Spring Break
SJSU dance club breaks form
Jenny Shearer / Daily Staff Writer
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The Urban Arts Club is a group of San Jose State University students who get together on Friday afternoons in SPX 89 to practice break dancing and hip-hop dancing.
Cameron Moore, president of the Urban Arts Club, said he's been a b-boy, a hip-hop term for a male break dancer, for the past six years.
Female break dancers are known as b-girls, he said.
Moore, a senior illustration and animation major, said that most break dancers fit into one of two categories: power and style.
"Power is all the acrobatic, aerial moves that you see people do, really amazing spin moves you see all the time, spinning on your hand or your head. Style is more your dancing, your footwork, stuff like that."
Moore said he's more of a style break dancer than a power break dancer.
"My body aches too much to do power," he said.
Break dancing incorporates elements of martial arts, gymnastics, house dancing and salsa, Moore said.
He said that break dancing, like many things hip-hop, is an amalgamation of what's come before it.
At 23, Moore said he's toward the older end of the b-boy age spectrum. The average b-boy is between 16 and 21 years old.
"Between those ages, you have the most time to do whatever. One of (my) friends, he's like 17 or 18, and he's really, really good because he goes to high school and then he breaks and that's it," Moore said.
Moore said the club membership includes has between 20 and 30 members this semester, which is a bit lower than usual.
"And that's like a majority of SJSU people, but at the same time, we're open to the public as well," he said.
Moore said anyone can be taught how to break dance if they're willing to learn and to do things that they're not normally used to doing.
One of the club's rules is that if someone asks you a question about dancing, you have to answer it and help the other person learn, Moore said.
"When we teach, we teach baby steps, the foundation of it, so they're not doing anything crazy. Everyone always associates break dancing with spinning on your head, but that's like the last thing you learn because that's one of the most dangerous," Moore said.
Another student, Eduardo Bertrand, from Barcelona, Spain, said this was his third time practicing with the Urban Arts Club.
Bertrand performed several quick steps, almost skipping-like motions, before he got down on the floor to his hands.
The movements looked like what male gymnasts do on the pommel horse - Bertrand's hands alternated supporting his body on the floor as he did scissor-like leg kicks.
Bertrand also practiced a half-vertical handstand in which he balanced his body on his left hand.
He said his wrist felt numb for a few seconds, but that this maneuver didn't hurt.
Bertrand said he started break dancing in Spain, where he's part of a b-boy crew, Lunaticks crew.
"What I like is, you have (total) freedom. You can create whatever you want. There's no rules or anything like that," Bertrand said.
Bertrand said that he and other members of Lunaticks crew have traveled to Colombia, France and England to perform.
"You can go anyplace in the world and as long as you break dance, you're going to get along very well with people," Bertrand said. "When we went to Colombia, it was amazing, all of these people feeling the same things that we did. In Colombia, most of the people who break dance are poor kids. You break dance exactly the same - that's amazing."
Behind Moore and Bertrand were three other students who rehearsed an athletic routine of segmented arm movements, pelvic thrusts and karate kicks.
"Ever since I've listened to music, I've always wanted to move my body to it," said Neil Torrefiel, a junior graphic design major. "I've always felt that instinct to dance."
Torrefiel was practicing a dance routine along with Kimberly Mak, a junior marketing major, and Leizl Joy Pagtaconan, a freshman business advertising major, for their Jazz I final on Monday.
Mak said the class is called Jazz I, but that it is really a hip-hop dancing class.
"The teacher said before they put it under jazz because hip-hop doesn't sound so serious," she said.
Mak estimated that her group of four has rehearsed for more than six hours during the past week in preparation for the final exam.
"We have to choreograph eight eight-counts of anything that we want," Mak said.
The students, who were practicing without their fourth member, rehearsed their routine to the beats coming from a portable stereo.
They looked like they were auditioning for a music video.
Indeed, Torrefiel said he gets ideas for choreography from watching music videos on MTV.
Pagtaconan said Britney Spears is one of her favorite artists.
"I think it's a clichéd thing to have a pop singer (who uses) choreography, who can sing and dance," Pagtaconan said. "Britney can't really sing, but Britney can dance. Christina (Aguilera), she has vocals and she tries to dance, but it doesn't look right."
Mak said she thought Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's dancing are also inspiring.
She said she, Torrefiel and Pagtaconan each bring a different style of choreography to their dancing.
"I'm girly, he's more martial arts and (Pagtaconan) is more straight hip-hop," Mak said.
Torrefiel and Mak agreed rehearsing the routines over and over calls for a lot of patience.
"Yeah, it's a test of like friendship because you can be at each other's throats or you can just be really like patient. You already (have) to expect to like do the routine a lot, even if you know it," Mak said.
Pagtaconan said it can take up to five hours to perfect the same count of eight steps so it's clean and precise.
In addition to watching videos on MTV, Torrefiel said he often choreographs by standing in front of a mirror and practicing his steps.
"Hopefully, you can get the beat down and remember it," he said.
