Life is to short. We keep chasing a goal and become like horses with blinders. Many opportunities pass us because we don't have the courage to pursue our dreams.
I thank God and my parents that I didn't let that happen.
I've heard people say that to lack goals is to lack ambition. I disagree . I think that by lacking goals you become ambitious. You don't rule out the millions of opportunities that life throws at you when you're not fixated on one thing. Einstein had no clue what he wanted to be either in high school either!
Teaching Dance at a School
This particular opportunity presented itself to me in a very timely manner as I had left the city that I lived in (Mumbai) after my last semester in college but had returned just to collect my exam results. During that trip I was showing my cousin's boyfriend one of m dance videos on my iPod and he offered me a job at his Mom's school.
I taught breaking to kids with ages ranging between 10-12 years. My contract lasted between 2007-2009 where I worked a couple of hours twice a week so it was a pretty sweet deal plus I made much more than my friends who was interning or starting at the bottom of the corporate ladder.
Abdul The Great
My greatest accomplishment while working at the school is a kid Abdul Shaikh whom I introduced to breaking in 2007. He was 12, full of energy and picked up the moves I taught quickly.
Abdul won the Redbull BC One Breaking India Championship in 2016 and went on to compete in Japan that year. This year he made to the top 16 at BC One.
We became good friends eventually and hung out quite a bit. Both our journeys joined course over the next 5 or 6 years. He used to come by my dance studio after school and also during his summer vacations. He also joined my dance crew.
Launching a Dance Academy With The Guy Who Taught Me
In my previous post I mentioned the guy who introduced me to breaking in my hometown Dehradun who's name is Heera. I convinced him to join me in Mumbai to take our dancing skills to the next level and explore opportunities. Mumbai is the L.A. of India as its home to Bollywood, the ad film industry and the creative scene.
We opened a dance school called Style Kings and taught a variety of people ranging from students, aspiring actors, a mother and daughter duo who ran their own yoga studio.
Teaching dance at our own studio was a really great feeling as it was our own plus we really enjoyed seeing kids get good at breaking. This also gave the bboys and bgirls a place to practice as our studio had plenty space.
Getting into a Breaking Crew- Roc Fresh
Another great thing that happened in college was that I networked with a lot of kids who were into dance. A lot of us had met on the internet as well. This was even before Facebook was around. I used to be on Hi5 and then Orkut-the grandfather of social media. For those of you who haven't heard of these platforms here's a snippet of the user interface below:
The first breaking crew that I was a part of was Freak N Stylz from which several members including me went on to form Roc Fresh Crew. We were from all walks of life united by one passion.
Some of the guys in our crew sat in a plane and slept in a hotel room for the first time in their lives when our crew did a 5 city tour for MTV.
The funny thing was that 2 guys visited the state the state that they are originally form for the first time during that tour! We actually missed our flight that leg of the tour because we were at a session with some local dancers right until an hour before the flight. They kept telling us not to worry and that we would reach the airport on time. Yea right! We ended up booking another flight out of pocket.
Here's a short video I put together that has most of the crew as it stands today.
Getting into the Ad film Industry and Bollywood
Heera and I were the older of the lot so we didn't really hang out much with the rest of the guys after hours as they lived with their folks, had curfews and what not. Heera and I would go out drinking, hit the clubs and hang out with a lot of creative people. This is how we met @yangyanje and came to know about MindForceGathering.
We got decent media exposure which is how people found out about Style Kings our dance academy and hired us.
In my dance career I did a variety of jobs ranging from crappy ones that happened to be mostly Bollywood jobs where we had to wear ridiculous outfits sometimes to Disney productions like the third Cheetah Girls sequel- One World that was shot in India, where I had the opportunity to work with a renowned choreographer like Fatima Robinson who choreographed music videos for artists such as Michael Jackson- Remember the Time, Aaliyah's- Rock The Boat, Hot Like Fire, Try Again, We Need A Resolution, Are You That Somebody, More Than a Woman and Backstreet Boys- Everybody (Backstreet's Back) and As Long As You Love Me as well as Mary J. Blige's Family Affair
(L-R : Sabrina Bryan, Kiely Williams, yours truly and Adrienne Houghton)
We were also featured in Punjabi MC's (the guy who made the epic knight rider remix) Music Video- Moorni (peacock)
I ended up devoting all my time and energy to breaking for 4 years. I have a traditional job. This was it, my source income as well as my passion. I started to dislike this.
My interest in the Bollywood and the ad film industry dwindled which I touched upon in my article- Decentralization in Hip Hop - How Hive Can Make Our Culture Thrive
I once did a music video where the director wanted Bboys. Only to find out that the scene called for a fight between aliens, mafia (whom they called rowdies) and breakers! They had us doing our dance moves while they fake-attacked us and almost ended up injuring one of my friends in the process who was doing headspins! I mean it was fun and we got paid straight cash on the day but I didn't see myself doing this kind of stuff in the long run and that video wouldn't be one that I would brag about for sure!
In my next post I'll share how I phased out of teaching and commercial work with the intent to focus on community events. I got a job at a hotel where I met my wife actually (That's how I ended up in Trinidad and Tobago).
If you enjoyed reading this please upvote and reblog and to catch my next post follow me and stay tuned. Until then Peace....
Previous Posts
A Journey Into Hip Hop: Part 1-How I Got Into Dance- @islandboi/a-journey-into-hip-hop-part-1-how-i-got-into-dance
A Journey Into Hip Hop: Part 2- College, The Platform That Boosted My Dance Career @islandboi/a-journey-into-hip-hop-part-2-college-the-platform-that-boosted-my-dance-career-rcmdba
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