Hopskotch Dance Company

Jabawockeez x 3 days left...

2011-07-27T18:32:00.008+12:00

Wasabi Everbody,

Managed to check out the MUS.I.C show, which is a big deal because if you don't know MUS.I.C is the Vegas show choreographed and performed by one of the worlds best crews, Jabawockeez...

It was a pretty entertaining show which also featured some dancers from Super Crew. The sets, props and costumes were crazy and some of the acting scenes were hillarious. They were very good entertainers but I have to say I think some of the dancing looked a little tired... I hate to give them a bad review but individually they were awesome but as a group they definitley had some sync issues.

Also checked out the strip and met up with some of the NZ peeps which was real cool, Stephen from FUSION and Moni who's helping out LIL SAINTS. Checked out the biggest M&M's shop we've ever seen called M&M's World. Everything there was all M&M themed, clothes, kitchen utensils, board games, ice cream, all M&M themed.

Can't wait for more to come, registration tomorrow!

Peace ya'll,

Josh

VEGAS BABY!!! x 6,5,4 days left...

2011-07-25T18:21:00.008+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

So ummmmmmm.......................WE'RE IN VEGAS BABY!!!!! YOOHOO!!!!!!

Sorry now thats off my chest we can fully get into this blog. First up sorry for not posting the last couple days, internets been down at my house but all good cause we got a connection now. hehe.

So the last few days have been hectic, heres the lowdown:

THURSDAY:

Today we had to practice for the battles and our set. Sorted out last minute kinks for the set didn't really get to practice for long either. The nerves were starting to set for our final showing the next day.

FRIDAY:

We had our final showing of our set and of our battles at KMC thanks to Ralp Buck from Auckland Uni. We had an overwhelming response of people coming that we did not expect. Paulines mum was up from Wanganui, my own parents came up from Wellington and also different people that we hadn't seen before came as well. Thanks again to everyone it really made the night special. Battles went really good, the set went really good and the food thanks to Mele's mum was crazy good too. Also had to get the final costume sussed today as well but we managed to pull it off. Aw yea and shout outs to all our battle opponents, Radek, Lawrence, Chris Teava, Supreme Kids and Mike Hai. Thanks guys!

SATURDAY:

Lots of rushing today to get last minute preparations done for the trip and we also managed to fit an extra practice in there which helped us work on some of the feedback we got the night before. Girls got their hair dyed thanks to Kat. Not much sleep ahead for us as some of us still got a bit of packing to do.

SUNDAY:

Got to the airport and caught up with VOGUE and the DZIAH boys. Way to early in the morning for most of us. Vogue headed of to Brisbane and DZIAH and us headed of to Sydney for our transfers to LA. Virgin Airlines was pretty good managed to get some good tetris and yahtzee games happening, watched some movies had a bit of a sleep too. Once the plane landed and we slowly painstakingly got through customs we finally meet up with all the crews and left LAX for Vegas. Saw some of the Royal Family peeps too. After a stop over in some random place we made it into Nevada and are now chilling out in our hotel the "GRANDVIEW" in Las Vegas. Chyea boi! So thankful to be on this journey. Its about 11.41pm here and I just got up lol after a nice sleep. Time to explore!!!

Skids and Costumes x 7 days left...

2011-07-21T03:56:00.009+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Today was an interesting day as a few of us had the chance to teach at a primary school holiday program run by an organisation named "SKIDS". The crew went to 3 different programs at 3 different schools and did an awesome job teaching and having fun with the kids. I only managed to make it to the last school but we had a really good time jamming with the kids and I have to say it was the funniest kids class I've ever been in. When we asked the kids about hip hop I had to give myself a timeout and sit on the side cause it was too funny for me. LOL. Heres a rough outline of how the kids answered and when I say outline I'm missing lots of other funny answers but these are still all real answers from the kids themselves:

Kat: Ok, does anyone know the country where hip hop started?

Kid: Christchurch!

Kat: Ummm...no, not there, which country?

Kid 2: Ummm, 11 o clock?

Kat: Laughs......no, which country?

Kid 3: England?

Kat: Nope...

Kid 4: America?

Kat: Yesss, ok everyone say America

Kids: America!

Kat: Ok and who can tell me what city in America...

Kid 1: Ohh! Christchurch!

Kat: Laughs again.............Noo, what city in America?

Kid 5: New York!

Kat: Yes very good...everyone say New York

Kids: New York!

Kat: Ok who can tell me what area in New York hip hop started, it starts with a "B"

Kid 6: Britally!

Everyone laughs.....

Kat: Noo......

Kid eagerly puts his hand up

Kat: Yep, whats your answer...

Kid 7: Bruce Lee!

Hahaha, gotta love kids coz they are always so confident when they answer even if they don't really know the answer to the question. Thanks for having us SKIDS!

Today we also finally finished making our jackets and also wristbands for our costume. And by we I mean Kats mum mostly with a little bit of help from us but still pretty much kats mum. Thanks Andi! We have a futuristic theme that we're going for which also includes a little surprise that you can only see if you come watch our last showing on Friday. All we need now is to find our t-shirt and then we should be ready to rock it on stage. Kats parents are leaving this morning and we'll be joining them very soon on sunday....ARRRGGGHH.....so close.

Don't forget to let us know if you want some island food as we're selling plates of food at the showing as well.

$5 entry and $10 with plate. More details on the facebook page...

Peace ya'll

Second Showing x 8 days left...

2011-07-20T01:50:00.006+12:00

Wasabi Everybody,

We had the second showing of our set last night and I just want to say firstly thanks to all the people that came, we always appreciate the support. Special thanks goes to the Prestige boys, PJ from Auckland Uni and of course Ioana, Khan and the crew who came all the way from hamilton to watch it. Thanks to Shannon too, for filming the set. We had some really good informative feedback which we will use in these couple of days ahead to make the set better and cleaner. We had a real chill practice after, jamming with the hamilton crowd and showed them a little bit of what we do at practice. Many thanks as well for the donation guys! And to Jacqui Cesan for her donation too, we feel extremely blessed. Much Luv to you all.

Also heard that Lil Saints had their showing on last night, was a shame that we couldn't go to watch but I heard that it was kill off. Looking forward to seeing these guys perform on the world stage, hope they rip up. Also peeps if you have some spare cash hit up Becks Vaai (find her on facebook) from Lil Saints as they had money, gear and other items stolen from them while they were busy at one of their trainings. People these days huh..... just not cool. Adam from Hopskotch actually had his hat stolen while we were performing at Kelston Boys the other week. We were lucky enough to spot the culprits at Lynn Mall by chance a few hours later. Long story short we approached them they got scared and we got the hat back. Why do people do such stupid things.... not cool.

We have a long day ahead of us today doing some teaching at some school holiday programmes. Bring on the fun and bring on the games kids!

Last showing this friday 7.30pm at Kenneth Myers Center in town. We're selling plates of island food as well so if you're down let Mele Taeiloa know or let us know on the facebook page.

Peace ya'll

Catch Up time x 32 - 9 days left..

2011-07-19T06:21:00.007+12:00

Wasabi everybody!

It's almost been a month since we've last blogged and thats because we've been flat out with our preparation for worlds. Heres a catch up on what we've been up to the past few weeks...

United We Dance went really well, it was awesome to have the opportunity to dance with some of New Zealands greatest street dance talent. We had loads of good feedback from the audience, some people said that they could really feel that all the crews were enjoying themselves on stage. Shout outs to everyone from the other crews including the managers, Krissy for being our MC, Shaker for doing our music and big props to Kat from the crew for doing alot of behind the scenes work to put everything together. Awesome work!

School Tours have dominated our time in the last few weeks. We have gone to Primary, Intermediate and High Schools to try and get any help we can with our fundraising. We have so far gone to:

Aorere College

Diocesan School for Girls

Massey High

Albany Senior High School

Rutherford College (Seidahs Old School)

Marshall Lang Primary

The Gardens School

Kelston Intermediate

Glendene Primary

Pakuranga College

Birdwood School

Henderson South Primary School

Kelston Boys College

We hope to do a few more when we get back... so if you have a school you want us to come to, let us know.

Showings for our worlds set have also been happening as we had our first one last week. We have another one on tonight with the major one happening on Friday. Tonight we will show our full set in a smallish studio and Friday's will be the full set again plus we will be in costume. We also have battles on friday as we are entering some of the dance battles at the world competition. There will be food served on friday as well. $5 for entry, $10 for plate and entry.

Costumes are the last major thing we need to suss out. Our whole routine will be done to one dubstep track so we've decided to go with a futuristic type theme. We have undies, socks, shoes and jeans sussed. We're just waiting for Kat and her awesome Mum to put the finishing touches on our jackets and then we will need to find a tshirt or something similar to wear underneath.

Also if you haven't seen it, our boy tama made this very cool video of one of our practices. Check it out! 9 days left till we hit that stage! ARRRGGGH!!!

We're still here x 41,40,39,38,37,36,35,34,33 days left...

2011-06-24T12:16:00.017+12:00

Wasabi everyone!!!

Oh man, time is really running out and theres still so much to do, it can get really difficult to keep on top of things when you don't have a manager. Sorry to everyone for not updating in the last week, just been so full on with everything its ridiculous. Heres a little catch up to let you know what we've been up to.

THURSDAY

Last thursday we had an awesome time performing at Albany Senior High School, still one of the most flashest schools I have ever seen. We got to do our show in their multi purpose 2 level theatre which was a really good space to perform in. At night we went on a maori tv show called CODE, which is a sports show whose hosts include Ruben Wiki, Awen Guttenbeil, Glen Osbourne and Wairangi Kopu (Hope I got that spelling right). We got the opportunity to do a little showcase (we're the one dated 07/17) and then got to judge a dance battle between the hosts, it was awesome fun. Ruben Wiki took his shirt off for the island boys team but the maori boys Karl Tenana and Glen Osbourne ended up taking it with their double backspin combo. Thanks for a cool night guys!

FRIDAY

On friday we had our last lesson for hopskotch classes and we'll be postponing the video shoot to try and come up with a really good video as we believe it has the potential to be quite good if we give it time. The video class will be meeting every so often to try and train up and really make the set look good and then we'll try and shoot a vid after that.

SATURDAY:

Another big day for us as we had to get up early to go to different events. Adam and I headed of to do workshops in Hamilton and the rest of the crew performed on a live segment of the tv2 youth programme I AM TV. After this, the crew came down to Hamilton to help out with some more workshops and get ready for our performance that night at an event called 'Just Because' hosted by Nrom all thanks to Raelene Marsters. It was another fun day and night but tiring and exhausting as well. Highlight of the night had to be Rae breaking it out in our battles... Shot Rae! And shout outs to her all for all the help it is much appreciated.

SUNDAY

While most of the other Hopskotch members had a rest from the last few days full on activities I still had to head of to teach at DREAM out at Dziah Dance studios. I dunno what happened but the turnout was a bit lower than usual but it still wasn't too bad. We had a real good session playing games, doing some group activities and of course getting into some dance. Also went to the limit break concert that night with a few of the peeps from DREAM. It was a really good show and I had a really good laugh. Highlights had to be Jared busting out the MJ and Contemp, The Cobras, Mr G and Humble Grounds.... Wow...whoever that chick was, had mean swag, humble grounds killed it.

MONDAY/ TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY

Training, training and more training was the order for these 3 days. Started our practices at around 1pm and went till around 11 at night. We had breaks of course and through these few days vastly improved our individual skills. I think we're more nervous about battles still than we are the worlds routine.

THURSDAY

We headed out to Rutherford College to do a popping workshop and also to do another lunchtime show. The crowd wasn't as vocal as many of the other schools we went too but we got really good feedback and many of them really enjoyed the show especially the dance teacher.

FRIDAY

No training during the day today but while I was teaching out west in the evening the rest of the crew went out to Otahuhu to do some workshops with Mele's youth group. Today's session was about teaching them some moves and routines and we will be going back next week to judge them on what they have picked up. Looking forward to it and also looking forward to United We Dance happening tonight. Vogue, Dskyz, 2.0 and Hopskotch in one concert...its gonna be bananas! Make sure your there early if you want tickets cause I think they are just about sold out!

Jam Session x 42 days left...

2011-06-16T06:44:00.003+12:00

Wasabi Everybody,

Had a slow start to practice today but had visits from a few of our friends that came to jam including Radek from Czech Republic and Benaza from Voltron down in Wellywood. Also had a quick visit from another of our Welly friends, the cool cat known as Maria Salandanan (Hope the spelling on the last name is right). Found out Radek is leaving soon to go back home to see friends, family but also to take part in an event called Street Dance Kemp.

Once again the crew is getting stronger with their battling, the bboys and bgirls worked super hard tonight. They did 10 rounds in a row each plus cyphering which close to killed them I think.

Also worked on the worlds routine tonight and have officially done 1:24 of the routine and only have 36 seconds left till we're done! Woohoo! Then onto polishing and formations...

Albany Senior High School and CODE up next. Details coming tomorrow...

Yep, just look at the hands of a skilled worker, this ones real...

Hopskotch Krump Lab x 43 days left...

2011-06-16T04:29:00.004+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

We're nearing the 40 day mark and we still have so much to improve on, learn, etc. Everyone is looking a whole lot stronger today and the practice is slowly starting to pay off.

Shout outs to my boy Chris Teava aka Example the Cross Bearer (Credits include: Nameless and City Trouble) for labbing us up last night. We all really feel a whole lot more clued up about the whole krump scene and what we can do to bring our own style through. For me personally the session really opened my eyes to certain things and much of how Chris labs and creates his own movement is similar to what we already do with the styles we are familiar with. Which makes things easier for us when we start to make up krump stuff.

If you want to learn the realness, then get at this guy coz he knows what he's talking about.

Much respect bro, keep up the good work!

This obviously isn't real, its flipping funny though...

Bodyrock is Over x 44 days left...

2011-06-14T05:03:00.008+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Hey all, if you missed Prestige and Identity online streaming live then you really missed out.... along with me because I missed it as well. Sigh. I heard the boys did really well and the crowd gave them a standing ovation, awesome stuff! There aren't many videos that I can find yet except for 220 (Second to None) and Choreo Cookies (bad quality though). Will post up once I find some more...

On the hopskotch front we still have loads of money that we need to fundraise, we have our concert coming up soon that's happening with Vogue, Dziah 2.0 and Dskyz. It's gonna be a dope event and we really need you all to be there. Hit up the website for tickets or message us at dance@hiphopskotch.com.

Exciting day coming up, have Chris Teava from Nameless/City Trouble coming in to help us out with some stuff for worlds. Looking forward to it.

No fruit pics again today coz we've got some shots of Prestige to show..

Worlds Set Preview x 47,46,45 days left...

2011-06-13T11:00:00.003+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Heres a catchup on the last few days.....

FRIDAY:

Found out that Adam fell asleep during his competition and unfortunately got kicked out. Did well to last 48 hours with no sleep. The winner Dieneke won staying up a total of nearly 60 hours, but shot to Adam anyway, good effort! We had a hectic day today, taught out at AUT on the shore for some of the dance students out there in the morning, did a performance at Massey High School at midday then also Hopskotch classes in the evening getting prepared for our video shoot. Plus we had practice after that till 11.....crazy day but all worth it.

SATURDAY:

Ice skating time! Finally got the chance to chill and relax out at Paradice in Botany, had a real fun time out on the ice. Kat and Adam were to good on the skates with Kat even bringing her own pair. What a hardout guy... Went to maccas after for a quick feed and Kat and Josh Perry won on the coin swivel game they both got free sundaes. I think the staff thought we were rigging the game somehow cause they didn't look too happy.

SUNDAY:

Taught my first DREAM session today with Donovan, I think the routine was a little difficult but everyone did well picking it up. I feel privelaged to be part of the journey and to be able to share with some talented dancers. Much love everyone!

WORLDS SET PREVIEW:

Mele started making short vids a little while ago to document our journey to the champs but coz her internet is slow at home, she hasn't had the chance to upload them. Have a look at our first one below:

Still on the Bed x 48 days left...

2011-06-10T01:08:00.007+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

ADAM is still competing on the Edge challenge and once again so are the other 3 contestants. I've been watching these guys for last 30/40 hours and they still all look the same. Not even sure if they're ever going to go to sleep. Read on Wikipedia that longest record for staying awake was just over 11 days and this is without any substances to keep you going. These guys have Pills and V so potentially they could stay up for longer than the 11 day world record.

Had a really good day today as again we did a performance for our next school which was at Diocesan School. It was quite a flash private school and from just glancing at the school you could see that it was well maintained and cared for. Instead of just a swimming pool Dio had an Aquatic Center, instead of just a Gymnasium Dio had a Sports Center. It was a big contrast to Aorere College; a public school, that we performed at the day before.

We had a lazy practice also today... I think everyone is just feeling the effects of doing gigs, having uni/work, practising everyday, etc. Can't wait to have a little bit more of a rest in the weekend.

Have a look at these funny characters...

EDIT: While writing this I think one of the other contestants pulled out. Woohoo, Go Adam!!! 1 down, 2 to go...

In It To Win It x 49 days left....

2011-06-09T05:20:00.006+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

At this particular point in the competition Adam is still in the running to win a Calfornia King bed and tickets to see Rihanna live in LA but unlucky for him so is everyone else. Dunno why those girls aren't asleep yet?! Really want Adam to win... I think he should just gross them out and keep farting...hehehe. Being busy with his comp he wasn't at practice tonight but we still found a way of getting him involved...

We had our first School tour today at Aorere college. We didn't get the turn out that we were hoping for but we still made a little bit of coin which is always good and we also got to expose ourselves to a different audience. Got a few more fans out of it which is always good and the staff liked us so much, they want us back to do some workshops and maybe another performance.

We also met up with mentors from a mentoring initiative that's being run out in New Lynn. Shame on me for not remembering but I think the name of it is the "Village Mentoring Programme". They work with different schools helping mentor them and they will be working with us to try and get us along with them to use our dance talents to help out with what they do. Had an awesome meet up with them and even found out that one of their workers, Massey, used to be in Black Grace.

Also NZ's own Shrek the Sheep died a few days back and it looks like even other countries are showing interest in his (her? not sure) death. Have a read of this from the Mirror in the UK, apparently we're "mourning his death" LOL. Respect to Shrek and all his woolly woolness....

Adam, Adam Sandler and Rihanna x 50 days left...

2011-06-07T17:23:00.008+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Thanks to The Edge radio station our boy Yung Akmu aka Adam has won himself a one in four chance of winning a $5000 bed and tickets plus flights and accomodation to go see Rihanna Live in concert in LA.

All he has to do is stay on this bed and watch the movie Bed Time Stories featuring Adam Sandler on loop and be the last one to stay awake. Adam said he'd sell the bed if he won it and use the money to help the crew. That $5000 could really come in handy. Good luck to Adam on his quest to stay awake! They are streaming it live so you can watch the progress of Adam and the other contestants as they go along.

We have our first School tour tomorrow at Aorere College, which I am a little nervous about. We are used to doing shows at primary schools but this will be the first time we hit up a secondary school. We also heard that Request already performed at Aorere recently which will be a hard act to follow. But in saying that we do have a different energy and vibe so hopefully that will come through in our peformance. Looking forward to it regardless, should be a fun time.

Also if you didn't know, the DREAM showcase audition team list is up. Congratulations to all the people that made it and to those that didn't please don't be discouraged. Donhaven, myself and the guys from SDNZ were all looking for different things so it wasn't easy choosing the final team.

I know we usually do fruit but I found this on my boy LK's page and had to share it.... planking to the extreme.

I AM ME wins ABDC! x 51 days left...

2011-06-07T02:22:00.003+12:00

Wasabi everbody,

Firstly congratulations to I AM ME for taking out the latest season of Americas Best Dance Crew, their final competition performance was pretty epic. Check out all the latest vids on youtube and also see some of the old champions that came back to perform for the finale. Jabbawockeez were my favourite on the night, they are just too professional, their piece was crazy good.

Secondly had a good rehearsal today. Trying to push it just a little bit harder now. I made Adam and Mele battle each other for around 20 rounds each which was super tiring for them. Really want them looking good for our school tours (first one on wednesday! aaarrrgghhh).

Lastly, we had a break from practice and got to see Prestige's set that they're taking over for Body Rock which is happening this coming Saturday I think, which is Sunday for us here in NZ. The performance was incredibly strong and the boys really put everything into it. They got feedback from the audience at the end which they seemed to find helpful. The routine just had a few little minor issues that they need to work on to really take the set to the next level. The boys still have a few days before the comp and I wish them all the best with their practice and the polishing that they still have left to do. Plus I hope they kill it over in the states and show them again how we do it here in NZ. Good luck bois!!! Shot to Ants for the t-shirt as well. Cool to see the original Dziah/Prestige boys there.

Im not sure but I think this whole scene except for the cloth and dish has been made out of fruit and veg...

Busy Busy Busy x 54, 53, 52 days left...

2011-06-06T06:29:00.008+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

The last few days have been pretty full on with the usual stuff.

FRIDAY:

Hopskotch Classes are still running and are coming to a close soon. There are only a few people left doing the video project but I think the video will still be fun.

We also had another crew practice where we went over our old Groove routine. It's a bit weird doing old stuff again and it does sorta get annoying sometimes too. Only because you've worked so hard to make the set and get it to a good level beforehand and then when you rehash it you sometimes feel like you're doing it all over again starting from square 1. Cool but lame at the same time. Lol.

SATURDAY:

Taught the usual class at city dance at 12.30 then moved onto the DREAM auditions. Had a really good time teaching the class as there were lots of new people but also familiar faces as well. It was a real good vibe and everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves which to me was the main thing. Donhaven and myself also chose the people that we wanted to get through plus SDNZ also gets to put some people in also. I chose to go with the people that I thought really tried on the day and Donhaven opted to go for character. Really looking forward to what will happen in the next 10 weeks as I think we have a good mixture of experience and up and coming talent.

Also it was Kats birthday on this day, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY once again to her! If you haven't wished her Happy Birthday yet give her a late one, I know she'll still appreciate it. Hehe.

SUNDAY:

Nothing much really happened today. It was just a good time to chill and relax as we have lots of events, fundraisers, classes, etc, coming up fast. We did however manage to sit down with Kats brother and got him to help us with a sponsorship plan. Heres hoping something good will come out of it. Cheers for the help Barry!

I kid you not, this use to be a watermelon...

Announcements x 55 days left...

2011-06-02T05:13:00.009+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

A few exciting announcements are to be made today.

1. DREAM Showcase is coming up this weekend and guess what? I've been chosen as one of the choreographers to help run the Adults section. The other person I'm working with is Mr Limit Break himself Donhaven Graham! So if you're not at auditions you are going to miss out because this year I think is going to be super uber mega crazy in the creativity department.

2. Hopskotch will be on TV soon, managed to get a hook up thanks to Adam and we'll be going on Code on Maori TV and also I AM TV on tv2, should be fun.

3. Lastly I have entered myself into this Amp Scholarship competition where the person with the most votes wins $10,000. If we win, the money will go to the crew heading over to the world hip hop champs. So please vote for me, as a vote for me is a vote for the crew. Vote Now!!!

4. Tickets are now available for online purchase for our collaboration concert with Vogue, Dziah 2.0 and Dskyz. So get in while they're still around because they will sell out before you know it.

Warning: Watch your fruit at all times, heres what can happen when you buy GM apples.

Hip Hop International Qualifiers x 56 days left...

2011-06-01T14:08:00.008+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Been doing some research today and while munching down on mele's awesome brownies found some of the other crews around the world that may be heading over to world hip hop champs as the national champions in their own country.

Theres only 5 here but hopefully I can find some more later on. Check these crews out coz some of the stuff they've come up with is super fresh.

DENMARK - Crazy In Action

AUSTRALIA - Runway

RUSSIA - Абзац Crew

ROMANIA - United States of Talents

GREECE - Ladies and Gents

In other news I've come across some pretty cool clips in the last few days. One of them being kiwi guy Jed Mildon performing a worlds first in New Zealand a few days ago. Crazy stuff!

First school tours happening next week, can't wait!!!

If you ever need cheering up, Happy orange cat can help...

Arrested for Dancing? x 57 days left...

2011-05-31T10:55:00.005+12:00

Wasabi Everybody,

If you haven't heard, this guy Adam Kokesh over in the states has been arrested with a few of his friends for a small dance protest that they did at a Thomas Jefferson memorial site. As I understand it, a new law was passed that prohibits people from dancing in particular public places, this memorial site included. There's always 2 sides to a story though, but from the initial looks of it, it doesn't look that fair what the cops are doing. View the original footage or peep this interview with him on this RT news show.

In Hopskotch news, we're getting a little worried now about raising funds for our trip to Vegas. We're doing as much as we can but are not sure if we'll reach a good figure before we go. We've been selling brownies, selling raffle tickets, doing workshops, we'll be also doing our concert soon as well. If you want any of those things let us know, maybe we can come do a workshop for you or sell you some raffle tickets or brownies, hehe. We really want to get over there but need your help. Hit us up if you are interested in any of those things or anything else we could maybe help you with that could help us money wise.

This is what we may look like if we don't make it to worlds....

Bring It On Auckland x 60, 59, 58 days left...

2011-05-30T07:37:00.010+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

We are well into the 50's now....AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Today marks 58 days exactly until we hit that worlds stage (i think, hope my maths is right otherwise this blog will look stupid at the end, lol). We have had quite a full on past few days and today are resting up for another busy week ahead.

Last Thursday I forgot to mention that we had our first gig with money going towards our fundraising efforts to Worlds. Its a good feeling to finally get some cash in the bank. We did a community gig out in Ranui which was fun we meet a few cool peeps including Hadleigh from SAS who was one of the MC's that night plus the Limit Break crew and also Lockin Latu, who is one of the peeps holding it down with the old school styles out west.

Friday night was a cool night as we have nearly finished our set for the video project class. The class is mixed in their dance ability and are doing really well so far considering. We watched a few videos including some Movement Lifestyle vids and also one of the latest Sound Vision clip to start getting ideas for what to do. Another piece of good news is we got Ben from Side Project who shot the Sound Vision vid helping us out! Looking forward to working with him.

On Saturday some of us journeyed to Whangarei to do an all day workshop with some of the kids from Hardcore Dance Company. The whole day was based on how we as Hopskotch train as a crew. It was a really fun day, playing games, teaching locking, popping, breaking and also jamming plus getting the kids to choreograph their own routines as well. All of them picked up exceptionally well and the crew was amazed at their skill level and also their high work ethic. It was awesome working with these guys and gals and we hope to jam with them again in the future. All the best to them competing at FISAF in Wellington next month!

Also during the weekend the heats went down for Bring It On. I don't know if all the videos have been posted up yet but this guy has posted Aorere and Tangaroa up already. Here are the results below.

Heat 1 Results:

1st Place - Tangaroa College
2nd Place - Epsom Girl's Grammar School
3rd Place - Alfriston College
4th Place - Mt Albert Grammar School

Heat 2 Results:
1st Place - Manurewa High School
2nd Place - Massey High School
3rd Place - Mangere College
4th Place - One Tree Hill College

Heat 3 Results:

1st Place - Mt Roskill Grammar School

2nd Place - Western Springs College
3rd Place - Kelston Boys High School

4th Place - Otahuhu College

Ooohh yeaaa, its rock melon time.

United We Dance x 61 days left...

2011-05-27T12:08:00.005+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

What do Dziah 2.0, Vogue, Hopskotch and Dskyz have in common?

THEY'RE ALL DOING A CONCERT TOGETHER BABY!!!!

When: June 25th 2011

Time: 7 - 8.30pm

Where: Auckland Girls Grammar, Howe St, Auckland

Price: $20 per ticket

Please come and support us as we try and fundraise to get over to the world hip hop champs in Las Vegas. We have 795 seats to fill up so please tell your friends, family and get them to come along. We would really appreciate it!

Honey Dew Melon anyone?

Triple Threat x 62 days left....

2011-05-26T12:20:00.006+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

So last night while the crew was busy practicing as usual I managed to get myself another judging gig, this time at Pakuranga College, judging their House Arts Challenge. It was a pretty fun night, with each house at the school having to enter a dance, a music and a drama (comedy) category. Was cool to see different kids having a go at each of these disciplines. Which got me thinking.....

When I go to watch different crew shows there are people that are multi talented in that they can do way more than just dance. The showcases often involve crew members in an acting role which can sometimes be full of humour (Prestige, SAS) or even something intense overflowing with crazy energy (Request, Dziah 2.0, Vogue) or even something that inspires you and takes you on a journey (Limit Break, Monroe). When you think about it, to be a good dancer, you need to be able to act out your character to bring the dance to life. There are more crews out there that are awesome at acting also but the ones I just mentioned are the ones that just popped into my head. Best acting I've ever seen in a crew showcase, is from Funky Munkyz showcase they did back i think in 09'. I think it was based on the theme of Love. It was a lil long, lol, but it drew you in like crazy. Good work bois! Also check out this link! I was looking for a picture of them and came across this from 2007. Looks like a music group with the same name is sorta calling them out on their website. Read the comments, they're crack up lol.

Secondly the musical talent in crews is crazy! But people don't really know about it, even I've only heard a few people but I know there are lots more out there. I've heard Allenzo and Jordan kill it off with their voices and Lapse kill it with his rhymes from Prestige. The boys from SAS and Wyllis from Dziah 2.0 who are now in Capree are doing awesome with their singing over in OZ (Peep this better quality vid of the full audition of them thanks to MR YOUTUBE himself, Jason Lee). In the girls department I've also heard Esther from T8F and of course our very own Seidah from Hopskotch bring the heat vocally.

We really should be sharing all these talents! It makes me feel that we are not just dancers but performing artists.

Who else in our dance community do you know, can also sing and act real well? Write up in the comments...

Much Luv peeps, keep doing your thang.

Had a funny fruit pic but this one cracked me up more.... hehehehehe, what a fat cool cat.

Give-away Time x 63 days left...

2011-05-25T12:00:00.000+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Hopskotch is coming up baby! We're a little bit behind on our plan but I think we're doing real good anyway. As stated before in previous posts the plan was to choreograph this month and then work out formations next month and then spend all of July polishing. We're close to a minute of our choreo and if we stick to our plan we've got to finish the other minute by the time Prestige has their concert. It'll be hard but do-able I think.

Guess what? We're doing our first ever give-away on this blog. Woohoo! Sad thing is though you won't be getting anything from HOPSKOTCH.... awwwwwwww (automated crowd) but you will be getting something from the one and only, PRESTIGE DANCE CREW.... yyyyaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy (automated crowd). Hehe.

So all you have to do is comment on this post but in a special way that you can only find out about if you click on the 'Prestige Competition' page up at the top. Follow the directions, comment on this post and prepare to MAYBE win.

Now to something random, the guys at 1-day uploaded this random nifty gadget to their facebook page and were wondering if anyone would be interested in buying it if they were to sell it online. Would you buy it? I'm tempted to, could be good for dancers especially if you want to eat and choreo at the same time. I present to you the Incredible Gyro Bowl.

Once again, Owls = Crazy Psychotic animals filled with rage....

Haters don't know x 64 days left...

2011-05-24T07:55:00.010+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

First up I would like to just make something clear to all the people that are hating on the judges after stomp saying that we were "asleep", "blind" or whatever else because Limit Break didn't place higher than what they thought they should've placed. Yes they did awesome.. they were creative, strong in performance and all the rest of it. They would've placed higher but because of a technicality through no fault of the judging panel they were dropped lower to 4th. It was pretty much out of our hands because they made their music mix longer than what was allowed in the competition rules.

Unfortunately for them with all the scores being as close as they were, any deduction would've been detriment to getting a higher placing as Limit Break found out on the day. I'm not hating on anyone from Limit Break or any of the fans but I do think before people go talking, writing comments on facebook, etc that they should find out what really happened first. Also I dunno if anyone from the Limit Break team are still sore about their placing but in my opinion, if you don't want to be judged then don't enter the competition. Mainly because at the end of the day you can have as much criteria as you want but the criteria will always be viewed subjectively because every judge comes with their own perceptions of what is good dance and what is not good dance. For that day it just so happened that the judging panel thought in their own opinion that that's how the placings should've gone down. If it was another panel who knows, it may have been different. But again thats the risk every crew takes when going into a competition.

I wish Limit Break all the best with whatever they do in the future and hope they continue to keep doing what they do because its straight up dope. Its all love in this post but if you're one of those haters and you're reading this, find out the real before you go talking about stuff you don't know anything about. All our decisions were justified, you may disagree with those justifications but all of the panel can justify by themselves why we reached the decisions we reached. Hope that clears things up. If you have any other questions or comments leave a comment below.

In other news, the boys at Prestige and I.D. are getting closer to leaving and closer to ripping up Body Rock (flippin want them to take it out!) and guess what they're selling some tees to help them fundraise. They usually retail at $219.99 but they're dropping the price for a limited time to only $25!!! Thats an insane saving of 88.63584708395837 percent!!! Get yours before they go, because now you know what you're saving they will sell like hotcakes. Not that hotcakes really sell that well these days but you get the idea. BUY A TSHIRT!!!

Video Time!!! Found a couple of videos posted up from Stomp, they are not the best quality but its something right. Really sucks coz you can't really get how good something is when its translated through to video, especially when the quality is just ok. Nothing like seeing something live.

Anyways, check out Monroe and check out Nameless and the Class (Classless? hehehehe).

Aw yea and my new favourite video I like to call "Too Much Swag For The Screen". Starce and Jed killing it off.

Shot for the uploads everyone!

Not much happening on the Hopskotch front except we are preparing our shows that we're taking to different schools around Auckland. Looking forward to it. If you want us over at your school we're doing some short but sweet lunchtime shows. Hit us up on our facebook page.

Sorry no fruit today but click here to see this picture of Nameless and the Class come to life. The guy on the far right, is Ed btw. He used to be in Hopskotch but now he's with Nameless and still funny as ever.

Realisations x 65 days left...

2011-05-22T23:47:00.017+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

After a cool night at STOMP, today I had to rise early to catch the naked bus down to funky smelling Rotorua to join the rest of Hopskotch and to help out with workshops that were happening down there. Unfortunately due to a lack of promo through no fault of our own, no one turned up. Well some came late but by then we had already decided to cancel. So with us being us we just decided to turn our loss into a jam session. Hehe. Mele got a nice Seven freeze variation down with one leg bent and one leg straight and Adam started getting some head-slides down as well. Everyone looked to have improved individually which is a very good sign for our trip.

After that we went to the park, where there was a fairground with what was apparently the worlds biggest inflatable slide in New Zealand there as well. I missed my chance to try but the others got on the day before and said it was crazy fun, they also got it to do it for free. Lucky punks... Then it was time to go back home singing and freestyle rapping all the way back home. If you didn't know, my friend Seidah aka The Real Slim Seidy is crazy talented with her singing voice (she's the brownie on the right and she can kill this song too). Then last but not least we had some dinner that Kat's mum yummily whipped up for us. It was a cool time to eat, relax and play some pool for the dishes. Overall the trip turned out to be pretty fun and being able to sit down and share a meal together at the end of it was really cool.

REALISATION #1

Taking the bus is uncomfortable and long and the bus stops a whole lotta times making the journey feel, unnecessary. Can't wait for Naked Blimp to come out (would be cool, huh?).

REALISATION #2

We need to think properly about all the things we need to confirm before we fully commit to something. My advice is if you're going through someone else to organize events for you put safeguards in place to insure that you get a decent return. E.g. Instead of getting people to sign up on the day get whoever is promoting you to get people to pre book and pay. It's probably a bit of a no brainer for some but we're still learning.

REALISATION #3

I'm realising how much more helpful a manager would be and that organizing and managing tasks all on your own can be difficult. Once again it's a learning process but we'll get there hopefully.

REALISATION #4

At the risk of sounding like a pansy, hehe, I straight up love my crew, we have a really tight bond and they are like family to me. Sometimes doing something as simple as sharing a meal together makes you realize how tight you really are with a group of people. I am at a bit of a crossroads though. Reason being, that we want to add a few more peeps to the mix but I don't want to do that at the risk of losing the group vibe we have already. It's taken 3 and a half years and going through around 20+ other dancers to get to this stage. Hmmmm......what to do?

Btw if you didn't know already Owls are crazy....he may look cute, but those eyes are the eyes of a psychotic killing machine. Everyone in the animal kingdom knows Owls will murder you if they get the chance, don't be fooled. Matt Braunger knows what I'm talking about...

Stomp Comp Results x 66 days left...

2011-05-22T02:15:00.009+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Just finished judging STOMP, with what some might say are some controversial results:

1st - Monroe

2nd - Nameless

3rd - Revelation

4th - Limit Break

5th - A4G

There were a few haters after the comp but I felt the judging panel did there best especially when it came to criteria. And in the end I think we were very pleased and all were able to justify how the results came out. Without going into too much depth this is what I personally liked about the crews that made the top 5. This opinion is only representative of my own thoughts and not of the panel as a whole.

Monroe = Amazing. Amazing use of stage, amazing stage presence, amazing use of props. I really feel like it was one of those times that no matter who entered they would've lost to these girls. A very engaging and well worked routine; could really feel the emotion of the theme.

Nameless had a very clear theme, focusing around the actions of one individual who takes things a step too far. They were seamless through their transitions and held a high level of consistency performance wise throughout their performance. Incredibly tight performance.

Revelation had a solid beginning with the locking, was good to see them bringing the funk. Also loved the sort of triple krump set thang when the three main characters were fighting. If you missed them they were like an all stars west side crew. Lil Saints, Trak 1, Unison and even some SAS boys in there.

Limit Break as always set really interesting creative visual images. They seem to just know how to structure their bodies to create different shapes. They killed off with this crazy robot moving machine thing that they all of course made with their own bodies. Awesome work. Crowd favourite, no doubt.

A4G had a really clear message and to me did well with their island styles as well. And that Vogue drop.....wow, props to you, whoever you are.

Had a real mean time judging and vibing with the other judges today. Meet some cool people as well including Ladi 6's Dad Vic, who's a front man for the It's Not Ok Family Violence Campaign. His job is to go around to different communities to increase awareness of the issue. Watch his ad, I'm sure you've seen it before. And incase you didn't get it the 1st time, thats Ladi 6's Dad...... small world huh.......

In other news, if you're down in Rotorua today come and take some workshops with Hopskotch at the Rotorua Youth Center from 12pm - 3pm. We'll be teaching Popping, Locking and Breaking classes, hope to seeya there!

Guess what?! I found Nemo's Aunty and Uncle.....

Up next x 67 days left...

2011-05-21T05:25:00.006+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

So got a few more events on lock for our fundraising to the world hip hop champs. We're all over the top of the North Island so make sure you come check our events out if we're in your area.

May 21st: All of the Lights Dance Party - Rotorua

May 22nd: Hopskotch Workshops - Rotorua

May 28th: Hopskotch Workshops - Northland

June 18th: Hip Hop Ya Don't Stop Workshops - Hamilton

We also have some school tours happening in the middle of all that. If you want us at your school we're doing some short lunchtime shows, so ask your teachers and hopefully we'll be able to make it in.

In other news the boys at Sound Vision have been doing some cool as stuff lately. Go catch a class with them and support what they're doing. Sound Vision also have one of their members Joseph Ling ripping things up in the states with Movement Lifestyle. Awesome stuff Joe, keep up the good work. They've just released a new video and its pretty dope thanks to Ben Journee from Side Project. Watch out for Side Project too, Ben is a creative machine, if you don't believe me check out his work for yourself.

Yes, that used to be a watermelon, still is actually, just looks cooler now.

Massage Session x 68 days left...

2011-05-19T03:47:00.007+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Today was pretty chilled out actually. Rolled up late to practice to find everyone practising pretty tiredly. So after their stretches we had a little massage session. We even used Kat's special Chinese massage tools, to help everyone with their muscle soreness and stiffness. I think it worked a little bit but everyone was still sore from the day before. However, we pushed on and spent the rest of the practice jamming for our battles. It was a good session because by the end of the praky everyone had some new or improved movements.

In other news ODC have released a new dope as t-shirt: 'Fresh out the box'. Only $40, hit them up on their facebook page if you want to order one. If you ask nicely I think they might have hire purchase or laybuy options....hehe.

Now who wants a pet puppy they can eat?

Whats coming up x 69 days left....

2011-05-19T02:11:00.012+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Wow we're in the 60's now...only 69 days left but as nervous as I am getting, I think we are on a good track. Cracked the one minute mark for the choreography of our routine, which is really good, the hard part will definitley come into the 2nd half of the 2minute routine though. We're trying to use climax again to build up the energy and then make it real hype at the end.

This weekend the crew is heading down to Roto-Vegas which should be a good warm up trip for when we go to the real Vegas (which is Las Vegas if you didn't know). J geek and the geeks are the main act for a dance party happening out there and one of the organisers asked us to come along too. As well as performing on Saturday, we'll be doing workshops the next day so it should be a fun weekend.

Also I will be in the judging panel for STOMP (watch trailer here) this weekend too, so looking forward to seeing The Class, Nameless, Monroe and I think Limit Break, plus all the other crews entering this year. Good luck everyone, dance hard!

In other news, a new singing talent show has started up in the US called The Voice. Theres a guy on the show who's an auditonee and his name is Javier Colon. This guy is interesting because he already was a full-time signed artist signed with Capitol Records and he even released 2 full albums with them, but for some reason they stupidly dropped him. So he auditioned for The Voice and when you watch this you will be thinking to yourself how could Capitol Records make such a massive mistake?

Everyone deserves a second chance and looks like Mr. Colon is gettting his. Awesome...

Would you give this guy a second chance?

My crews the best x 70 days left...

2011-05-18T00:31:00.006+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

We have officially choreographed 33 seconds of the routine and I don't want to hype it up too much but I think people will really like what they see.

At this point I couldn't really care where we come in the competition because I think what we have so far is so uniquely and creatively dope it really wouldn't matter. Have you ever had that feeling of being so proud of something that you don't even care if people think its special or not, well I've got that right now. Lol. Can't wait to represent our style on that worlds stage.

I have to give big props to my crew, they've been working so flipping hard to perform skills that they can't usually perform and I just want to say I am proud of them for how far they've come in only 20 days. Also witnessed the meanest battle between Seidah and Jayson, popping power vs cambodian swag. Mean battle peeps! Also the breaking team are killing it, with Mele having the freeze of the night with this funky bridge variation we concocted. Shot team keep up the good work!

In other news, the Capree audition aired in Australia and it looks like the boys did a really awesome job. Heres a video of them on the show. The quality is a bit average but you get to see and hear them which is all good. Looks like the aussies got more kiwis to love now.

Now who wants to play my pear?

Katto Interview x 71 days left

2011-05-17T00:05:00.012+12:00

Kat Walker aka Katto is one of the founding members of our crew and I decided to interview her today, focusing on her background and upbringing. Not being biased but if you have time, really take time to read what she has to say, she has an amazing story. Also if you've never seen her dance before make sure you watch this.

Full Name?

Katherine Walker

Age?

Where are you based at the moment?

In Auckland, NZ

Where in AKL?

Papakura

White Girl from Southside Huh? You must be tough...

Haha well I have had the odd bottle thrown at me on the bus, but I don't know if I'm that tough.

High School?

Howick College

Preferred Dance Style?

Tough question cause theres so many I love but I think Breaking

Ethnicity?

South African

Wow, so you're not just an average white girl?

LOL I guess, I'm a South African average white girl

Thats cool...

You're cool

Lol......anyways......so whats your story?

What do you mean?

Like are you on refugee status or something or are you kiwi now?

Lol I guess we could have been on refugee status when my family first came here haha. We didn't really have a cent to our name back then, sleeping in our friends lounge until we had the cash to rent an apartment, where it was still the floor for a bed lol and a box for a bedside table. I came to NZ with my mom and my brother cos my sis was still at uni in SA and my dad was working in the states to try and get us some money. So we had it tough in the early days, but my moms a strong woman and got us through the nights where there wasn't too much money for food etc. A very brave woman she is! She always seemed to make the struggle fun, like looking for stamps at countdown with torches when it was closed lol so we could collect enough to buy dinner plates for like $2.99. But yeah since then my family have worked really hard and we're in a good place now and doing pretty well. Will never forget those times though cos it makes me really appreciate what I have now. But yeah full Kiwi- passport and citizenship and all!

Thats actually a crazy story, how old were you when you moved over?

I was 11

Was it hard to immerse yourself into kiwi culture back then?

Haha yes and no. Because I was younger it was a bit easier for me to make friends, but hearing stories about my brothers experiences always made me nervous about being south african. Just because of our accent we were associated with being racist quite a bit and that really shocked me. My family's never really been like that so it was weird to be stereoptyped like that and also to try and understand that at such a young age. I tried to get rid of my accent actually lol. I used to practice the Kiwi version of 'park the car in the car park' to hurry along the process haha. Kind of regret that now! But there were also funny things like learning words like 'Twink' and 'Felts', where it was 'typex' and 'khokis' in SA. I didn't really know wat people were talking about half the time haha.

So sounds like you and your family really sacrificed alot to start a new life here in NZ.... What did you have to leave behind back in SA? Was it an easy decision to come over here?

Yeah my parents definitely sacrificed a lot and it was all to give us kids a better life. We have much better opportunities here in NZ. The most important thing in SA is security, cause if you dont have that you'll probably die.

In all seriousness, its crazy dangerous over there. If I grew up in SA I really don't think I'd be a dancer or have as much freedom in my life. We left behind a lot of friends and some family, but we've created new ones here too. I think it was harder for my parents as they were approaching 50 years and older, starting your life over at that age is a huge thing. Cos they had their lives sorted, we were living in a really nice house, big pool, HUGE backyard, with a granny flat for my Nanna, a garage out back and two driveways- one for each side of the property. It was awesome. We had a massive aviary full of birds, 3 dogs, a cat, eleven hamsters, 2 love birds that were raised from babies lol. But it also came with massive gates with spikes, burglar bars,and an alarm system to keep it all safe. Its like living in a very fancy prison lol.

The decision to come to NZ was made in about an instant though. We were already thinking of moving to the states cause dad had a contract with Disney- thatching roofs in the Animal Kingdom in Florida, but mom got a call offering her a job in NZ. Within 2 weeks of that call we were packed up and heading to NZ. Just like that our lives changed. And all I knew about NZ was that it was rainy and there were lots of sheep haha.

That must've been a humbling experience sacrificing all that to come here. Was it worth it?

Well my mom's kind of like a gypsy she loves to travel, and she sort of taught me to look at it as a new adventure. I do miss the friends I had for sure, and a lot of the culture but it was definitely worth it. NZ is actually one of the best places to live in the world. I don't think people really get that here though.

So how did you get into all this dancing stuff?

Well its kind of been on and off through my life. I learnt a bit of African dance when I was in SA and did Ballet for a couple of years but I think I got bored of the discipline. I think I was only in it for the pretty costumes and all that haha. So I tried Jazz when I came to NZ cos my dance teacher at school recommended it after I did Stage Challenge. I got into it through Cascades studio and then East Auckland Performing arts, where I just jumped into the exam class and then got an A, so my teacher said that I should pursue dancing. I then did some of the choreography for our school production 'Fame' with one of my best mates at the time hehe (Boogaloo Barbie). I was just starting to get into hip hop a little bit then. When I went to uni I started taking dance papers as a minor in my English degree and thought I should try it full time cos I loved it so much. I also started auditioning for t8f. I got into the dance degree at uni and then I got into t8f a year later. Thats when I really started trying hard for hip hop dance, I learnt more about the culture of it. I remember my first locking class was with Justin Haiu hehe, and Shua from Prestige was one of my first hip hop teachers. They were pretty influential for me cos I could see they really loved what they were doing. Then I got mad inspired by Dziah as well. T8f really pushed me to become a better dancer though and gave me so many experiences that I'll never forget. Same with Samara Lingman, it was mean to be at uni with her and I learnt a lot from her as well.

Cool.... really interesting history....

So how does Hopskotch fit into all of this?

Hopskotch is my extended fams! Me and you (Josh Mitikulena) started it at the beginning of '08 after we left T8F after going to worlds in 07. That's another one of my greatest teachers (Josh). We wanted to do something a bit different. As well as concentrate on other styles of hip hop dance. Hopskotch has had a bit of journey through it's intentions and members but I think we've reached an awesome place right now. Couldn't be happier in the path its taking now.

Going back to your upbringing, do you think its had any influence on the way you dance or view dance? Or even how you run Hopskotch?

Well the biggest thing I learnt from my parents is that you have to work hard to get something in life. They're some of the hardest working people I know, so I hope that reflects in my leadership. I also hard out appreciate what I have with Hopskotch, awesome friends and awesome opportunities to do what I love every day. Something I might not have had if I was still in SA. I'd own my own gun by now if I was still there, thats a crazy thought. I think also I've always been taught to remain humble through everything I do, so that's something that's really important to us in the crew too. Another thing is I think of SA and I think of how many people are struggling, and for alot of people there isn't much hope in their life, this always makes me think of giving back to the community. And that's a really strong focus for Hopskotch. I hope one day we can go to SA and share what we know because I know this sounds cheesy but just having someone smile at you if you're in a life like that makes all the difference in the world. So teaching something like dance over there would just be awesome for the communities that have nothing.

Awesome, so any future plans, goals dreams for the future?

Hopefully I finish my masters lol! Thats the first goal, but I really want Hopskotch to go somewhere. I want us to be a full on dance company so our dancers can get paid for their work (haha as well as me and josh). I hard out want to go to Cambodia to help out at this thing called 'Tiny Toones' and to go back to SA to share our gifts. I want to own a dance studio so that we don't have to keep booking the uni ones haha. I also hard out want to build the funk styles scene in NZ, cause in comparison to the rest of the world NZ is far behind. I just want to dance forever! lol.

10 points for the person who spots the famous guy first... and yes thats little Kat back in Africa...

Props to Dziah 2.0 & Vogue x 72 days left....

2011-05-16T01:41:00.010+12:00

Wasabi everyone,

After yesterdays meeting I have to say that I have an increased respect for Dziah 2.0 and Vogue. It is easy to see that even just spending a little time with them they both have a massive heart for dance and it is really refreshing to hear from the people themselves what they do so that they can do what they love.

As I understand it most if not all the 2.0 members dance for the crew full time. Meaning 2.0 for them is their life. They even described 2.0 as being a lifestyle for them. They live and breathe for their dance and its no wonder that they are such strong performers. In the meeting they also shared with us their experiences at the world hip hop champs, some good but some bad. I really have a lot of respect for these boys also because many of them are still young and under 20 years of age. Most of us in hopskotch are over 20. To me these boys haven't even reached an ounce of their full potential and I look forward to seeing them grow more in the future.

What amazed me about Vogue was their determination and drive to succeed. Many of their crew weren't at the meeting but we still got a little insight to how they work. What gets me is these guys practice once or twice a week and they kill it every time they're on stage. How do you just practice once a week and then be so flipping tight and win Nationals? I put these guys tightness up there with Request and those girls prolly practice a few times a week or more not to disrespect them of course. Imagine how good Vogue would be if they did practice more. No one would touch them, straight up. Also if you didn't know, these guys are from Tokoroa, Rotorua, Hamilton and Auckland. Thats dedication right there. Awesome stuff Vogue, keep it up!

Lastly, the SDNZ Hip Hop Nationals DVD is out thanks to our friends at taktix films. So go get one and support the scene! You can view the trailer first and if you have time watch Vogue and 2.0 if you haven't seen them before, they know how to rip up the stage. Their nationals sets aren't up by the way but you can see ours.

Now meet Capsicumosaurus... well his skeleton head anyway.

Vogue - Skotch 2.0 x 73 days left...

2011-05-16T01:03:00.009+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Saturday was an awesome day as the 3 crews that qualified from NZ hip hop dance nationals this year got together for a meet up and a bit of a kai. We also extended the invitation to Request but as you can imagine they're pretty busy with all their fundraising so they weren't able to join us.

It was a really good time to share, to get to know each other and to see how everyone is doing with their planning and rehearsing for the worlds trip so far. Not everyone from Vogue and Hopskotch could make it but it was a good meet up regardless. We also found out that one of the Vogue boys broke their ankle at practice and was rushed to hospital earlier that day. They didn't seem too sure whether he would recover in time for the competition which will be a setback for them. We wish them all the best with the rest of their journey.

We also got to watch Dziah 2.0 perform at the Dance for Japan workshops which was cool. These brothers are mad talented and have crazy energy. Highlight was Anesi's finger tutting section, it was crazy man.

No who's down to try the new potato-kini?

Prestige/Identity @ Bodyrock x 74 days left...

2011-05-14T22:34:00.008+12:00

Flashback to friday night and we managed to focus a bit more on the worlds routine. We actually got quite alot done and have about 30 secs plus of our choreography finished. We're a quarter of the way there! Our plan is to finish all our choreo by the end of this month, then finish all our formations and any other ideas next month and then in the month of july just hardout polish.

Prestige (my top nz crew atm, no lies) has started a blog or a vlog on their lead up with Identity to the Bodyrock competition happening soon in the U.S. Check out their site or support them by subscribing to their youtube channel and/or helping them out with their fundraising.

If you didn't know, there is a new dance/music group called Capree over in Australia competing in Australia's Got Talent. I haven't seen their act yet but they are made up of 3 boys from Sweet and Sour, 1 from Dziah 2.0 and I think another brother of one of the SAS boys. Have look at this little trailer and show some love for them! All the best boys!

Lastly, a new You Got Served movie is coming out. The trailer looks pretty cliché and a bit cheesy but who goes to watch a dance movie for the storyline anyway? No one....as long as the dancing is superdy duperdy dope I'll be happy.

Why is super samurai fruitman warrior crying? I think he just lost a friend in battle....

Apologies! x 75 days left...

2011-05-14T07:12:00.009+12:00

Wasabi everyone,

First of all a BIG FAT SORRY for the wait on the post this time round. This was meant to be posted yesterday but blogger shut down for around a day so I wasn't able to publish anything. Have a read of fridays blog while I try catch up with Saturdays, lol.

Ok, I know I was an advocate a few posts back for not eating the double down but even I have to give in to social pressure sometimes. So yes, I did, I tried out the double down, yes thats right, and call me a loser if you want but it defeated me, lets just say I couldn't handle the jandle. I got quarter of the way through and had to give up. I have to say it does taste good initially but then it slowly starts hitting you...man, imagine upsizing that? "Can I upsize mine to a triple down please?" Hahaha. Heart attack anyone?

If you think eating 1 double down might be bad for you check out this kid, its pretty crazy, he's lucky to still be alive.

Last night at hopskotch practice we didn't jam for too long as we had alot to suss out for fundraising. Most of us were really trying to go over to the US for 3 weeks but are unsure as to how our fundraising will go.

We've worked out so far that with everything we have we're looking to make around $14,000.

Thats with school tours, food sales, raffle sales, concerts, workshops, the works.

Just as a note if you're wanting to help us out a little bit theres a donation button at the top of this blog (If you're reading from facebook, click "view original post" at the bottom). Anything would be much appreciated!

With our raffle P-Lo managed to get a weekend at her brothers lodge called Mt Hiwi Lodge in Wanganui, I think its worth over $400 and guess what you only have to pay $5 to have a chance to win (a 1 in 250 chance to be exact). Do it, if not for yourself, get it for the people you love aka your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, parents, grandparents, or if you're feeling generous treat your neighbour, your postman or make a new friend and treat a random stranger. It's up to you... aw yea and you can take 8 - 10 people as well.

You reckon you could make this? Out of all the fruit so far I think I would have the best chance of making this one...

Hey! Dance for japan workshops happening today! Check it out!

Rakim and his Dyson Airblade x 76 days left...

2011-05-12T03:18:00.010+12:00

My day today started with a one off teaching job out at Albany Senior High School thanks to a hook up from Yaelim Choi (T8F). If you've never been to the school theres only one word to describe the school.

FLASH

How about I just roll up to the entrance and in the cafeteria was the Raiders vs Manly rugby league match playing on a flat screen tv....

Or how about I go to the toilet and they have those dyson airblade handryers that you only see in the mall...

Or how about they even have a friendly helper named Rakim who waits in the bathroom to demo the hand dryer to help you get maximum drying in optimal time...

Look at him.....he's loving it!

Note: 1 of these is fake by the way and its not Rakim. Or is it? Hehehe

Anyways, the school building had some open planning thing going on, desks here, computers there, it was everything I dreamed a google office would sorta be like. Crazy cool. So once I got to the dance studio it was explained to me that the whole day was a day for the kids to do 'Impact Projects', where they basically create their own project that they're passionate about and spend one whole day every week doing whatever to meet their project requirements and their end project goal. The group I worked with did their project on hip hop dance. The group even had funding to bring in outside teachers like myself to help them with their project which the school pays for. Once we finished I asked one of the kids what else they were doing today and he said "once we finish this, we usually just watch movies for the rest of the day".

WHAT THE?!

Yes this is a school... and I'm not dissing the school, just not used to seeing all that cool stuff in an educational facility.

Okay, hopskotch news = we're starting a fulltime bboy crew again. We figure that as a dance crew we're doing pretty ok in the hip hop dance scene even making it to an international competition and we want to get a bboy crew that can do really well in the bboy scene as well. Keep an eye out for this one, it has the potential to really blow up.

Practice wise we had one of the most tiring practices last night. Really proud of the crew for the freestyle session, exercise session and worlds session. Main thing is we're improving everyday. Everyones aching but I know it'll be worth it once we head over to Vegas.

Did you know?

It is estimated 27.5% of Orange juice produced for human consumption has come from Suicidal Oranges.

WARNING: Some readers may find the following picture discomforting.

Lesson: Think before you drink...

Peace ya'll and shout outs to my boy Rakim for the hand drying demo.

Josh aka Kokonut

Get down with the Double Down x 77 days left...

2011-05-10T13:13:00.011+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Want to help Japan out? If you haven't yet here's a great opportunity to do so and if you have already but still want to give more then please go check this out.

DANCE FOR JAPAN WORKSHOP created by my man Kohei Iguchi, will feature some of the best hip hop choreographers out right now including people from Sound Vision, Misfits, Nameless and more. Plus there will also be performances from crews including Dziah 2.0, The Class, and Dskyz.

So head down take a class, watch a performance and help out the people of Japan in their time of need. Check out their vid too!

In hopskotch news we've sorted out a few of our fundraisers, locking some more dates into place. We have few school tours coming up, some concerts, a social, raffles and hopefully some other cool as stuff. Tonight we also edged a little closer to finishing the beginning of the set which is only about 15 - 20 seconds but good things take time, hehe. Its pretty crazily intense energy wise as (dropping some secrets right now) we're starting off with a mixture of breaking styles. Here's hoping we can keep that energy up for the rest of the set....

Hey and don't forget KFC's new double down dropped today. I heard over mai fm that one of the dj's had to queue for 45 minutes to get one. Who would've thought? Reminds me of the days at school when they used to give away free popcorn chicken when it was new. Hahahaha. Just looking at it makes me feel like I've put on weight lol but check out what this person thought. Anyone else tried it? What you think? Yea or Nah?

Today I'd like to finish with a really short story:

Mr Apple was happy and healthy....

Then he had a few too many double downs and he wasn't so happy and healthy anymore...

Lesson: Look out for yourself, Look out for your mates...

Hehehehe,

Peace peoples..

J Williams x 78 days left...

2011-05-09T05:58:00.010+12:00

First story of the day will have to go to J Williams. There has been stories reported about him on a few of the nz news websites including the herald, basically giving reports of recent activity between him and a former girlfriend. Read it for yourself and make your own opinions. Please note that I'm not trying to diss anyone or take anyones side, just sharing the information I found. Kat and I actually competed with him in the world hip hop champs in 07 while he was still in Dziah. He's always been pretty cool to us when we see him and no-ones perfect right, so we for sure will not be judging. All the best to him with his road to recovery.

Ok so as well as finding out that news, the days been pretty intense, especially dance wise. Taught the hopskotch hip hop class at uni, then went and taught a hip hop class at Viva Latino with around 40 people which was new, unexpected and lots of work but really really fun. The people there all got discounted prices from an online deal Viva ran through spreets. Might start looking into doing that for hopskotch classes in the future. I don't think you make alot of money but you do get more people interested, which of course is all good, especially when you're getting more exposure. After that headed back to practice for worlds and I think we're well on our way to hopefully performing well in the battles. Everyones improving so fast, it's pure craziness. Aw yea and I managed to get us a 3 on 3 battle with Supreme Kids happening in about a month. Should be good fun!

We also had a meeting today for our fundraising and although the task at hand is difficult we

believe we can do it! Really want to get over there!

Last but not least, check out Sorority's new blog. If you don't know them they're the varsity crew from the palace dance studio, which is where Request are based. They have a real nice touch to their blog as each member has their own blog connected to the main blog. Nice idea guys and gals!

Now who wants to bite this banana?

Tama and Lisa x 79 days left...

2011-05-07T23:29:00.010+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

A couple of interesting items and links on the agenda today.

Found out another one of our crew members not in the competition team will be able to see us perform at the world hip hop champs. The man himself, Tama Jarman will be able to check us out for prelims but has to return home early unfortunately. Although his stay is short, we'll of course love to have him over there to support as he always does. Shot Tama!

As well as making his own stuff (Subscribe to his channel!!!), Tama has of course been jamming with us, check out some of his work:

Musicality, Battlecry (he kills it after our group routine at 5:30), Collaboration (you guessed it, he's the mime).
Is it me or are there too many daily deal sites out there right now (well too many if you've signed up to their daily emails like me). I guess its all good though getting discounted stuff which is usually discounted at 50% or more. Still need to order my online food package. I'll see what its like then let you all know if your missing out or not. Hahaha. No lies! If you don't believe me read it for yourself. They actually deliver it to your door.

The reason why I bring these sites up is because one of the studios I work at called Zyon Studios (website here, facebook page here) was featured yesterday and I only realised when I saw it on the dailydo site. The reason why its so cool for us, is that the pic used is from our concert class performing at our musicality concert. Yeyah, famous guys!

Now if you don't know about Zyon studios, you should. You should because the person behind it all is running the classes for a very good cause. Lisa Ho might not like me to do this but in this article is her picture (don't ask about the photo, the photographer was putting the pressure on). I put this up in the hope that when you see her you will want to approach her and tell her how awesome she is for doing what she's doing. Props Lisa! All you have to do now is get some friends and/or family and hurry your backside over to class.
Finally, shout outs to my mum and all the other kind, caring, loving mothers out there. Happy mothers day!

Now who wants to mess with angry orange cat? Yea.. didn't think so...

Shhh, don't tell anyone x 80 days left...

2011-05-07T22:32:00.005+12:00

Remember that cool idea, I wrote about in that other post the other day. Well the first steps were taken today as leaders and managers from the 3 adult crews (Vogue, Hopskotch, 2.0) that are heading to worlds from the nationals competition this year came together to plan some cool stuff.

What kinda cool stuff? I don't know actually, coz I wasn't at the meeting. But Kat was and she told me that they were indeed planning some cool stuff. Ok, I do know, I just don't wanna spill the beans just yet as its still very early in the planning stages. That's all you get for now so be grateful.

Many people know us as being the "1 song crew" because in the last few comps we have used 1 track only for each routine. Well Ima drop a bomb right now and tell you that we don't not want to use 1 song at Worlds. Which in simple terms means we aren't not going to use 1 track again.

Anyways, that is important because I emailed the guy who made the song to see if he could help us out with some modifications on it. It'll be interesting to see what he writes back if he writes back at all.

Once we get to over 2000 views on the page I'll reveal more about the cool stuff and our worlds music.

Now who wants an orange peel man carrying is own orange?

Randy Orton presents ABDC x 81 days left...

2011-05-07T05:00:00.009+12:00

Now your probably thinking to yourself what does 6 time WWE champion Randy Orton have to do with hopskotch, being such a high flying manly wrestler that he is? Well believe it or not like us he enjoys watching Americas best dance crew and better yet he even uploads it for everyone else to see. What a guy. Subscribe to him so you can keep up with whats happening. Week 5 of Season 6 is online right now, just recently uploaded. I AM ME had the stand out performance to me and the bottom 2 again I didn't really understand. No hating but ICONIC BOYZ should've been bounced by now, stupid teenie bopper vote.

Hopskotch classes were good today, bboy wise it's taken 3 weeks to complete the first routine and we should move onto a new set next week (So if you want to start fresh, nows your chance). The first set covered 2 toprocks, shuffles (brooklyn style), zulu spin, cc's aka crazy commandos and permanent crease 6 step. I know right, all those moves already, you're missing out my friend you really are.

Video project wise we had some more people come join us which was cool. Warmed up with the scream game too which got a few laughs (if you don't know what the scream game is then you have to come to class to find out). Still a long way to go till we're ready for the camera but we should be all good by the time the shoot rolls around. Still need to think of a good spot to film, any suggestions? The song we're using so far is Ryan Leslie's - To The Top.

Now who wants a watermelon mouth?

Note: I swear I dunno how people make this stuff but it cracks me up, hahaha... more watermelons coming soon.

Get your ABDC gear x 82 days left...

2011-05-05T04:08:00.011+12:00

Wasabi my internet peeps,

First things first...

Look what I found....... just click the link below to find all the free goods....

ABDC Merchandise Shop

......... that you unfortunately have to exchange for money, but are worth it anyway.

If you like the crews, buy the tees and support, especially NZ's own - Request. Actually dunno if any money goes to the crews themselves but show your love any way, if you want to that is. If you don't, all good just buy a regular shirt and look boring. Haha.

Anyways today was a funky day practice wise, began practice watching GRV and some other crews, also had a look at the different battles from the HHI competition last year. Interesting stuff. Also checked out some other different hip hop battles from around the world. Have to give my props to France man, RAF, Pro Phenomen, Les Twins, are just too fresh for me too even describe right now. They're straight killers in my opinion.

Once we got moving we worked on our own individual stuff first then got into performing in front of each other. It's pretty tiring doing 3 rounds in a row each...... Heres hoping we're fit and ready by the time the battles roll around. This will be the first time most of us have entered an international battle, so it'll be cool to see how we go. Main goal for everyone is to crack the first round. If we all do that I'll be fully stoked. Can't wait!

And just for clarification we've changed some of our crew members names (well, this post anyway).

Jason's name Derulo has been changed to Lee-rulo (combonation of his Last name and 'Derulo').

Seidah's name Popping Seidah has been changed to Slim Seidy (slim because shes got skinny chicken legs and seidy coz people aka my parents, remember her as seidy more than seidah , hahahahaha)

Don't forget class is on today! Video Project and Breaking! Its still not too late to join in on the video project so come check it out if you're free ok.

Now who wants a watermelon baby?

Still a skeptic x 83 days left...

2011-05-05T02:05:00.012+12:00

Wasabi everybody,

Started signing forms today for the world hip hop champs which was very exciting. Doubley exciting because we all signed 2 forms each. One for worlds and one for the world battles. This is how it breaks down battle wise for us.

Locking - Kat aka Katto

Popping - Seidah aka Popping Seidah

All Styles - Josh aka Kokonut / Jason aka Derulo

Bboy 3 on 3 - Adam aka Skuxy / Pauline aka P-Lo / Mele aka Marshmele

Note: Some of these names are just for kicks. Can you guess which ones are for real though?

Seidah wasn't there to sign her forms but we worked out after writing all our ages down that there will be no gambling for her while we're overseas because being the baby of the group she'll still only be 20. Which means when we win big she can't claim anything. Hehehe....

We hit the bboying hard today even though we had to wait for studio time (ended up practicing from 9:30 - 11pm due to other bookings, sigh) but we can't complain because at least we have a place we can use. Really proud of our 3 on 3 team as they improved dramatically within our short practice time. I think I'm more nervous about the battles now, than the main comp. Lol.

On a side note, I saw Taups from ODC on K Road the other day doing his work thing for the new 'Siones Wedding 2' movie thats coming out. If you don't believe me ask him yourself. Adam said they were shooting outside murder burger too and changed it to chur burger. Haha. Looking forward to seeing it now...

EXTRA STUFF:

Ok so because I'm still a little bit of a skeptic heres a little update on the Osama situation. I don't know how old the information in this video is but have a look and take from it what you want.

Interesting huh?

The pentagon (the headquarters of the United States department of defense) do have a black budget of around $56,000,000,000 (thats fifty six billion for those of you that are not used to seeing that many decimal places). That means that they budget that money to go to operations that the public won't be able to know about. I don't fully understand it but on the surface it looks like alot of money to use on things you can keep on the hush hush, if you know what I mean.

Crazy huh?

Keep it real homies,

Josh

It's all happening x 84 days left...

2011-05-04T03:34:00.010+12:00

With a new day comes new surprises and new lessons.

Surprise: Got emailed our worlds package today, which included all our registration forms, rules, etc. Found out it costs about $105 US each to compete in the world hip hop champs and the world battles but also to watch the events for the whole week which is good. Theres another $75 if you wanna do a judges workshop, plus there are dance workshops which I think you have to pay for too.

Lesson: I should start my own World's Competition so I can pay off my student loan.

But in all seriousness it is very exciting to get all this stuff because once we get it signed, pay for it and send it away we'll be official. Everyday just a little bit closer.

Had a chat to Jason Siu from SOAK (Welly) tonight and he told me that the company nz had an intense audition process to pick their team for the new MEGACREW section happening at worlds. I think they've just started a new term of dance classes as well so peep their site if you're interested in learning some cool funky fresh dance moves.

The Aussies had their hip hop champs recently and I don't know if it's just me but the winners Runaway look crazily similar to Vogue from here in NZ. Biters? What you reckon? You be the judge...

Crazy Surprise: A random freak tornado struck the suburb over from where I live. One man unfortunately died.

Lesson: Appreciate what you have, because in an instant things can change.

Thankful that I'm alive and healthy and get to do what I love with my crazy cool, funky as a marshmele crew.

Shot Hopskotch!

Josh

Osama Bin Laden is Dead x 85 days left...

2011-05-03T01:28:00.005+12:00

Starting with an unrelated note to Hopskotch but interesting nonetheless, if you haven't heard Osama Bin Laden is dead. I sort of believe it but still find it a little hard to just trust what the American Government says.

The main reason I find it weird is because they said his body was buried at sea. No body to identify, how convenient... I don't know all the details though but it does seem a little fishy. You just never know till you know I guess.

So enough with world news, because this is a blog site about hopskotch the hip hop dance company. Hehe.

Ok so lots going on, we finished booking our accommodation for the week of the champs, which means we will spend 6 days in this place called The Grandview At Las Vegas and our last night at the Suncoast Hotel. We're pretty fortunate to get accommodation for Grandview because we got it through Kat's parents who invested in timeshare a long time ago. So the whole week works out to about $90 each for accommodation!

We also started choreographing for our sets today. We've divided the choreo between ourselves and although we started of slow I think we'll get better the more we get into it. We're using a more inclusive approach because we want everyone to be able to show some of their own style in the routine. Its a longer process but last time I went to worlds I remember how rewarding it felt to be able to say that you created parts of the dance and was able to show it off to the world.

I fixed up our blog site over the weekend, so now we have 2 sites:

www.hiphopskotch.com - Our proper website, where you can find information about us, watch videos, find out about events, etc.

www.hopskotchdancecompany.com - Our blog site, where you will find daily blog posts informing you of our journey to the world hip hop champs. If you didn't know, its where all these posts come from.

Check it out as its looking pretty fresh, if I don't say so myself. (Shot to me for self props,lol)

Lastly, I'm in the process of organizing a fundraising showcase and battle event down in Wellington. I'm looking to have it on June 4th, which is Queens Birthday weekend. So, if you're around make sure you come support, they'll be workshops and hopefully an after party as well.

Thanks for all the feedback so far everyone, its good to know you guys are enjoying the blog posts. Keep liking and commenting, it is much appreciated.

Cheers,

Josh

K-10 Interview x 86 days left...

2011-05-02T07:27:00.013+12:00

Not many people know this but some of our crew members are based in other parts of the world. Through our lead up to the world hip hop champs we'll be interviewing the people that make up Hopskotch. Here's an interview with our boy "K-10" from UK/Japan.

Full Name?

Kei Fukutome aka K-10

Age?

18, Born in Japan, raised in UK

Where you based at the moment?

London, UK (raised in Indonesia up until age 6)

Preferred Dance Style?

Gotta say, Bboying

How long have you been bboying for?

Just about 2 years now! started in the first half of 09!

Howd you get started?

Initially, i was watching youtube videos and stumbled upon some 'breakdancers' and coincidently, a teacher at my school started a 'Bboy club' in 09 and near the end of 2010, i started to run it and promote it

Nice.

Thanks bro haha.

How'd you get your bboy name?

'Kaiten' in Japanese means to spin and i wanna focus on rotation/spin type moves, so i fused my name with the word to make it Keiten.

So whats your story with Hopskotch? How'd you meet up with them?

I went back to Japan over the summer of 2010, initially looking for a summer time job (because i have a place to stay there) and i heard about a bboy jam spot from a friend, and I started training there almost every night and out of all the Japanese dancers, I saw a few 'english-speaking' looking guys come along and seemed like real nice people.fore i knew it, i started training with them whenever they came and soon became close to them. and everyone in the crew were so friendly and welcoming, i soon found myself jamming with them in and out of training sessions.

And now you're part of the crew.

Yea, was so chuffed when i was asked, couldn't sleep that night!

Haha...

So, what's it like being part of a crew that's on the other side of the world?

Honestly, it kinda sucks not being able to train with them, compete with them, and perform, etc. but on the upside, i do get to represent Hopskotch in the UK and spread the reputation, but hopefully i'll get to go to New Zealand to be with them soon! and vice versa...and it does motivate me to train much harder.

What do you think of the Hopskotch style so far?

I'm so proud of everyone in it (though i may not know more than half of them well enough to say this haha) but there are no other crews like this in the UK which specialise in so many different styles, competing in each category and going international!Or in any other country, probably. it's so unique and i love every bit of Hopskotch.

So what's the scene like over in UK?

It used to be really dead with very little places open for free training. (in London anyway) there always classes which you pay for, but nowhere really to express yourself until recently. 2 years ago, they opened Trocadero Underground, which is based in the basement of a huge arcade right in central London and there are always new people showing up there expressing their styles and not feeling embarrassed and doing their thing, though sometimes, there is tension among some bboys, but overall, everyone is easily approachable....

and tourists and 'normal' people walk by there all the time and usually they stop to take a video or picture and occasionally a family will come by and their sons and daughters will try out a few moves, and its real sweet seeing 6 year olds try six steps and all. One boy actually came by and did a back handspring!

So is it just out in the open?

yea, if i were to relate it to somewhere else, its like the second Sonpo in Japan, but this ones open from morning til night, i think it was something like 9am til 1am?

So whats your daily routine like? What do you get up to when you're not bboying?

At the moment, im still at school trying to get into uni and exams are coming up, so am quite restricted to what i can do for now..but in the summer, I'm thinking of getting a job and carry it on to uni and UK is cold throughout the year, so whenever the sun is out, we all head for the parks and usually it gets pretty crowded..and i have a girlfriend now, so if im not bboying, i'll probably be meeting her and what we do depends on the weather!

we don't really have thaat much to do here as a resident, but as a tourist, there are loads of places you can go to, including boat trips and bus tours, which i might consider going on, because living here doesn't mean i've visited every part of it.

So what would be your ultimate dream for dancing in the future?

For solo, entering BC One, and as a crew, entering major international competitions like R16, BOTY, UK Bboy champs and maybe IBE? Haha.

Who is the crew or dancer you're really liking at the moment?

Hopskotch, no joke. but dancer, probably Taisuke, though i hope he doesnt become too cocky...lol

Top bboys at the moment?

Taisuke, Morris, Born. Cloud will be another i think.

Any shout outs?

First of all, Shout outs to whole of Hopskotch! United Wanderers, all the people i trained with at sompo every night, Bboy SexyShishi, Cozmik, MKtitch and Marzinho, and my girlfriend for supporting me all the way...and Alison for starting me off!

Collaboration x 87 days left...

2011-05-01T02:02:00.010+12:00

We have more good news today!

We got an invite the other day from the Palace asking us if we want to do Collab again for this year and we decided to of course say "yes". So today we said we sent our reply and we got confirmation back of our spot in the competition. Woohoo!

For those of you not in the know, Collaboration is an invite only comp where you have to collaborate with another crew(s) / dancers and create a set together to use to compete against other invited crews.

Have a look at our collaboration piece we did with Odyssey based on Paul Dateh's Hip Hop Violin track last year.

At this stage we're planning on opening it to the wider dance community which will involve auditions. So keep an eye out for Auditions coming up once we get back from worlds.

In worlds related news, nothing really major happened today as it is a rest day but Kat and I did some research on past World Hip Hop Champs performances to help us with our prep and one thing was clear.

All the crews that place or make it to finals have their own style going on and do their sets in their own way. In terms of winners, Request are different to Eclectik which are different to the Philippine All Stars which are different to RAF. This says to me that anyone has the chance to win this competition and anything can happen.

What do all you people out there think?

Josh

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly x 88 days left...

2011-04-30T04:35:00.016+12:00

Wats cracka lackin peeps,

Today was a day of mixed emotions......

Good: Found out that we can enter the popping, locking, freestyle and bboy battles happening at the world hip hop champs which will be mean!

Bad: REQUEST getting kicked off ABDC by the judges. What the?! Right? Not being biased or anything but that show is straight up rigged.

This week it was between them and Street Kingdom battling it out as the bottom 2 crews. I honestly didn't think they deserved to be there 3 weeks in a row but this week I can see how the judges would've put street kingdom ahead of them. If you haven't seen it Street Kingdom were insane performance wise, it wasn't exactly clean but you could feel it and thats what krump is about in a way I guess. I mean even the audience got up for them at the end. It was pretty buck in my opinion.

I personally thought REQUEST would easily beat ICONIC BOYZ, INSTANT NOODLES, I AM ME and 787 CREW and I predicted them and PHUNK PHENOMENON (Bebo is crazy!) in the final. Even though they didn't get further in the comp they've already broken new ground and pushed the boundaries for what a New Zealand crew can accomplish. SHOT LADIES!!!!! Keep your heads held high and don't worry about those silly Americans, who needs to be Americas best dance crew when you're the worlds best dance crew, right? Nuff said...

Ugly: So we had another week of Hopskotch classes finish tonight and instead of practising after classes we decided to watch the live stream of Kate and Prince William's wedding on youtube.

Whats so ugly about that you might ask?

Williams baldy.

Do it Will, we all know you want too...

"Thats what happens when you do too many headspins..."

- Kat Walker, 2011

Also was it just me or did Harry look better in his get up than William?

Peace out until tomorrow,

Josh

Hopskotch in World Battles? x 89 days left...

2011-04-29T05:11:00.016+12:00

It's currently 5.13am in the morning and because I'm a night owl I just finished doing some choreo for our video project class tonight which I'm really looking forward

too. Should be fun. I've been so busy thinking about worlds that I haven't really done as much promo for the hopskotch classes as I should've so we'll see how much moola we make out of this whole thing, if any. Lol. We still have about 8 - 9 weeks left so make sure you come down and support because we really need it.

Last night we had another mean practice session, this time warming up with an intense toprock cypher then moving onto creating individual movements, then straight into our exercise stuff (spartan push ups!!!) and then finishing with a good long stretch (everyone's hamstrings actually died). It's clear to see everyone improving, we just need to make sure we keep it up.

We've added training for individual stuff because some of us want to enter the individual battles that are happening over in Vegas as part of the competition. It'll be cool to get Kat to enter Locking, Seidah to enter Popping, Jason plus myself to enter freestyle battles and also whatever the others want to enter as well. It may be the only chance we have in a long time of competing in an international event like that. The last time we entered an international battle was when Kat and I entered the Dance @ Live Hip Hop Battles in Tokyo.

We have to wait to get word from the officials (SDNZ) as well. It'll be awesome if they let us battle, it would make worlds an even crazier experience for us.

Also in unrelated but sort of related news, the website has been tidied up quite a bit including our video section. Have a look at all our favourite events and performances from as far back as 2008.

Wow, now its 6:07am, man I take ages to write stuff. Sigh... time for bed...

Peace ya'll,

Josh

The Beginning x 90 days left...

2011-04-28T01:16:00.006+12:00

The journey is well on its way after practice tonight. There was some intense exercise, intense stretching and intense freestyling, which if we keep up will get us ready to take on the world.

The practice was also sweet because we have our mix pretty much sussed. We also have the base for our ideas sorted too. If you know us you know that we like to do things a little different and we've decided to challenge ourselves a little as well. Why not, right? Stuff like this only comes round once in a lifetime (or in Kat's and my case, twice, thanks to t8f). We want the routine to represent ourselves well with our own original flavour, but also to mix it up so people are always guessing so they continually get that element of surprise.

Also on the events front, Adam may have made a really amazing breakthrough that could potentially benefit the 3 adults crews going over, Dziah 2.0, Vogue and of course ourselves. It's only in the planning stages so far so don't want to hype it up too much but we'll see how it goes. It will be pretty solid if it goes ahead.

More news coming up soon!

P.S. Jayson can you share the regionals trophy round please, only seen and touched it once.......lol. Just don't butter fingers it and let your car drive over it, like Real Madrid. Hahahaha.

1/4 of a year, 3 months, 13 weeks or 91 days...

2011-04-26T04:39:00.006+12:00

Watsup peoples,

If you didn't know by now HOPSKOTCH are heading of to the WORLD HIP HOP CHAMPS in LAS VEGAS, which starts in about the time stated in this blog title. We feel pretty lucky to go especially because we got in there because MISFITS who placed one place ahead of us in 3rd pulled out.

We didn't even expect to make it this far so we want to make the most of this opportunity. Who knows it could be the beginning of something bigger for us.

We have lots of fundraising to do now and we would appreciate any help we can get. Don't forget our classes are running until June 24th so come and have a go while they're still available!

We're hoping to do some cool fundraisers including a video games night, a fundraiser weekend in Wellington and maybe workshops in Blenheim. Exciting right! But we'll let you know as soon as we do.

Peace out everyone,

Josh

FOR THE LOVE

2011-03-27T19:17:00.012+13:00

Hey guys, So we've had an awesome week so far. Busy busy busy. We were working hard on organising the fundraiser weekend for Christchurch. As well as prepping every night for regionals. We had a great day at regionals, the crew pushed it all day and ended up coming tied in second place with Eclipse Dance Crew (who were awesome). They needed to decide on a placing according to HHI rules so as Eclipse had higher performance scores they took out second. And we got third. Couldn't be happier! The place means nothing in comparison to the feedback we got from people in the crowd, the backstage crew, and even the judges. Like Josh said on the stage, we want to make people feel something when we dance. So we're happy, and now contemplating Nats. More importantly!!! Our Christchurch fundraiser weekend is fast approaching!! Its this weekend from the 1st of April - 3rd of April. Tickets can be bought at http://www.hiphopskotch.com/ as well as at the door. Check out the poster for more details:

Peace! Katto

We're BACK!

2011-02-27T15:03:00.012+13:00

Its been a while since you've heard from us, but now that its 2011 and we're all rested and ready to go, you'll be hearing from us a lot more frequently!

Wanna know what we've been up to?

Mele, Jason, Seidah, Tama, Paul and Adam have been working away up in Auckland at all their different jobs. (Some more than others hehe). Also attending the odd workshops that came up over summer!

Kelz is over in Canada, Kei's still in th UK and Annie spent her whole holiday in Korea teaching English!

Plo's been in Wanganui doing her thing and teaching kids through holiday programs and giving them some dance skills too!

Josh has been in Welly organising events such as the Full Clip Bboy battles in Jan. Also he's busy planning some big things for this year, so keep an eye out for our posts on Facebook, twitter and on the blog.

I went on a summer scholarship for Auckland Uni and headed over to Hong Kong, Macau and China and interviewed some awesome dancers. Some really awesome dancers out there that you don't even hear about, and some really cool stories too!

So now we're all looking forward to whats going to happen in 2011!

First up we have a few events on the weekend of the 1st April in support of the people of Christchurch. We all know what the deal is with the tragedy happening in Christchurch at the moment and some of us including myself know people that are directly affected.

Hopskotch is really keen to help out and the best way we know how is through dance. So we're throwing together some events to help raise some money to help out.

WHATS HAPPENING:

FRIDAY 1st APRIL - Dance Battle

Dance exhibition battles showcasing different dance styles battling it out against each other.

SATURDAY 2nd APRIL - Dance Showcase

A dance variety showcase including dancers, groups and crews from all over Auckland.

SUNDAY 3rd APRIL - Workshops

Workshops of different styles, all beginners classes taught from those involved with the dance battle or dance showcase

WHAT WE NEED:

- Dancers that can battle in any style.

- Groups or individuals to Showcase

- Venues

- Volunteers

NOTE:

All proceeds will go towards helping the people of Christchurch, once all expenses are paid for. Meaning the more people that can help out for free with performances, venues etc, the more money will go towards fundraising and the chosen charities.

CONTACT:

If you want to enter the battles (remember its for charity so give it a go!), perform or volunteer at any of our events email Josh: taropowered@gmail.com or facebook message 'Josh Mitikulena'.

If you have a venue that is avaiable and is free, cheap, or discounted email: katwalka@gmail.com or facebook message 'Katherine Walker'

Look forward to hearing from you and seeing you all there!

Katto :)

Intense!

2010-09-28T22:38:00.011+13:00

Wow so the last couple of weeks have been full on!

But as usual there's a whole lot more to come!

Lets go back though and look at what these last few weeks have been like, lets start with the Club Tequilla battles!

First off Paul and Tama faced the girls of 2 Meke- Kim and Jodi. Unfortunately for the boys the girls came out super strong and ended up taking the round. Can honestly say bgirls in NZ are coming up, these girls were awesome!
Then it was Pauline and myself up against Take 2- Johnson and YT. It must have been a night for the ladies as Hopskotch ended up with the win according to all three judges.

So it was an all girl final! And the final winners were.... Hopskotch!
So now it's back to business for me and Pauline preparing for the finals this week!
Check out our first round here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b13oEzG0Usw

Also on that day I found out I have been blessed with a Summer Scholarship from the University of Auckland. That means I get flown out to Hong Kong to do some research and meet some cool new dancers on the way! So now that's two of us in the crew as Josh received the same one last year for research in the Pacific Islands!

Next up was Groove on Saturday! What a long day! We got to Hamilton at around 11am and managed to squeeze in a quick runthrough on stage. Realising that the lights were so bright part of our routine wouldn't work. So just stuck with the original.

Prelims arrived and there were only 8 crews that were to be chosen to go to finals.
We were one of those crews! Which was awesome as we weren't sure if we would get through to finals because our routine was so different. We realised that even more when we were watching all the crews. I think there were just over 50 crews competing that night throughout all the divisions, so a difficult day for all the judges!After finals we moved up one spot into a very happy 4th position which we just found out recently.

We learnt a lot about judging by being on the other side of it again, and confirmed our thoughts that judging is so subjective, no matter what you do there will always be a chance of missing out.
The criteria we challenged in our set was use of stage and I think from what we've heard is group choreography.We stayed in the same formation the whole time, using one song, and one dance style. When reading criteria the formation section says 'creative use of stage'. Thought for the day... what is creative use of stage? Can it be staying in one spot to see if you can captivate the audience without having to move? Just something to think about :)
The judges did a great job so no disrespect to them at all, and couldn't be happier where we placed.But if we can offer any advice to any crews that were disappointed about where they
placed it would be "train to win but never expect to".
Check out footage here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls9fYsVebBc

But our night wasn't to end there either, we had to drive all the way back up to Auckland straight after we performed in the finals to run and enter some Red Bull Bboy battles at Bacio.
We were all super tired from Groove but me an Plo managed to get a bit of energy to throw down while Josh MC'd and organised the 'divide and conquer' comp and all the others chilled and enjoyed the battles which Bboy Hugga from Flesh Maze ended up taking out.
Red Bull also had a surprise in store- they flew up Grub D and Indo from Common Ground just for the event. We were lucky enough to hang out with those two afterwards at McDees until the early hours of the morning. They're two really cool cats who gave our crew some mean inspiration and advice for bboying. Made us really appreciate the crew we have right now and look forward to the future! So thanks Davy and Steve for a mean end to our night.

Now we have practices for Collab with ODC going on and all i can say is so far so good!
Look out we have something a bit different in store!
It's been mean jamming with these boys and can't wait to see what our finished product will be!
Make sure you get your tickets and support this new event, it's gonna be a mean as show!

On an international note we have to give it up for Kei Fukutome who is repping Hopskotch over in the UK. Kei's first bboy battle is coming up at the comp the 'King of the Underground' in London.
So good luck to Kei, rep hard and give it everything, most importantly enjoy it and learn as much as you can!

Til next time...
Peace!
Kat

It's been a while....

2010-09-18T20:39:00.013+12:00

Hey everybody!

How we all doing?

Yesss, I know its been a big huge massive while since the last update, so I'm gonna try and catch you all up on everything we've been doing lately so you're all up to speed. Here we go......

So after Japan everything's been going good, we've been going through a bit of a restructuring phase at the mo with some people leaving but also new people joining which is very exciting.

Welcome to Mr. Adam Tafau our newest member!

We've been doing a few performances and battles and also been on tv since our last blog.

When we got back from Japan we hosted another Red Bull Garage Battle and whilst we were doing this were being filmed by tv3 show Pacific Beat St. You can find the footage here:

Pacific Beat Street

We also got invited to do the new collaboration comp coming up this october and we'll be entering a crew with the boys from Odyssey. Go here for more info: Collaboration Comp

Plus we also have Groove this coming weekend in Hamiltron City where there are around 40ish crews performing to try and make it to get to battlegrounds in oz. We're doing an old set that we've had to condense but we've added a little twist to it so should be all good (hopefully).

Click here for more Groove info

Also we performed a funk styles set at the latest Nameless concert which we received lots of awesome feedback on. They're also selling DVD's to the show if you missed out.

Nameless Stuff here

This week in itself has been pretty busy. We performed at the Niuean and Samoan cultural day at Auckland Uni plus we had our first crew enter the
3rd heats for the "Tequila Throwdown" 2 on 2 battles. There are 2 more heats left plus the final so make sure you check us out next week and the week after.

Tequila Throwdown

We've got lots more coming up including a gig for DJ Rectangle and plus some other gigs like "Battle of the Breaks" thanks to our friends over at Zeen Promote, peep the poster on your left.

Keep an eye out if you want to see us perform because we're definitely out and about as you can see.

Take care peoples, more stuff from us coming up, workshops, etc....

Cheers,

Josh

It's Raining, It's Raining

2010-07-13T00:57:00.009+12:00

Sup Peoples,

Wasn't expecting it but its been raining quite a bit more than when I was here at the same time last year and its been super humid as well. But, although the weather has been a bit crazy, the weekend has been even crazier but in a good way.

So you all would've read Kats post link about the lockers and the poppers and the monkeys....

Well on Sunday was the bboy battles for UK Bboy Championships and man I have never seen so many bboy crews before in my life!

I swear there was 70 - 80 crews there and the first round took ages to get through. and from the number they only choose a top 8 to go through....

The 2 highlights of the night were Kaiten Ninja crew and Fusion Rockers from Spain.

Kaiten were a two man crew and told the crowd that they had disbanded the day before. The two said they promised each other to take on the world and be the best. They made it all the way to the finals just being edged out by a bigger crew but in the quarters and semis they took out two big crews much to the surprise of the crowd. They were both incredibly crea

tive and each prolly threw down about half an hour full of sets. For two people this is incredibly hard.

The other guys fusion rockers from spain brought the house down. We didnt know who they were at the time but we could tell that they could be on an international level. It first started with bboy Grazy (having just come from R16) jamming during the breaks, then before we knew it a battle started between him and another jap bboy. Then once Grazy smoked that guy, another bboy jumped and then got smoked. Then after that both crews jumped up and a crew battle started out of no where! It was grazy (lame, i know).

When we met Fusion Rockers they were really nice and all of them looked more like fighters than bboys, they were pretty tank. Haha.

We also met up with Katsu from All Area and he told us we should go train with them in Mizonokuchi Station but i think we'll leave it as it is a little way away from where we are.

At the end of that exciting day we ended it by going to Joypolis, which was a small amusement park made by SEGA. The rides were pretty fun and were mostly virtual but everyone enjoyed themselves and had a good time.

Stay tuned,

Josh

Lockers, Poppers and a Monkey!

2010-07-11T00:37:00.011+12:00

UK Bboy Champs Tokyo Elimination... First day... Lockers, poppers and kids crews...

What a mean day!

We started off by meeting Kei Fukutome at 10am at the Asakusabashi station. This was a bit of a struggle for some who had rocked up home at around 6am after a night at Harlem in Shibuya!

We travelled by first class rollercoaster train, well it felt like a rollercoaster when we went over the Rainbow bridge and it had really nice seats, all the way to Decks Mall in Odaiba. It seemed like a really flash place, saw a massive Ferris wheel, a little statue of liberty and some cool shaped buildings.

As we were walking to the mall we saw a lady walking her dog... well what we thought was a dog.. but turned out to be a MONKEY! It was really cute and pretty friendly. I think everyone was too scared to tough it though. So I did, it made me think of home (South Africa home). So cute and soft! Unlike the ones back in S.A.

After getting over the excitement of the monkey we moved on to the excitement of finding Dippin Dots ice cream.. which was awesome! Tiny little balls of nitrogen frozen ice cream.
We also discovered that there were heaps of games and obstacles in one of the floors of the mall called Muscle Park. Honestly one of the meanest malls I've been to.

The actual event kicked off at around 12pm with a long line of locking pairs going on for a minute showcase per crew in hopes that they'd do well enough to get into the battle. Only 8 pairs would be chosen. There were some funky as pairs, and some weak ones too surprisingly, but I think

they got all the right ones through to the next round. There were some impressive kids that entered this section as well, crazy to see little kids listening to the music and hitting all the beats!

The popping line came on next. This time it was for a solo battle, so each individual had about 30secs to a minute to show their stuff. Noticed there's heaps of Boogaloo over here! One of our New Jack Swing/popping teachers, Ryuzy, from our studio entered this section n he was meeaaan.

After the first round of battles came the semis where 4 pairs were up against each other in the locking, and then 4 individuals for the popping semis. Some definite favourites started emerging out of the lockers. Especially according to the girls! But saw some of the funkiest lockers that I've ever seen live.

After that the kids crews came out and blew us away. With some little girls crews doing things like lotus windmills, and a combo of flare to windmill to turtles then back to windmill... fricken nuts!

The finals of the locking battles were crazy... mind blowingly crazy, the funkiness coming from the two duos was amazing, really gutted the camera decided to run out of battery! The two pairs in the finals both deserved to be there, and showed that they were there to have a good time too. They blew everyone away..

The pair that I wanted to win didn't, but the top 4 in each category go through to the next round anyway. Was still happy with the top two!

Ryuzy ended up winning the popping battles, as he should have, he was preeettty fresh.

I'm not sure if I agreed with all the results for the kids groups but at least they don't place them until the tokyo eliminations. They just take four groups. Which is a pretty cool concept.

Another mean day, and more to come tomorrow with the second day of the comp.. the bboy battles!

Can't wait!

Mata Ashita!

Kat

Super Potato!

2010-07-09T16:46:00.005+12:00

Wow haven't been able to post up a new blog in a little while!

The last few days have been a good few days..

Mostly we've been keeping up with classes in Takadanobaba and jamming at Sompo with the street dancers. We're settling into life here like it's going to last forever, I don't feel like a tourist so much now. Definitely going to miss Sompo when we get back to NZ!

Yesterday sadly another one left us, Tim Bok Choy made his journey back to NZ.
It was a close call though as he thought he was actually leaving today! Luckily the hostel staff came down on Wednesday and reminded us that we were changing rooms Thurs morning because our numbers were getting smaller. Tim double checked his itinerary and sure enough he was set to leave on Thursday.. lucky he didn't just rock up today and get bounced from the plane!

But we do miss him already!

As well as our old room lol!

The room we have now is definitely a lot smaller... lets just say we're going to get to know each other very well!

Plus the air con is pretty weak compared to our old ice box, so not much of an escape from the summer heat!

As it was Tims last day yesterday we decided to go and do what he wanted to do. Which was to have lunch in Akihabara- electric town. We were also joined by our new friend Kei Fukutome. We went to a little burger place called Beckers before heading over to Super Potato (the old school gamers shop). Honestly amazing how many old games you can find there! We played nintendo duck hunt, elevator action, super mario, Wario 3D, etc..

Theres a chair made out of old cartridges, as well as heaps of old cartridges and consoles for sale!

After saying bye to Akihabara and Tim we chilled at the hostel for a bit with Kei, settling into our new room. Then head out to Takadanobaba to do some more classes. Did a mean class with Fishboy again, honestly the funkiest guy. Then the girls tried out a beginners hip hop class (which they found a bit basic) while Christina did Jazz and Jason did hip hop.

The day had made us all pretty hungry and I was still craving some decent steak. Luckily we were meeting up with Misato Hasegawa one of Josh's old school mates who took us to an Italian restaurant in Ikebukuro. We all enjoyed our meals, though they left us wanting more. I finally got some steak (which Josh said is like a battery pack for South Africans) so I was stoked!

Today we look forward to more classes, and tomorrow... UK bboy champs! Woo!

Dewa Mata!

Kat

BATTLE OF THE YEAR!

2010-07-06T00:00:00.001+12:00

Sadly this was where Tama left us to go on his journey to France! So we wish him well on his travels and can't wait to hear about his experiences!

However this was set to be an amazing day with BOTY Japan 2010 to look forward to. We arrived about an hour before the doors opened to join the line waiting to go in to Club Citta, but managed to entertain ourselves with a few games of Ninja and the clap game. We got interviewed by the BOTY camera's while we were waiting too, sometimes its cool to be a foreigner!

Finally we got in at around 2pm. Saw Katsu from All Area Crew and then went in to find a good place to sit. There were a few cyphers going down so Josh, Hayden, Tim and I went and jumped in too. Cyphers were honestly dope, saw some funky as bboys really feelin the beat, as well as some kids that got down and even did halos and headspins to the beat. Crazzyy!!

The show started and we were sitting behind some oddly tall Japanese bboys. But managed to get a good view anyway. Kaiten Ninjas kicked off the showcases, followed by more crews thought the level was a bit lower then last years until Body Carnival came out! They were actually nuts, the energy was so high and they were so clean. The 4 bgirls in Body Carnival were the best bgirls I've ever seen, they were just as strong, if not stronger than the bboys in the comp.Then there was Mortal Kombat they had the craziest blow ups like two guys doing hand hops plus another doing air chair hops while holding hands. Then All Area came on with some mean flavour, however not enough to win the showcases.

The results from showcases was:
1st Mortal Combat
2nd Body Carnival
3rd All Area
4th Incline Crew

All area and Body Carnival were first up to battle. Body Carnival showed they were definitely in it to win it and pulled out the meanest blow ups and crazy energy again, with the bgirls showing their individual talent. All area (missing Toshiki) showed off their flavour again, Taisuke and Katsu being my favourites. However again it wasn't enough and it was Body Carnival that won to go through to the finals.

Mortal Combat had an easy round against Incline, they pulled off the win without having to do too much.

So it came down to Mortal Combat vs Body Carnival. The battle was intense, energy was crazy, blowups were nuts and so much flavour.
Mortal Combat took it out!

During the speeches at the end there were many tears from both crews and even from the judges, Mortal Combat cos they were so happy, and Body Carnival cos they had come so close managing to beat All area but not quite taking the win.

Was an awesome day got to cypher, witness some amazing bboying and meet my favourite bgirl- Narumi!

Next battle... UK Bboy Championships next weekend! Can't wait for more!

Laters!
Kat

Day 4!

2010-07-05T17:20:00.005+12:00

Day 4 was another day full of different activities.

Being Tama's last day he opted to go for a bike ride with Hayden round the Imperial Palace.

While the rest of us went for a full day of classes... and then got so tired we only managed two each! Between a really intense popping and animation session, some funky soul, and a very precise hip hop lesson, we were wasted! After this we headed over to Sompo to meet the other boys. We jammed for a bout an hour but the others still hadn't got there yet so went off to get a feed.

Josh, Hayden and Tama ended up having a mean jam a bit later at Sompo and met some new dancer's to jam with.

Was a good day all in all!

Harajuku and Ringmasters

2010-07-03T04:48:00.002+12:00

Konbanwa ppl!

Day 3 was a very good day indeed!
Started off by chilling at the hostel playing a few lilo and stitch cards from the 100yen store. While most of the crew opted for last card, Tama and I tried building card towers.
We didnt have too much success with the slippery new cards until Tama found some handy sandpaper...

Then the crew started going on their separate ways. Josh and I stayed behind to do some work and rest up for classes. The others went off to Harajuku to have a look at the shopping and while walking around they met up with some of the boys from ABDCs Ringmasters, and got unsuccessfully hustled by some African dudes.

After the days activities everyone separated even more to do their different types of training. Some of the boys went to the Sompo building again to jam with the street dancers, Christina went and did workshops with Andre Fuentes, Kennis Marquis and Ringmasters (who she got an amazing one on one lesson with). The rest of us went back to the studio to take a range of classes, with Japans first bboy, a very scary angry looking but dope as popper chick, and a friendly locker!

All in all a very awesome day, and there is still so much more to come!

Dewa mata!

Kat

Day Rua in Tokyo

2010-07-02T15:05:00.004+12:00

Sup peoples,

Day 2 was pretty good, we started off a little slow in the morning with some of the crew nearly missing out on the free breakfast. Once we got out of the hostel we made our way to Shibuya and crossed one of the most famous crossings in the world. We also made it to the top nation store which is a shop just for bboys and bgirls and there we finally got our Battle Of The Year tickets. We also had a little lunch in the area, some had rice dishes, some had raw fish and some had good old bk.

Afterwards we made our way to Tokyo Step Arts in Takadanobaba and after having a little trouble signing up we used google translator to communicate and figure out that to get a month pass cost 12,800 (yen, that is). We took our first classes, some of the girls took new jack swing while the rest of us took popping with Fish Boy (one of the best in Japan) and then we all took a hip hop class with what we were hoping was Kazuki from S**t Kings but it turned out to be another guy but class was still good considering, real different style though.

Tama didn't come to any classes and opted to go to Sompo to jam with the locals, the other boys joined him later on for some extra practice while the girls and myself went back to the hostel.

Can't wait for more training tonight,

Laters,

Josh

1st Day (Well 1st proper day)

2010-07-01T13:09:00.004+12:00

Hey peeps,

So.......

After a good nights sleep (well good enough, thanks to someones alarm going off all last night...) from all our flying we woke up to a nice and free breakfast at Annes Hostel which consisted of , warm as coffee and tea and massive as toast and normal as boiled eggs.

Food usually tastes pretty good when its free. Hehe.

During the day we all hired bikes and took over the footpaths and roads all looking a little lost not knowing where to go. We managed to make our way to some big temples and shrines around Asakusa that were sort of cool and sort of ok at the same time. No one in the group seemed too interested in praying and bowing in front of random shrines to be honest.

After this we had a mean as feed at a small Japanese restaurant in Asakusabashi with meals that were really good value for money. Thumbs up for the chicken!

During the afternoon we had some rest and learnt some bboy moves from bboy storms fundamental dvd and ended up having a tiny jam in our even tinier room. Then after we trained it to Shinjuku to have a little wander round and in the process had a street jam with some buskers. They were playing some really funky music and we started to draw a pretty decent crowd. Then once they finished we tried to buy one of their CD`s but their leader wouldn`t let us. Weird. He kept ushering us away so we just gapped it. I think he didn`t like us dancing in front of them maybe they were jealous we were making a bigger crowd. AH WELL....

Sompo Insurance Building was where we headed next and it was cause we wanted to show the crew this spot where lots of underground dancers jam and it was just as good as i remember it was. House dancers, lockers, poppers, bboys, contemporary and ballet dancers, the list goes on. We met up with some of the local dancers and international dancers from USA and Germany as well. The girls even got a little show put on for them and we also performed a little something in front of some of our new japanese friends as well.

Tama even had his own little impromptu battle before we left with this Jap bboy who did a handspin but on his fist. What a guy aye and what a day!

More to come plus pictures and its only day 1,

Wowzers!

Josh

Shout Outs and Japan Trip

2010-06-30T13:30:00.003+12:00

Hey all,

Its been a while (i think 4 weeks) since the last post. First of all we want to thank everyone for their support at all our fundraising events; our concert, workshops, etc.

Thanks to all the people behind the scenes that helped out with concert and all the people that came from out of town to watch us from Wellington, Wanganui, Hamilton, etc.

All your efforts have helped us to get to Japan and guess what we are finally here! We still got some fundraising to do when we get back so please still continue to support us in the future.

We unfortunately all couldn`t make it (Shout out to PAUL, JIN SOL and JOHNSON) but ten of us have made it to Japan and we`ll be posting up and blogging our experiences while we`re over here.

Thanks once again everyone and keep an eye out for us!

Cheers,

Josh

ALL CONCERT MEMBERS MUST READ!!!

2010-05-21T18:48:00.002+12:00

Yo watsup everyone,

This is basically a note for the concert class members but if you're not a member your still allowed to read it if you want I guess. Lol. I'll try and write in a way that informs the class but at the same time is interesting to you, the reader that is presumably not a class member.....anyways....

Today is gonna be a cool day for everyone in hopskotch involved in the concert classes.

We're starting the day practicing for concert at 10am at the Architecture studios and we'll go till about 3.

Also we're having a shared lunch at around 12.30pm with the theme being to bring food from your own culture which should be fun. We've made it this way to get a variety of food but if members can't do it we've told them to just bring what they can.

Also members, don't worry about plates, cutlery, cups and drinks we'll supply that.

From here we'll be going to STOMP and we'll probably meet there all wearing hopskotch tees (and finding a section to sit together} or back at the studios depending on who needs a lift and who can give one (Who can give rides to and from the venue tomorrow? Leave a comment if you can).

Looking forward to the day and hopefully finishing of the set.

Cheers,

Josh

WIN DOUBLE PASSES to "MUSICALITY"

2010-05-12T16:07:00.004+12:00

Hello everybody,

Just a little note to let you know that we're having a small competition to give away 2 double passes to our upcoming concert. We've created a new photo album on our facebook page with 2 photos from our concert classes (taken by our official photographer kate aka zangief) and all you have to do is leave a cool caption in the comments box and wait to see if you've won.

You can find all our details on facebook, here is the main jist of what its all about;

"This is a competition where you can WIN DOUBLE PASSES to our concert by leaving a caption in the comments section for each photo posted in this album. The best caption chosen by us will win a double pass to our concert "MUSICALITY coming up on MAY 29th at GREENLANE CHRISTIAN CENTER.

Competition closes Friday 29th at 5pm and the winners will be notified on facebook shortly after. They can pick up their tickets when they arrive to the concert.

You can only enter once per photo and each winning caption for each photo wins a double pass to concert."

Catchya'll there,

Josh

Indi King, GCC and a Graduation!

2010-05-04T11:32:00.006+12:00

What a weekend!

We started off with a performance of our groove set at INDI KING New Zealands only male bollywood dance comp. I think we performed to most of Auckland's indian community, met some cool peeps while sitting in the foyer trying to sell tees and got to see some cool performances by the contestants...

The performance went really well, apart from all the confetti that stuck to us and moved around as we danced, even got up some of our noses!

We were even given a trophy for performing! Felt like we won the comp, well it's Hopskotch's first trophy so we're stoked hahaha...

Then Sunday came along and the team all went along to perform at Greenlane Christian Centre's night service. Had a lot of fun, we managed to fit in-between all the instruments with help from the guys there. And we got some really positive feedback and encouragement from some of the people from the church.

Another successful night of dancing and having fun...

On to the bigger news!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to our members Josh Mitikulena, Mele Taeiloa and previously Hopskotched Il hwan Oh (Lily) on graduating yesterday!

Was awesome to see some more of our members going on and getting those papers!

We just want to wish these guys all the best for their future achievements, we know you guys are going to be great!
Was good to run into Duncan Tang and the rest of the Hopskotch crew for photos that day too!

Wanganui in Review plus other stuff....

2010-04-27T02:07:00.006+12:00

Hey everyone,

I know I always say it but we are still and like usual busy busy busy. We just finished our little tour of Wanganui (or Whanganui, up to you) the other week, which was tu meke choice. Big shout outs to P-Lo's Mum and her Sis especially for cooking and looking after us. Hope we weren't too much of a hassle.:)

P-Lo had already kicked us off with some cool as promo, getting our name out in two of the local papers and also got herself and us onto radio (Shout outs to Awa FM!!!). You can check out one of her articles at this addy; http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wanganuichronicle.co.nz%2Flocal%2Fnews%2Fno-hip-hop-holiday-for-pauline%2F3912435%2F&h=cd55a

Overall it went pretty well, the first day started with promo in the square then our radio interview at Awa FM then performing for a stage challenge group at one of the local colleges which surprisingly went off and then to our very own youth dance party where we had Ikonz dance crew perform and do a haka for us which we were speechless over but replied with a song that Seidah sung. Thanks to Ikonz again for performing!

On the second day we had our workshops throughout the day teaching new school, popping and locking. The classes were well received and although we didn't get the turnout we wanted we got a positive vibe from everyone the whole day. Then to cap it off we performed at a salsa night and even got a lesson in the style of Zouk. It was mad fun to learn from and perform in front of a supportive crowd.

Thanks once again to all our new supporters and all our loyal supporters down in Wanganui. You all definitely made the trip worthwhile.

Now with Wanganui well and truly out of the way for now we're heading towards or big climax which is our very first concert which is going to be massive. We only have 5 weeks and are already stressing a little with all the organization. But know for sure that its going to be a great concert!

Also we've got a few gigs coming up this weekend, first we're performing at the INDI KING (NZ's first Male Bollywood Comp) plus a gig at Greenlane Christian Centre and we may be performing at a talent quest on May 5th at AUT.

Concert classes are doing well at the moment, with now only two more routines to be covered which are krump and house and then we'll have an extra few weeks to polish and finalize formations, etc. Congrats guys you're all doing awesome and improving along the way, keep it up.

And to finish off, we've managed to finally get our t-shirts done but they are in limited stock so get them while they are available.

Blog ya later,

DOMINICAN POWER!!!

Wanganui Trip and Movie Fundraiser

2010-04-16T09:23:00.005+12:00

Hey All,

Like usual we've been busy doing lots of training, lots of organizing and lots of studying. At the moment we're in Wanganui getting ready to go out and promo our dance party event tonight for the youth and also we'll be promoting our dance classes tomorrow.

Also on Wednesday night we had our Movie Fundraiser night. We didn't get the turnout that we expected but we did raise a little money which is good. Thanks to all those that came and supported, we really appreciate it. Also thanks to those who didn't make it but still helped with a money donation.

Don't forget that class starts up again next week, we only have 6 weeks left. So make sure you come check it out before we finish.

Cheers,

Josh

So Much Fun!

2010-04-01T14:25:00.007+13:00

Hey people!

Another week gone by and so much has happened. Last weeks class was heaps of fun and everyone looked to be having a good time. You can watch the video of last weeks locking class on our facebook profile. I always crack up at the part when everyone starts cheering. Its good to see people enjoying themsleves.

In other news, we've got our Movie night details confirmed:

Date:	Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Time:	7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location:	Hollywood Cinema
Street:	20 St Georges Road, Avondale
City/Town:	Auckland, New Zealand

We need to sell 360 tickets! It's really cheap, only $10. So make sure you get some of us. We'll be selling tickets tonight at our class. Thanks to Xtina for the ticket making and Seidah for making the movie happen.

Also we have a small tour happening in Wanganui in 2 weeks which our main man Paul Sarmiento has cleverly designed posters for. We've got a party night happening and also workshops. We even have local crew ikonz helping us out with performances. Cheers guys!

On April 10th we have the bboy nationals which we have entered 3 teams for. The best from all around the country will be there so come and support us if you can, we need it to make up for all the missed practices. Lol.

Lastly we have t shirts being printed and these will be available for sale real soon. There will be lots so you don't need to fight over them. Like Tama.....

Still lots of work and organizing ahead.

Stay tuned.

Josh

Exciting Last Week and a bit...

2010-03-23T01:55:00.016+13:00

Hey All,

So much is going on with us at Hopskotch that its hard finding time to prioritise uni, social life, work and other stuff. We're getting into that busy time of year and although we have been mega busy, things are going incredibly well.

Last week we ran the very first class of our weekly concert classes and much to our surprise it was a huge success. I honestly felt like if we got even just 1 person taking the class we'd be happy but getting 24 people sign up for the first class was too much.

During the class I taught an RnB set and I could feel a real good energy in the room as I'm sure others did too. It felt like everyone was trying their best without competing with each other and that was really awesome to see. We also had a chance to show and tell everyone how we do things at Hopskotch and also introduced everyone to the dancers in the crew.

One important thing I did forget to do was to introduce our Official Camera Crew - Kate Sidorova and Duncan Tang. Kate is our official photographer whilst Duncan is our official camera man. If you want to see more of Kate's cool as pics (like the buzzy one of Chris Teava) check out the Hopskotch Dance Company facebook page. Also Duncan will be uploading some footage to that page hopefully soon as well.

In other events news, Hopskotch has been confirmed to do a weekend tour of Wanganui involving workshops and performances, we also have a movie night coming up on April 14th and our main event for this year has been confirmed. On May 29th we will be having our very first concert!!! The concert is named "Musicality" as the theme is based around different music genres. Keep an eye out for our events coming up this year because they're gonna be good.

Lastly, another one of our endangered first generation Hopskotch members Edward Ong has left us to pursue and focus on other things in life that he wants to accomplish. On behalf of the crew we wish him all the best for his future endeavours.

Catchya later peoples,

Josh

The tiredest blog ever...........

2010-03-13T04:07:00.003+13:00

ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............................

I should be going to bed right now, but I wanted to give a little update on how we're doing this week. So........... (Warning: Literacy may be a problem in this blog as I am too tired to edit).......
As you may or may not know, Hopskotch has decided to embark on a journey to Japan and for Kat and Myself this will be our second journey to the land of the samurais, ninjas, yakuza, geisha's, sumo wrestlers and crazy gameshows that are too funny to not laugh at. Around half an hour ago this journey became a reality for Kat and I and we can't wait for our sequel to begin.

YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

In other news, I helped judged Auckland regionals last Saturday and it was another good experience. Seeing all the performers definitley made me wish we had entered but all good, Theres always a next time.

Classes are starting next week on thursdays to of course help with our fundraising. We're on the right track to get t-shirts made and we've nearly sorted our concert venue.

We've got 2 top NZ bboy crews that have confirmed to battle it out on stage plus we have a salsa performance and a krump performance happening as well. So its all go right now and theres still more to come.

Also Mele and I think Seidah will be performing at Pasifika today, when and where? I do not know but just keep a look out if you go.

I'll also be around looking for dancers to interview for uni..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZ.............

OK FALLING ASLEEP NOW! WRITING BIG TO KEEP ME Awakkkkkkkkkkkee.....

Long time no post!

2010-03-07T13:23:00.006+13:00

Watsup Hiphopskotcharinos!

It's been a little while but this is going to be the mother of all catch ups so you know whats been happening and watsup with the crew this year.

Last year when we broke off for the year we really broke off. So much so that we went to different countries for the summer. Paul and Jason went overseas for family weddings, Paul crossing the ditch to Aussie and Jason going to his homeland Cambodia. Jason also became a monk for a day during his travels.
Seidah headed off to the Cook Islands for the summer. Xtina headed back to her hood in Taiwan and Tim of course followed suit. Did he go over for the holiday or Christina? We're still unsure (Jokes Xtina, calm down). They also meet up Mr Samoan Ninja himself, Daniel Yee coming from another journey in China. He krumped his way into the second round of a krump comp in Taiwain during his visit. Shot Dan!!! Xtina and Tim also headed to Hong Kong as well picking up some chore lessons in the process. Tama has also been acting around the place, last I heard he was doing his stuff in Hong Kong too. Mele headed to welly-wood after gaining an internship with DANZ. Shot Mele! Johnson, Eddy and Hayden kept their travels more local I think. Jin Sol did you go anywhere? Lol. In my travels I headed of to the Pacific to conduct some dance interviews in Tonga, New Caledonia and Niue. I got the opportunity to go, after receiving a summer scholarship from uni. Kat joined me in Niue where we also had the opportunity to teach some workshops for the local kids, it was awesome fun. She also travelled down to welly for christmas and we spent new years in himatangi. Good times all round. Aw yea and P LOL went back to catchup with her fams wanga-vegas. Anyone I missed?

So after a huge time away we finally all (mostly all) got together last week on Sunday and had a big meet up discussing goals, ideas and other issues for the crew for this year. The number one thing that came out of the meeting was that we need to desperately fundraise for our trip to Japan in June/July. It's a tall order but we have some ideas that should go down well. So keep an eye out for events coming up this semester:

A Night at the Movies

Classes - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=app_2344061033&id=732517387#!/event.php?eid=382998639621#wall_posts

First Concert Ever

Workshop Weekend

Second Chance Battle

plus more.....

Over the past few weeks we've had some members drop out due to wanting to focus on other things. It seems we no longer have any Yee family members left in the clique. Mathew Yee was first to leave looking at joining a more new school based crew. Congratulations Matt on getting into the prestigious Prestige Dance Crew. Also Dan has left us because of injury and wanting to try new things but he's still keen to jam with us every so often. And last but not least Martin Hing has decided to focus on academic life this year and we wish him and all the others the best for what they've chosen to do. Good Luck Bois!

But to end on a happy note, one of our members Isaac Nonu has returned! Yes, cousin to famous All Black Ma'a Nonu and soon just like Ma'a may become famous in his own right, as he could be starting a singing career with a well known hip hop music label. Awesome to have you back bro!

Thats enough for the moment but we'll keep you in the know more often, now that we're back into the motions. Watch out for us this year as we get harder, better, faster, stronger and smarter (hopefully...).

Peace out,

Josh

Heyyy boys and girls..

2010-02-14T11:41:00.003+13:00

Chcheaa.. hope everyones had a mean holiday.. Gonna start training again soon.. the time for nerding out infront of my computer for 10 hours a day letting my muscles decrease in mass and intoxicting myself is over.. Can't wait to get back to practice WOOHOOOOO.. anyways.. i really don't have much to say.. but josh told all of us to write something in the blog about what we've done in the holidays and share some experiences.. so yea.. if anyone wanna play some HoN or L4D2..let me know cheaaaa..

peace js

bboys mission trip to the tron!

2009-12-19T13:26:00.008+13:00

Once upon a Tuesday 2 bboys and 1 bgirl decided to go on a trip to Hamilton to go to bboy Stretchmark's last jam for the year....

They met up at 4pmish at the archi studios to kick off their journey (after watching some vids on youtube to get into the mood) lol. We started the journey off with a foto of some traffic and feeding each other chips...

A couple of hours later we got there and had to take some walking shots before meeting Lecksy (Lex) and heading upstairs to the jam spot.

The jam was held in a cool studio with a cool purple carpet on the side (just for Hugga) and a few blow ups on the walls.

Its right next to the hip hop educators work place. Which is also mean!

The jam kicked off and there was Hopskotch hiding in the corner lol. (Or maybe it was just Tim lol)

Stretch got everyone up to start off a team battle and numbered everyone off. I got put with Lex n Hugga... yeeeahhh team 1!

Eddy was in team ? and Tim in team ? sorry guys I can't remember the less important numbers (jokes hehe). Was just a cool fun jam and team 1 came up on top.

Then started the 7 to smoke battles.. far out there was some sick stuff being pulled out and in the end Mayhem and Hugga took it out and won the presents that all the bboys donated.

After everyone was pretty dead and the Hamiltonians put on a spread of fish n chips and strawberries!

Big ups to Stretch and Shadae for holding a good jamand welcoming us all.. was nice to see some dif faces as well as all the Aucklanders that came down! (fleshmaze, loko, and of course hopskotch).

Speech for Everglade Primary

2009-12-14T20:40:00.003+13:00

One of the schools that we did a school tour requested that I come back and do a speech for their year 6 graduation dinner. I also used to be a student there, teach after school classes and my mom taught there too, but thats besides the point!

A few of the kids were asking where the rest of hopskotch were. As if we were all meant to be together all the time... hehe when I said they weren't coming tonight they were kinda disappointed and asked another series of questions. Like were are they? Are they at another school? Are they all at home? as if we all lived together in a big Hopskotch house ... very cute :)

Was a fun night I got to have dinner with all of them and then gave my speech.

Talked about auditioning and to always try again even if you don't succeed the first time (using myself as the example lol).

I also got them to pop at my key words! Looked awesome!

"When you have the chance, make the choice to work hard" and you will achieve your dreams hehe.

So they were popping along some of the parents joined in too!

Was a cool night, wish I could have hung round a bit longer to say good bye to all of my old students! Wish you well Everglade students, you mean more to me than you know!

Eddy's Birthday!

2009-12-01T21:50:00.000+13:00

After the City dance showcase we headed straight over (after stopping off at Tama's to get some frisbees and a rugby ball and trying to scare pedestrians with P.Lo's jabbawockee mask) to Eddys 21st at Cornwall Park. Still reppin it in our locking gears!

There was heaps of food, still to be cooked, so I jumped in as the volunteer BBQ chef with my sidekicks P.lo and Hairy Meleclairy standing next to me for moral support haha.... and of course Josh to help take care of getting all the chicken nibbles finished.

After we were all full Johnson brought out another lot of water balloons. The boys thought the best way to decide who got soaked was to play a game and the losers had to line up and take being hit over and over with the balloons.

So they started Josh's tapping down the line game. After a few rounds with a bit of cheating and some sllloooooowwww reactions the left side lost. Which determined that P.lo and Hairy Meleclairy got most of the impact and were completely soaked, we also found out that shirtless Tama has some mean primal dodging skills and managed to survive the attack as dry as.

Was a mean day, had heaps of fun and oh yeah mustn't forget... HAPPY 21st BDAY EDDYgay!!!!

or as Annie would say Wow! 21st!

Battle Cry and Locking Show

2009-12-01T20:44:00.002+13:00

Hopskotch has finished another busy weekend filled with lots of fun and lots of sweat. Lol. On Saturday we competed in New Zealands biggest bboying event, Battle Cry. Before the event kicked off we watched a documentary named Turn It Loose, which looked at the lives of the bboys who competed at the Red Bull BC One bboy competition. It was pretty cool but a bit to melodramatic for my liking.

We got a tough draw this year having to face last years winners, Common Ground in the first round. We put up a good fight with some people even saying we won but the judges were unanimous in deciding our loss. Watching the video back I personally think the decision was fair. We could have done a lot better and we made too many little mistakes but the main thing was we had heaps of fun. We also got a good feedback about our routines and also good remarks from the judges which was way cool.

The highlight of the night was definitely our very own b-girl P-lo. She did really well making it to the finals of the 1 on 1 b-girl battle. She didn't win but she did awesome competing against and beating b-girls who have been dancing for longer. She beat out Awa and Pash to face Silas in the final. These b-girls have been breaking for years while P-lo had only been b-girling for months and only trained for 3 weeks to compete in this battle, which was also her first battle ever. Much props to P-lo being the first girl in hopskotch to make it to the finals in a breaking event. WOO HOO!

We also performed at the City Dance Showcase at TAPAC on Sunday and although the crowd was mostly quiet and we screwed up a little we got a good response from many people afterwards. Shot guys and also a big shout out to Joel for helping us out on this one. Shout out also to the other acts including Keshia doing some really fun dance hall, Amelia doing mean street funk and Lawrence and the gang funking the house down with their boogaloo and popping steez.

All in all, it was a crazy good weekend but very exhausting.

Peace out y'all.

Josh

Hopskotch School Tours

2009-11-27T21:34:00.000+13:00

Today was the final day of Hopskotch's school tours that we were having to fundraise for our trip to Japan. Man are they exhausting! But fun at the same time!

A huge shout out to all the schools we went to... Balmoral School, Papatoetoe West School, Beach Haven School, Manurewa West School, The Gardens School, Everglade Primary, Otahuhu Kindergarten, Anchorage Park Kindergarten and Anchorage Park Primary School...
And many thanks to all the teachers, principals and kids that helped this all happen and made it so much fun!

We had a great time meeting all the kids around Auckland and hopefully there's a bit more knowledge of hip hop history going round!

Also we managed to raise a good amount towards our trip to Japan! So thanks to all those who contributed! If anyone else wants to help us just hit the Japan Fundraising donate button on the side bar, or go to our web site www.hiphopskotch.com for more info!

Hopskotch Logos!?

2009-11-27T21:20:00.000+13:00

So at the moment we're trying to figure out which logo, that our fellow Hopskotch member and now designer, Paul Sarmiento made for us would best suit Hopskotch...

We can't decide cos we just think they're all pretty mean so we need a bit of help.
We're gonna be putting them up at the beginning of all our new videos to come so keep an eye out for them and let us know what you think!

Just post up on our facebook, youtube or even on here which one you like best so you can help us decide!

Peace!
:)