Committee 2008-09

From the President;



Hi, I'm Mari or Mazza, a second-year Music student at St. John's. During my days at music school, I spent most of my time practicing the piano as I wanted to become a professional classical performer. Therefore I never had any training in dance at all; I started attending funk classes as soon as I got to Cambridge, but since the start of Lent Term freestyle dance dominated my life outside my musical studies. Since then I've been hanging out with the small minority of breakdancers here in Cambridge and all I can say is that they were a nice bunch of guys to chill out with!

Me and my committee this year really want the society to pass down the skills of what we have in this dance to the students at Cambridge University ; we hope to accommodate for all levels, so please come and check our classes and training sessions out and get involved (N.B you don't have to be a student at the University to attend our sessions)!

Marcus (below) is the Vice-President and Workshops Co-ordinator. He will be here to give you a hand in classes and invite some amazing dancers for workshops you can take part in! If you are also an experienced dancer and is interested in giving us a workshop, email breakdance@cusu.cam.ac.uk

Ali is our Events Organizer - if you would like us to perform at your ball, college bop, talent show or charity event, he will respond on breakdance@cusu.cam.ac.uk

Naveen (or Nav, as we call him) takes care of the financial aspects in the society.

The treasury role will soon be taken over by Matt, a fresher! Don't be scared first years...there are some around.


Josie is the secretary of the society; any advice on rooms should go to her, we are always looking for better places to train and have our events in!

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Nathan looks after the official webpage, which is currently under construction.

We hope you come along and meet us all!

UK B-Boy Championships Finals – Warm-up Jam (Saturday 11th October)

By Dan (CUBiC Instructor)



This Saturday I went to a jam – no, this isn’t something you spread on your toast (dum-dum), a ‘jam’ is a dance event. This jam is the UK B-Boy Championships, a global breakdance competition that has been running since 1996. Qualifiers are held in each country and the best dancers go through to the world finals in London. There are team battles, solo battles, popping battles and locking battles. ‘Popping’ and ‘locking’ are different dances from breaking (or ‘b-boying’) which are now considered party of hip-hop culture, but that’s another story.

The finals are a two-day event with a ‘warm-up jam’ or ‘pre-final’ on the Saturday and the actual finals on the Sunday. I went to the Saturday event because (a) I don’t have the time and money for both; and (b) the finals is more about watching the dancing, rather than doing it!

I spent most of my time watching the ‘footwork battles’ in one of the two rooms – these battles focus on techniques done on the floor which don’t involve dynamic power moves such as headspins, backspins and so forth. It’s a real test of skill and style, as you have to have as many combinations as possible and to avoid repeating any moves.



In between the battles the DJ plays music while everyone spends time drinking, talking and dancing. People form circles on the dance floor, which B-Boys and B-Girls called ‘cyphers’ (I have no idea where the name comes from). People take turns dancing in the cyphers while everyone else watches (see video above). Understandably, this can be a little nerve wracking, especially when there are some really, really dope B-Boys and B-Girls going in before you! At the same time it’s a chance to show your style, to be appreciated and to appreciate others. It also inspires you to practice and you may even see some new moves you’d never thought of before!

The winning team on the final on Sunday were Top 9, a Russian crew who has been coming up in recent years. Last year they came second to T.I.P, a Korean crew. The winner of the solo battles was B-Boy Kosto, also from Top 9 crew! The winner of the popping competition was Gucchon from Japan, and the locking winners were Lock and Lol from Korea.

Check out the freebie – the Sony Ericsson reps were handing out fat laces all night: marketing genius!



To watch more videos from the event, visit the youtube channel here.

FLIPP Project Launch Party

(by Mazza)



Members of the Cambridge University Breakdance Club kick-started the year in style by performing at the FLIPP Project Launch Party Event at Keynes Hall, King's College in Cambridge.

(FLIPP LOGO HERE)

The FLIPP Project is based at Centre 33 in Cambridge. Centre 33 provides confidential advice for young people; FLIPP is a new project which aims to reach out to young people through the medium of creative workshops. The Breakdance Club have therefore been invited to collaborate with hip-hop related workshops, which will motivate hidden creativity among teenagers and raise skills to work in groups.



To find out more about FLIPP, click to read the report below;

www.flipp.org.uk



If you want us to perform at your College Ents/Bops, Society Events or May Balls please contact us on breakdance@cusu.cam.ac.uk

Freshers' Squash on Wednesday 15th October

The Cambridge University Breakdance Club would like to welcome the freshers of 2008/09 and other students who have just signed up to the mailing list to the Freshers' Squash which is happening this coming Wednesday , on 15th October! NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE OF BREAKDANCING IS NECESSARY!

Come to the Palmerston Room in the Fisher Building, St. John's College at 7pm. Porters or students will be able to direct you, just ask them where the Fisher Building is.

We will give you a free class on basic footwork, as well as an induction on the culture behind breakdancing.

We will head to Lion's Yard for a jam afterwards (by 8.30pm), then drinks at a bar for some more chilling out and general bonding. Will be good to know new names and faces properly! (If you are new to Cambridge but advanced in breakin', we would love to meet you too!)

Clothing; anything loose, e.g. Tracksuits or baggy jeans, t-shirts, hoodies and trainers. Any accessories such as caps and armbands are more than welcome.

Bring £10 in case you want to become a member - if you feel that you want to continue classes, you will need to pay this annual fee. There will be membership forms you can fill in. You will also need to pay for your own drinks when we go out afterwards.

Hope to see many of you there!