yo, let me ask you something

yo, let me ask you something

June 24, 2009, 2:06 pm
Filed under: bulletproof origins, interviews | Tags: i'll have all i'll need, interviews, ladyboy, rosie o'donnell, tim ho

We’re gonna start doing interviews and posting them to this blog!  No one is safe from being interviewed and you may be called on at any time, any where.   We’re going to start off these interviews with some more familiar faces, and then we’ll begin requesting interviews from friends in the Boston scene, and then continue to expand our prying questions beyond.

I took some time to think of a first person to interview and I decided very strongly on Tim Ho. We’ve enjoyed Tim’s presence and skill for the past couple of years in practice, on stage, and in battles. Unfortunately, Tim has since had to  transfer to UCLA but vows to continue to push his own limits in dancing. Tim is famous for his ultimate-energy in tricking and in shows and is unmatched in his unrelenting and furiously frightening intensity. He is also quite strange, something that adds to his boyish mystique.

Figure 1. Tim locking while dressed as a girl at a highschool clique themed party in 2008.

Dave:
tell me an interesting/memorable/funny/strange experience that you’ve had with bulletproof funk

Tim:

Hmm…I was really surprised when a bunch of our dancers invited Rob, Jing, and me to Uno’s to eat one night. At first I didn’t want to go, but Alex kept telling me to, so we eventually went. We ate some desserts, and then Alex brought out these amazing picture collages for me and Li, which were made because we were leaving Boston due to circumstances out of our control. I guess I must have been kind of stupid to not suspect anything after having eaten dinner at the GSU already. Anyways, after I saw what everyone had done for me and Li, I felt really weird inside. It was the first time I had ever cried over something that wasn’t sad. It was also the first time that a group of people did something for me. Even when I look at it now I’m reminded of how happy I was walking home from the restaurant.

Dave:

ah, a beautiful memory! you and li contributed tremendously to bulletproof funk both as dancers and as family. do you have a favorite dance style? what is it that draws you to that style? any video clips of your favorite style that we can post to the blog?

Tim:

I don’t really have a favorite dance style. I think that my knowledge of the dances of the world is very limited and it would be naïve for me to select a favorite. I’m mostly exposed to street dance, so I have a better understanding of those styles over others. Despite this, I don’t have a favorite among the street dance styles. I like popping because it incorporates a lot of illusion which makes it look unreal. I like breaking because it’s often aggressive and explosive, and there are a lot of high difficulty moves. It’s so hardcore and I love hardcore. I like house because its dancers always seem hypnotized into dancing so bouncy and freely. I like wacking because it’s so feminine and I love feminine. Oh, and locking is pretty cool, too. This is one of my favorite locking clips by the all mighty supreme Mr. Wiggles Rock Steady Crew Electric Boogaloos Tribal Click Zulu Nation *fancy hand signs* Bronx BX Westside is my hood now:

I used to have to watch it a couple times a day to function normally.

Dave:

oh wow, i haven’t seen that clip in a long time—i don’t think i knew what locking was when i first saw that clip. fucking incredible feel—so clean and confident. tim, you’ve been practicing with us for a couple of years now, how did you first connect with bulletproof funk? what was different then?

Tim:

Prior to entering BU I trained popping by myself for about a year, and by the time I came to Boston I was so into street dance that I knew I had to find some friends to practice with. I went online and looked at the various student groups, and I considered joining Fusion, despite knowing that they were a choreography group. I had thought that if I came in with a popping background I could add some variety to their group. However, before their auditions, I found out about a dance group information session being held at the GSU theater. All of the major dance groups on campus were there, and they all went up one by one on stage to talk, show a video, or even perform. I think Bulletproof Funk were the first to go up, and their presentation was by far the worst. It was just Alex and Sam talking for one minute, not really knowing what to say. I would have rather watched Rosie O’Donnell having a bloody poop in my bathtub, and then swimming in it, all to the tune of Lady in Red. It was that boring. Anyways, it turned out that Bulletproof Funk were the only street dance group on campus, and I knew that I would much prefer doing street dance instead of choreography.
At my first practice, I met Greg, Alex, Duke, Dave, Mitch, Sam, and Li. I was so intimidated that day because Dave was already preparing for a show (the fall expo), and Li and I ended up learning it just in case some people couldn’t perform. I was considering never coming to another practice because I was afraid of not being able to keep up with the rest of the group. But then I made friends with the yellow-shirt wearing Li, and I felt less intimidated.
During those first months of mine, the group was a lot smaller than it is now. Performances consisted of our four poppers and the occasional BU/BC team-up. Upcoming battles weren’t really discussed (to my knowledge), either. I think the group was more segregated and less familial than it is now. I remember some days only two or three people would come to Saturday practice, and for the majority of the year, the Fitrec practices were unused. However, I think the lack of membership was good for me because it was easier for me to be open around a small number of people. During my first year, I saw a lot of people come and go, but I think now the group’s treatment of newcomers has changed, which is definitely a factor in the increasing size of our group, among other things.

Dave:

yeah, i think one of my greatest shortcomings as a leader in the early days of the group was not toning down the intimidation-factor. i’m sure that i speak for everyone when i say that it was an incredible stroke of luck that you didn’t get scared away that first practice haha. tim, now that you’re going to be in california for college, what are you going to be doing with dancing?

Tim:

HARDCORE BREAKING!!! BECAUSE I CAN FEEL PUBERTY IN MY VEINS! THE PREPOSTERONE IS MAKING HAIR GROW IN PLACES THEY’VE NEVER GROWN BEFORE!
I think breaking pushes the body more than other dances do, and I’m interested in challenging myself to learn all of the amazing things that breakers do, while seeking to answer the eternal question that every dancer should try to solve, regardless of style: “What can I create and contribute to this dance?”
In order to improve as much as I want to, I plan to spend all of my practice time on breaking. I don’t really know much about the dance groups at UCLA, but if I can at least find open practices, I’ll have all I’ll need.

Dave:

SICK!!! i had no idea you were that interested in breaking—although i guess i should have known after the incredible performance that you, rob, lou, and jing did together last semester (ATTENTION ALL BLOG READERS. DOES ANYBODY HAVE FOOTAGE OF THAT PERFORMANCE FROM THAT HIP HOP SHOW AT BU CALLED FLOW YOUR MIND????). and the last sentence in your response sums up exactly how i feel about one of the most important aspects of bulletproof funk and that’s exactly why i want to be able to reach as many hungry dancers as i can: “if I can at least find open practices, I’ll have all I’ll need.” SUCH A SIMPLE IDEA. and yet it is a core purpose of the group!!!! TIM, WHEREVER YOU MAY GO YOU WILL ALWAYS BE BULLETPROOF.

ghost_of_the_machine

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