they need[ed] to have a good reputation... as in that they’re skilled,” Hu said. “[We needed] one that has the style, one that has good power.”

Pierre-Michel “Afternoon” Jean-Louis, a member of the Mix’d Mafia crew in Montreal, was chosen as the judge for the All-Styles competition. He led one of the pre-competition workshops and was the recipient of the Cypher Award. The award, which was given out at Urban Floor Degree, is presented to a b-boy who frequently jumps into a “cypher,” or circle, of other dancers to perform noncompetitively.

“Sometimes you don’t have people constantly going into the cypher... so [the] Cypher Award is given to a person that is really good at dancing in cyphers and is always going in,” Hu said.

To judge the 3-v-3 competition, Hu chose Damien “WaAak” Cruz, founder of the Breaks Kru in New York City; Jon “Gunjak” Liu, a member of the Lionz of Zion crew in Washington, D.C.; and Shafeek “Mighty Mouse Bombey” Westbrook, a member of the Repstyles Crew in Philadelphia.

In addition to judging, the b-boys showcased their skills by performing quick sets before the final rounds of their respective competitions. Westbrook, who led the other pre-competition workshop, additionally participated in the All-Styles event as a competitor.

The event also featured Vincent Campbell “GreyMatter” as MC and Langston “Foxx Boogie” Clement of Repstyles and Kenny “Kanton” Tsang of the Flock crew as DJs. Clement and Tsang created the mix for the competitions and spun along with two guest DJs.

After the workshops the preliminary rounds for both the All-Styles and 3-v-3 competitions began. The preliminaries for All-Styles were organized into three rounds. Each contestant did a 30-second routine or set and then faced instant elimination after each round. The pool was narrowed down from 22 contestants to 14 contestants to seven.

The 3-v-3 preliminaries consisted of rounds of dance battle between teams of three dancers, each representing crews. Each participant in the battle performed a 30-second set. The preliminary rounds were termed “sudden death,” meaning whichever team lost the battle was out of the competition.

The All-Styles finals were conducted as a “king of the hill” competition. The first contestant did a set and took the place of king. The succeeding contestants then tried to outdance the king in a battle. Jean-Louis chose the winner of each battle and determined whether or not to dethrone the current king.

The winner of the competition had to win seven battles. After about three rounds of competition, Westbrook won.

Westbrook has appeared on the Fox show So You Think You Can Dance in seasons 9 and 11. He made it through preliminary rounds both times but got eliminated in the final rounds of competition prior to the live shows featuring the “Top 20” dancers.

Westbrook said his experience competing on the show helped him grow as a dancer.

“It was a really dope experience,” Westbrook said. “You know, that world as opposed to [the b-boy world] is more organic, more raw. The process is so fast. It’s sleepless. [There was] great camaraderie with the dancers. [I met] dancers from all over the world [with] different styles. That’s the beauty of So You Think You Can Dance.”

The 3-v-3 finals were conducted as a bracket tournament. First and third place went to members of the Lionz of Zion and second place went Heaven’s Crew, another Maryland crew.

Westbrook, who had never served as a judge at a breaking competition before, was impressed by the caliber of the competition.

“This [was] a powerful, impacting battle because everybody [had]... something to lose. Everybody want[ed] that rep,” Westbrook said. “It was real good because you get to see the underdogs. Today they [were] going all out. They [were] killin’ it. I’m real excited because I saw some stuff [in the battles] that I didn’t get to see before this event.”

Freshman Aleexsan Adal, who competed in the first round of 3-vs-3 finals, felt that the event was a good experience and a great way to meet fellow b-boys.

“I think it went really well,” Adal said. “None of us [freshmen] really knew anyone who was in the competition except for the upperclassmen. We met a lot of people. There [were] not a lot of dancers our age.”

Adal also thought the event served as a way of introducing non-b-boys to the b-boy and hip hop culture.

“It [was] a really good opportunity for people who’ve like never experienced the culture to like see how it’s really like,” Adal said.

Hu also thought that the event went well. He acknowledged that it was difficult to put teams together for the 3-v-3 since it was the first time a 3-v-3 competition was featured in Urban Floor Degree. However, he thought the event served its purpose, which, as Adal said, was to introduce Hopkins students to the b-boy culture.

“A lot of people have a misconception of what breaking culture is like. They see hip hop, and they see like Step Up, and they think breaking culture is all the same as that, but it’s very different,” Hu said. “You train and you practice so you can go and compete whereas with [other] dancers, they train and then they practice so they can perform. The mindset of a b-boy is you [are] doing this to become better for yourself.”