Question 1

Where are you from and where does your style/flavour come from?

Answer

When I first started dancing in 1978 I was influenced by a dance group called The Robonauts from Cambridge, Massachusetts where I was brought up. They were a five member crew that were the best dancers from my neighborhood.

They did many styles. But there was one particular member who taught me my basics in popping. The first style I learned was waving and puppet style of popping. I used to practice with puppet strings back then and create certain moves when I took them off. It's funny cause a lot of the stuff I was being taught was similar to boogaloo style now. Then after The Robonauts I was influenced by the dancers on Soul Train and the Electric Boogaloos. After that one of my biggest influences was Popin Pete and Poppin Taco in Breakin. Since they didn't show a lot of Pete I ended up studying Taco's hitting and waving technique. Not moves but technique.

So then I started going on my own and adding my own movement with waves and isolations. Now after all these years learning more about the boog style I trained myself to put all four styles together: waving, isolations, dime stopping and the boog movement. It took me just about a year to get comfortable to be able to make all those styles mix with mine. So I guess you can say I did my homework and took the best of both worlds with the isolations of Taco and waving with Popin Pete's hip rolls and boog movement while freakin the beats. Of course I do it with my flavor though, not biting either of them. Cause let's face it, there's only one Popin Pete and one Poppin Taco.

Question 2

In what ways are you active in the Hip Hop community?

Answer

I'm very active in the Hip Hop, breaking and poppin culture in Boston and I hope I have influenced many young kids that are dancing now and back then. I've been supporting these dances my whole life. Educating people, performing them and definitely representing them. Cause I do all three of the dances: I break, pop and dance hip hop. I've taught kids and adult classes for years, I've performed all across the world and I've even taught kids for free and just sat down with kids and let them know what these dances mean to me and a lot of other dancers before me. I've definitely paid my dues.

Question 3

Tell us about this upcoming event of yours, "Unity & Respect".

(What's the background, your goals, etc?)

Answer

It's an event I created a couple of years ago that was a very big event in Boston where I brought together and unified all the top dancers and enemies of other dancers or crews to show that even though there might be disagreements on the dance floor and we all want to be the best and show that we are in competition, we are still unified as poppers n bboys and definitely a Hip Hop culture. No matter what race, country or background, we can't be ignored. People will respect what we do as dancers and a culture. I always said I wouldn't throw another event unless I had people with me that feel the same way I do.

Then came my long time friend and dance partner Megatron who said let's bring it back to the way it used to be: back in the day, poppers n breakers under one roof representing. So we wanted to bring in the best from all over the world and don't care about a cost, but we wanted to show the dancers that we appreciate them by putting up big money and bringing in all their idols with the judges we selected, popping n breaking. We just hope they'll show us they appreciate us. That's where the respect comes in!

Question 4

What kind of music will you play in the competition?

(Funk has really taken over the last few years. Will Hip Hop music and Electro make its way back at your event?)

Answer

The music we will be playing has no boundaries, from Hip Hop to Breaks to Electro, even freestyle music cause back in the 80's we danced off everything. The DJs are some of the best in the world also: Shaky Shake from the Bronx, DP ONE from Brooklyn, DJ Leanski from Boston, King Uprock from Brooklyn (one of the original uprockers from back in the day).

Question 5

What's your most memorable event?

Answer

My most memorable event? That's hard. There's been many. Out for Fame Boston with Cross 1, BBoy Summit 2005, United Styles with the Floorlords Boston. I can go on and on.

Question 6

Anything else you'd like to point out?

Answer

I just want to give a shout out to all the poppers and bboys around the world, you have my respect if you're doing these dances! Peace, Shallow Boston out!