Christiaan Versteegh, 26, an Industrial Design Engineering student, said Break-Even is the only officially registered breakdancing association existing today at any university in the Netherlands. ‘You could say that breakdancing doesn’t have any borders.’
This was clearly demonstrated in the group’s composition of global members and diverse venue and training locations. ‘Our b-girls are really cool. There are five girls out of our 30 members coming from Italy Germany and Netherlands. Two of the girl members competed at the International Breakdancing event in Limburg last summer against competitors from Africa, America, Russia and practically everywhere. It’s for dancers at all levels, even beginners can compete. B-girling has other difficulties then b-boying. Some things the girls show at battles, even though it might be the same move, look completely different and add a special element.’
His friend, the relaxed Hang-Ming Chen, 28, who comes from Taipei, Taiwan, casually said, as he sat in the high-backed chairs in the Bastille, ‘Oh, you can just call me Eric.’ After trying first to join an official martial arts club to practice Judo, he realized it wasn’t a good match for him, and he decided to try breakdancing a few months ago. Due to a recent shoulder injury, he couldn’t show off his headspin, though he was eager to talk about the culture behind breakdancing.
‘B-boying is more of an attitude and a way of living,’ he said. ‘It’s how you dress, your attitude. You accept any kind of challenge and aren’t scared. When b-boys or b-girls dance, they’ll go anywhere-under bridges, on sidewalks, in buildings- to find places to practice or perform.’ Chen pointed to an area outside the doors and said, ‘The only trouble here in this country is that the weather is too cold.’
According to Chen, breakdancing is a popular activity in East Asia, though he mentioned, before beginning with Break Even, he’d never had tried it in his home country. Originally, the idea of breakdancing or b-boying was to get rival street gangs to outdance rather than outfight each other on the streets, but there are elements of fighting in the battles. It can be fierce with the same expressions found in fighting.’
Yeah, yeah,’ said Versteegh, ’but everything is from the heart. You dance to the music from your heart with passion. When I’m seriously dancing, I’m listening to the music and trying to win from the other person, actually win the crowd of spectators. It’s almost always clear who has won. Sometimes it’s based on the crowd reaction or the decision of a panel of judges.’
The music he refers to is the hip hop music in the late 80s. It was based around disc jockeys who created rhythmic beats by looping ‘breaks’ or ‘breakbeats’ on two turntable, which is now more commonly referred to as sampling. Versteegh demonstrated the breakdancing technique of Downrock (footwork and body moves performed on the floor) without breaking a bead of sweat on his brow, spinning and later posing in a Freeze on the floor of the Bastille Atrium.
A new Break-Even introduction workshop in English will start on 25 January, teaching beginners who want to learn the basics of ‘b-girling’ and ‘b-boying’ over the course of 12 weeks. Register online: www.cultuurutwente.nl. Break-Even video clip: www.youtube.com/Breakevenbreakdance.
 |
| Break-Even Student Association board members in action at the Roombeek neighborhood in Enschede (top to bottom) Edwin Dollekamp (chairman), Christiaan Versteegh (treasurer), Richard van Schouwenburg (secretary). (Photo: Break-Even) |
