They call me Bboy Abstrak, thats A-B-S-T-R-A-K.
that stands for able-bodied style trooper with rapid agility and knowledge
there's a lot of layers to my background just like anybody else
I'm really deep into martial arts last have been for the last seven years
I am also into a lot of videography and filmmaking so I'm hoping to actually I'm
I'm gonna really be releasing a lot of different things throughout the
the months and years of passion projects that I have coming out
other than that you know I mean I'm originally from New York Brooklyn New
York and I was raised in Manhattan, lived in the Bronx for a little bit and from
there in 1994 I moved to Florida and not until like '95 I didn't start really
breaking you know I used to just go to these clubs and just freestyle
dance against people and I wound up battling some guy in 1994 he was doing
windmills and ever since then I actually have non-stop breaking and I actually
got in some breaking because of a talent show in my school and I met this guy
from California which is my Ryan Gonzalez he got me into breaking and uh
ever since then I haven't turned back but before that you know my freestyle
dancing was actually inspired by my boy from Connecticut him and his brother
Janou and T, they were emcees but there also were hip-hop dancers and
before breaking that's what I was doing I was dancing to Hip Hop and I was dancing
to techno house and a little bit of house so that's my little brief history on that
I think anyone around me, my little circle you know. From Ryan Gonzalez to
my boys Janou and T, to my crew just seeing them from scratch just looking
you know all of us everybody looks wack when they first started dancing you know
and then they progressed to greater things if they keep pushing it so
they're my biggest inspiration even up until this day and then beyond that was
always you know like Ken Swift & Storm and Mauritzio, quickstep to name a few
even rivalries were and that biggest influence because it would help me
you know reinvent myself you know to be better
it's difficult because you know
the crew is not that together you know there's been a time a period of time
that we kind of disappeared and um there's a period of time that we
disappeared and you know we just recently started staying close together
you know staying in touch so it hasn't been you know what people you know
outside that circle think that it is you know it's it's uh it's basically like a
family like you know there's difficulties and families all the time
and you have to rekindle those relationships if you can
the crew always tries to stay connected you know especially up until recently
you know really it's ironic because
before, if you know who MexOne is
before MexOne passed away we were starting to connect with each other and when that
day happened I really reached out you know to them, " look man we need
to really connect with each other forgive each other as much as we can
for whatever reason that we don't speak to each other so ever since then you
know we are on a little Instagram chat group and we just send each
other funny stuff and just try to keep each other entertained you know and
know that you know we're there for each other no matter what no matter how far
Even if it's through a text I know sometimes a text is impersonal but it's
better than nothing and some members we haven't spoken in years so
it's very hard to keep a crew together you know especially when it's like a family
I've been dancing for 23 years so that's basically training for 23 years that's the way I
see it so even if I don't get to practice you know I have a sense of
movement and muscle memory but you know certain movement might not be as sharp
but how did I sustain myself? Well I mean it's been a
difficult last couple of years or five years you know you're kind of like,
after a while you kind of lose, sometimes you might, you know you lose the desire the
motivation to keep going. You question why are you doing this? So there's a lot
of times where I question why am I doing it but ultimately I never turn my back
on the dance you know. I'll tell you if anything I'll turn my back on a scene
and that means you know just I don't have to go to a jam all the time you know.
Even if I'm in my living room I'm still dancing it's part of my life is my
lifestyle you know I'm saying I'm not you know it's not like I'm in a club and
meaning like a set team club that I have to go to every now and then and you
know perform this character because you know as corny as it sounds breaking is a
lifestyle you know I'm saying it's you it's my life it always in my life
it was my career for 12 years so whether people see me dancing or not and if you
know depending, you know no matter how much time I put into the dance
I'm still dancing you know, my meditation and I love it and it's
what's created the artist in me you know from dance is what I have discovered many
other talents you know it was a for dance I wouldn't have the desire to film
you know I wouldn't have the love for movement, for doing martial arts even
though one as a kid I did martial arts. Even as asked as a kid I did break. You. know
And I stopped and I went back to it. You know because ultimately movement is
what I love, I love movement and where it can take you know.
How you can you know, redefine physics in a way.
India overall was amazing. I mean, its like
the guys- All For One, the guys that I met. they're like I mean I have so much
love for those guys and I've met so
many people throughout the years but there's something about them that's so
genuine and they're just like my other brothers from the other side of the
world you know and I still keep in contact with them you know I'm still in
touch with them I want that bond to continue because it's
times where I'll stay connected with some people for like a week after I
leave there's their continent, their country and then that's it you know. But
with those guys I don't know I have like a strong I feel a strong bond with them
so Original Street Dance, the event and just the people was amazing you know
I don't know it was just a different experience that just like in anything
for you do it to know what it's like you have to experience it just like
breaking like for people to that are looking outside in you know that don't
understand what breaking is they would have the experience it's who actually
understand it in their form. So India by far one of the best places I've been to
and I just can't wait to go back I'm supposed to go back so it was definitely
a beautiful experience and I want to continue that experience for years to come
I did connect with a lot of the b-boys in India during the workshop after the
workshop. That's always my intention when I go to these events. I want to connect
with people in a personal level philosophical level just to see how they
think. Not just me expressing how my philosophy of dancing is interpreted
but I want to hear their voice as well you know there's so many other, there's
so many people out there that have, you know their philosophy might
you know influence mine. I always look to connect with anyone in any country that
I go to and I did interact with a lot of the b-boys on a personal level dancing
and spiritually, so yeah it was amazing. I wish I could have documented that but I
actually documented A.F.O. you know, All For One Crew. I'm actually working
on this project it's called momentum and one of the first one of the features is
India and one of the first features is going to be Josh, incredible Josh from my crew.
But I'll probably talk more about that later
for me like I always say anywhere that I go you're always gonna have a handful of
b-boys that are really dope and you're gonna have a handful of people b-boys
that are, you know they're gonna be dope so I think it's like that
everywhere you know and everywhere has their own foundation. Sometimes you can
kind of tell when India I just see the happiness and the passion that they have
in there you know. What stood out? what stood out was the person in the
b-boy and that's what my the project that I'm doing is actually about you
know it's the person within. You know some people's like oh so you know
when you kind of like film an artist or any type of artist it's always like all
the artists within the person but now like I want to flip that there for me
what stands out is the person in the artist you see what I'm saying
that means a lot to me so I think I think b-boys in India are just as good
and great as any other b-boy in any other country
Foundation versus blow-ups.
I think that balance is Yin and Yang. Look Yin and Yang. I think it's needed you
got you know I'm saying whether you want to look it like that or not you know.
Blowups, foundation, there's foundation
in blow ups as well, so it's it depends on what you like you know, the you know
Everybody shouldn't dance the same anyways see what I'm saying, but my
my my philosophy has always been, what if your foundation is your blow up? You know
you don't have these blow up sets for me that's how I've seen my
breaking the way I break, I feel like my foundation is my blow up you know well
that whatever angle I hit, how I do it, direction,
that's my blow up. So I don't hate on any dancer on what they do, I respec t every
dancer on what they do as long as they got you know their intention is correct
and what I mean about correct, like it's not they're not just a-holes about it
you know I'm saying cuz you could be the nastiest dancer but if your intentions
are wrong and just bad then you're just not a good person overall and I don't
even care to be around you but um you know blow-ups
I mean it's necessary you know. Its a great way to win battles. Like let's
say if you have foundation and blow ups you know you don't have to use
an entire set even if it's freestyle to win a battle.
You could just go in and do like two or three blow ups and save your moves or your
your rounds for another battle if that makes any sense.
so I mean if people are not dancing it's okay because they will acknowledge that
they need to dance eventually and what's happening now is what happened in the
past you know we would go against as far as my crew or anybody from Florida will
go against other people and weren't really dancing didn't get it and then
years later along the line they started dancing and I'm implementing dance
within their blow-ups and they just look phenomenal now like even if they're all
school like they just look at all so eventually people will catch on it's
always like that you know it's like they say history repeats itself.
so you know just obviously just like anybody would say just work on your
fundamentals dissect the music to to its core. You know you have
different tracks, different sounds what they call stems in a track if the track
has let's say one track has five stems that means that there has a melody, it
has a drum, it has a bass line, you know it might have vocals and then it has a
it can have percussion which I said drums already ready but anyways you get
the idea you know break that down that's what I
used to do it just break down music and you can go to different tempos because
people think about worry about like a song being too fast or song being too
slow even a slow song there is a even if you don't hear the tempo you can create
the tempo so if you have a slow song and you have the idea like oh maybe yeah
what's the fast part of that song and it could be the hi-hat that's not even
there or if there is I hat right you can double that in your in your mind and
you're still gonna be on beat so think about it like that
you know I think that everyone's job as a dancer in anything in any form of art
everyone should you know tap into the foundation let's say you know you
have these blow-ups but you don't have like just a simple fundamental of how to
play it off when you mess up something simple is a corkscrew something simple
as a little freeze you know it doesn't mean that I wouldn't consider somebody a
big way it's just people should learn how to dissect dance and music in general
foundation is also what you create you know whatever artist creates
their style that's their foundation you know so there's different ways of
looking at foundation and to think oh but I want to be different
everything has been done everything mostly everything has been done with the
exception of like crazy movement but you know if it wasn't for a specific
foundation of those crazy moves they wouldn't get to that level right so
foundation is very important you know if foundation is like I said it's not just
like top rock and freezes and it's it's the it's the simple basic tool or move
to get you to the next level for that blow up whatever that is if it's a blowup
The only advice I have I mean it depends on what you want to know you know some
people ask me "What do you think I should work on?" so I ask them "Where do you
want to be? how how skillful do you want to be? As far as what level what
exactly do you want to be efficient at what exact what kind of movement do you
want to master then you master those moves but also don't
forget the fundamentals and it doesn't you know you don't have to do those
fundamentals those fundamentals are there for you to break fall from.
That means when you're in the middle of some crazy move and you're messing up
You will adapt and you will flow into that basic move naturally it's just muscle
memory those foundational moves are there for recovery for me that is the
most important foundation is recovery. How do you recover from a mess up? How do
you recover from a move? That's foundation. That is the most important
foundation- recovery. So think about that. My advice my other any other advice set
goals set goals so that goes for life set goals from movement, set goals for
combinations now I would do that you know for my first year breaking I'm like
I wanted this I mean I wanted this second year I should be having this
third year breaking I should have you know back then obviously it was a little
harder to learn because there's no videos if there were videos it was like
VHS but you know I think my second or third year of breaking, I was like "I must
have flare-90, you know. And I got it, I just worked at it you know, there's,
work on different techniques that will build your muscle for that you know it doesn't
necessarily it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to practice the breaking
movement you know. It can be like a strength movement for instance like I
think dancers should train like athletes because then you're gonna feel the pain
later in life you know. That means the way you eat,
the way you train, right don't just throw your something start trying to move you
know stretch into it a lot of strength movement I think will help how you eat
definitely will help and I I'm talking from experience because I never did
those things and I was younger the only thing that I did do was actually try to
train like an athlete I will go to the gym and lift some weights and then I would
try to break so I could tire myself out so then if I am tired and I can create
and I can actually do perform moves then imagine when I wasn't tired right? In the
heat in a moment so you know try to create different methods for yourself
of of training always always have different methods so some people were
like oh I can't practice today because I'm not feeling it. Well those days that
you're not feeling it like this mm-hmm your practice probably let me say
should but I probably should consist of different methods right like I said so
you know you have methods of just freestyling you just wanna you don't you
don't want to practice like you don't want to feel like a machine so you just
practice briefly so you have freestyle practices and then you have fundamental
practices then you have you know I I don't you know what I'll call it but you
have practices for just drills. Drill practices right, so my drill practice
would consist of one move continuously like if you practice it like first as an
example would be a windmill so you do with ten windmills
you're gonna do five sets you can do fifty windmills. So you do five
sets of ten so you do ten windmills, you stop, rest, you know jumping jacks
whatever go into the next ten. So do drills like that for any type of
movement if you can I think that's the next I would you know I would give Its
Its for anyone not just for India. One more thing.
I don't know if I mentioned it you know foundation or just dancing to music
you know think of those waves and different tempos. So your breaking should
be different tempos not just one tempo all the time