bulletproof funk

SOUL RELEASE: A NEW IDEA FOR THE BOSTON SCENE

Figure 1. MS paint—my number 3 top computer skill. number 1 is TYPING SO THAT YOU THINK I AM SHOUTING. and number 2 involves incognito windows

The Motivation: Without a doubt, Boston has one of the strongest battle-scenes on the East Coast. This has really helped us grow as dancers to always continue to push our skills; but at the same time, it creates a certain distance between us even while we’re off of the dance floor.

The Push: The goal of this experiment is to bring balance to our scene; to create a low-tension environment where we can get together and vibe off of each others energy with with no holding back, no boundaries of how you should move, and no reputations on the line. I also want everybody to get to know each other better!

The Format: A monthly cypher held at a different location each time, with a different playlist each time. We’ll bring the cypher to different indoor and outdoor locations throughout Boston to keep a fresh, new perspective each time. I hope that the more we release into this cypher, the more we can get out of it in return.

The Music: The first playlist will be poppin’ music. If this idea turns out to be something that we like and gains momentum, then we can push this to become an all-styles cypher with an all-styles playlist.

The Catch: Different people will want to channel different kinds of energy into this cypher–anything and everything is welcome whether you want to experiment, polish, explode, groove, or test your creativity. The only thing I ask is that you participate, focus, and truly be yourself.

So this is something that I’ve been thinking about doing for a few months now.  I’ve been to some out-of-state jams in the past, and it’s immediately obvious that every scene has a different vibe.  Some cities are more battle-oriented, some are more laid back, some are underdeveloped, some scenes are strong and well-rounded.   I talked to Act-1 recently and he told me all about his young days and what the scene was like back then and how it’s changed now—for the better and for the worse in some ways.  At the end of the conversation, act asked me “what are your going to do for the scene?”

since then, i’ve been thinking about the question—my immediate feeling was that i should pay some sort of homage to my city’s OGs and that manifested as a video trailer for megatron.  this was basically a “thank you” for tron and shallow and other boston OGs who’ve always made me feel welcome.

i’ve always felt happy that this group—bulletproof funk has been able to provide a practice spot on the boston side of the river and a lot of people have been able to learn and train

i still felt like something is missing though—and i realized it when i was thinking back on some battles.  boston has a small, but highly skilled newschool poppin’ scene. we”re skilled because we all battle so much, but i think we’re also a small scene because…we only know battling.  once u reach a certain level in your skill, and have spent a certain amount of time in the scene, you’ve battled everybody in every combination.

this may be a common history for a lot of newschool poppers in boston:

1)exposed to the dance somehow

2)experiment and try to learn on your own

3)watch your first battle, first exposure to the boston scene

4)practice, begin to reach out to people in the scene

5)first time hitting a cypher at an event

6)first time entering a battle

7)first time beating SOMEbody in a battle

8)practice a lot, attend every battle and compete at every battle

9)first time you feel robbed at a jam

10)have finally battled everybody in the scene

11)start to “skip” battles—-attend the event, but don’t sign up to compete (we all love the scene still, but for some reason we’re less interested in battling here). hit the cypher to show what you got and that you’re not falling off, basically mainly saying that you’ve reached this step 11 haha

12)attend first out of state battle

13)only battle out of state

???

i thought a lot about why this happens, and it’s because the scene is strong and always has been strong. it’s your own skills that were weak at first and then grew. as your skills grow, you take more interest in your own skills and the satisfaction that practice brings you, but you become less and less involved in the scene.

what makes the scene stronger? in my experience, new faces in the battle scene is what brings excitement, surprising upsets in battles brings excitement, new formats for battles brings excitement.

the scene—the scene—the scene—the scene—”what are you going to do for the scene?”

i have to change the setting

…..

…..

i start my rotations next year and may not have much time to practice anymore, so i got a little scared that this may be my last year to be serious about what i love to do. besides levelling up my own skill, how can i make a lasting impact to enhance what we have here? no, how can i nudge the scene to help itself? the scene is a network of relationships—the problem is that we only really know each other from battles (unless you are same crew as somebody). and when we go to battles we go to smoke and we’re all family but there’s a bit of fuck you i’m gonna smoke you. that doesn’t sound so fun haha—it”s because we only understand each other in terms of skill. we don’t really know each other as people.

i think the first step is to get to know each other’s dance in a non-battle setting. the next step is to try to get to know each other’s person

i hope that this travelling cypher idea can spark something—spark the same realization that i had.  that even though we say we are, we’re not truly united as a city. and there’s no way that we ever could be until we spend some time getting to know the person behind the dance—behind the mask

just like everything in life—if you’re missing something you have to fill the space. this time it was less obvious to me what i was missing, but i know that this is something that i want for myself and what i want for boston. i’m not sure that this cypher thing is going to be able to provide that fresh thing. but it’s my first try i guess. if it doesn’t work, i’ll try something else.  this first cypher is going to be built by some people who are also itnerested in the idea.

by the way, it’s gonna be fuckin dope

ghost_of_the_machine

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