Hip hop b-boys from Berlin on taking battling back to the old school
Photos by Thủy Tiên Nguyễn ● Words by Fabiola Buchele
A growing Vietnamese breakdancing community spearheaded by Big Toe dance crew – who have been breaking, popping, whacking and every other seemingly impossible thing you can make your body do for over 10 years now- is attracting international talent for the fourth installation of their dance competition, Floor Killer, this weekend.
Dancers come from far and wide to take part in this competition. & Of Other Things met with two b-boys who came all the way from Berlin, and have done for the last four years, to find out what gets them back to Hanoi time after time.
Afrokilla (Uwe Donaubauer) and Lou-Ease (Louis Becker) of the B-Town Allstars first met up with Big Toe to battle it out in 2011 in Berlin.
Since this first encounter the two have come to Vietnam many times. Mainly to participate in a breakdance scene that while younger and less developed than the scene back in Berlin – not to mention lacking in any financial backing, sponsorship or perks for those involved – has heaps of raw energy, talent, love for the moves and the motivation to up their game.
Lou-Ease (Louis Becker) and Afrokilla (Uwe Donaubauer)of the B-Town Allstars
And it is developing fast. Lou-Ease says: “You can really sense that it’s fresh, and because of that the will to create something new is a lot stronger… The leap that Vietnam has made in the last five years, we didn’t even mange in ten. There really is this enthusiasm and this will that is incredibly strong and that is motivation for me to look at my own stuff from a different standpoint.”
Crucially in Vietnam dancers still battle it out on the dance floor, like every self-respecting scene does at its grass-root stage. It is a part of old-school breakdance culture that has been somewhat lost in the more established scenes where the dancers have made the leap into mainstream culture.
So these b-boys have come a long way for the fun of getting back to one-on-one during their first time competing at the Floor Killer competition. “Things will get heated for sure and it will be a real challenge for us. There just aren’t that many competitions in the German breakdance scene any more, it’s really not intoxicating in that sense. So to compete again and experience that fire that we are always seeking. That challenge, and then just the dance itself, the culture, how does he dance? What is his language? Right, this is mine and where do we find each other?”, says Afrokilla.
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Uwe and Louis’ participation in the battle has been made possible by the Goethe Institute Hanoi. Floor Killer Vol. 4 will take place 5-6 July at Savico Megamall. Don’t miss the finale on Sunday 6 July at 2:00pm.
