R-16

This past weekend was the R-16 B-Boy Championships in Seoul. This would have flown totally under, over and around my radar if it wasn't for Garry. He was in the know that Koreans are renowned for their b-boy dancing abilities. Another thing to add to the list of activities that Koreans discover, attempt and quickly excel at. B-boying is a kind of hip hop, break dancing style, but this competition also incorperated popping (or pop and lock) another, different type of dance.
The event was held at Olympic Park, a massive area built back in the late 80's for Seoul's turn to host the 1988 Summer Olympics. The auditorium was huge and was a perfect venue for the event. We had optimal seats over looking the stage, to see all the dancers in their limelight.
The 'R' in R'16 stands for respect, a very important principle in the dancing circuit. The 16 stands for the 16 different countries who participated in the competitions. In the finals there were b-boys from China, Japan, Korea, Kazahkstan, Venezuela, USA, and France. It was a 2 day event and although I was only able to attend the first day, there was still lots to soak in.
Before the event opened there was a "Street Festival" that was a little lacking. It consisted of a few walls of grafitti in the making, which was top notch. But then it faded away into a few random booths just selling tees, and that was it. Luckily the performances of the evening made up for what the street festival lacked.

Grafitti Alley

 

The event for Saturday night consisted of solo dancers going head to head until a winner was determined. In between competitions was lots of eye candy. Different teams came out to perform and have battles. Even the judges came out to show their stuff as an introduction to the evening. This clip is a battle between Korea's "Pocket" and Venezuelan b-boy "Lil'G".

On top of some quality dancing, we got a little surprise end of the evening action. First off was a beat boxer who was flat out, i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e! His name is krNfx, and he is actually from Toronto (though of Korean decent). He spent about 10 minutes on the stage performing different sound samples, recording them, looping them and them layering them so it sounded like he was doing the job of a singer, musicians, and sound technicians. Very impressive stuff.

The icing on the cake had to have been Jay Park. Who knew we would be privy to a K-Pop concert at the end of it all?  Out he came and according to the reaction of all the ladies, this man is a hit! Women were falling over themselves and shouting and screaming and singing. It was so entertaining! I have no idea who he was, but it sure was awesome to see the reaction of the whole auditorium to him. Koreans love their K-Pop!

Below are some pictures from the first night @ R16 B-Boy Championships, Seoul, SK.