IBE 2011 Thoughts...

Friends on my facebook page are probably annoyed of my constant postings of this past weekend's IBE festivities. Full disclosure: All video you see here in this post is property of The Notorious IBE and they deserve full credit for their production value.

With that out of the way, time to share. I've recently gotten the dancing itch again. I've been dancing for a little over 10 years [which is peanuts compared to most established bboys and other dancers]. Everyday, after work, I go to practice. For the past year, or so, I've been trying to practice more. It initially was to maintain my girlish figure and to keep some sort of playful balance in my life. It also didn't help that I took a three year sabbatical and my form was a bit, well, crap.

Then new kids started showing up. Old faces too. There is something so special about this community that won't be aptly described in a poorly kept blogging site, but my confidence within the community has started to grow.

What does this have to do with one of the largest dancing competitions on Earth? A lot, actually. The clips that I've embedded into this post are from this weekend. Not from a week ago, a month ago or a year ago. See, up until now I've been practicing with the hopes of staying sharp with the people I practice with. Maybe I'd occasionally test the water by travelling to a competition and entering. At the very least I'd battle in a cipher; it is the initial reason I took to this dance.

What does this have to do with IBE? After a recent trip to San Diego and L.A., prior to that, a trip to Akron [of all places] I realized that this dance [bboying] changes based on where you are. Why not go to IBE? Why not battle and share the floor with some of the best talent and creative minds [in my opinion] ever?

There's kind of a chitlin' circuit in bboying. Much like in stand-up comedy, you have to start small before you humor going big. Entering and, at the very least, attending the smallest jams are so important. This is where a community is birthed. I'd even argue, this is where you decide who you are as a person. It's also where you [the dancer and fan of said dance] are hit with a healthy dose of reality. Not everyone is doing air flares, windmills and nineties to make it big in this dance. It's real easy to confuse big events like IBE, BC One and Freestylesession as the tent pole of what a bboy or bgirl should be.

You can't fight technology. The reason I'm writing these thoughts here is because, and blame my naivety, I'm actually a bit shocked at how fast the culture has grown. This hasn't crept up on me overnight, this is just me, writing things out and being freaked out in the process. Any dancer whose been doing what they love, for the past five or six years, has seen how fast events make it on Youtube. Prior to that we seen how fast events made it on to DVD. Prior to that we seen how fast it made it on to VHS. Prior to that, if you weren't there, then it was told to you like mythical lore.

As a staunch supporter of all-things-tech. I think this is a good thing. I just say it with reservation. There was once a time where I had to travel to Chicago to see a Phase II Crew, Chicago Tribe or Brickheadz. Now, I can just punch it into Youtube. I say [gritting my teeth] that this is a good thing. Because, like a lot of kids from my neighborhood, I grew up super poor. Like, the kinda poor The Wire edits out.

IBE is still on my bucket list of events to go to before I'm done with this dance. However, there is something off-putting about seeing such talented artists compete in front of their peers and hearing faint "oohs" and "aaahs" from a jaded crowd. And why shouldn't the crowd be jaded? They've played all these runs over and over from the comfort of their own home. 

I guess there isn't much of a difference. I remember playing Spinfactor battles over and over, because the element of surprise was hard to fade. How are these guys and gals doing these crazy moves? Why are all the bboys on the West Coast so different from those in the South, or the East? It's there where I learned the styles of bboying varied by region. Which I think is something we are losing. Like visiting a tribe of people that speak the same language, but just a little different, I valued the surprise of how one did a similar move I'd do. Now, everyone goes into an air chair the same way.

It took me two years to get my first IBE DVD. Now, it takes me two days to get an entire weekend's worth of footage. IBE is centered around a great deal of hard work. A lot of dancers who compete are invited. Most save up their money during the year and travel to Holland [or wherever the event may be held] and battle other hard working dancers. No matter how large and commercial IBE seems, I think there's something special about this gathering. There is something special about this production. And it is a production. A very, very expensive production.

After reading over my words. It really sounds like I'm an old man, belly-aching. I'm not even that good of a dancer. Looking at the above clip [irony] it reminded me as to why I was shocked by this shift in the culture. I'm sure none of the event promoters knew these, now thousand dollar events, would grow to be televised, streamed and viewed by countless people around the globe. There's something to be said about that.

I still wonder what the new kids think though. We all had our heroes and rivals that inspired us to pursue what we wanted in this dance. So what if it's in a Youtube clip right? Anyone will tell you, seeing something live is a whole other subject than seeing something at 480p on your laptop.

I'm just hoping we aren't losing that community aspect of this dance. Not every battle can be an IBE. However, training as if you're going to IBE, admirable. I'd even argue that we need more smaller jams [and I guess competitions to a lesser extent] to help build to an IBE. It'll make it that much more special.