Cypher 4 Change 2011 from Pulse Studios on Vimeo.

So what is this Cypher 4 Change thing anyway? It’s the reason that promoters from across the country hosted 6 Canadian IBE Qualifiers this year, why Sami Slynks opened up the Flavour Factory dance studio in Ottawa, and why tons of others across Canada are collaborating to make a difference in their communities.

I wasn’t sure I was going to make it this year, but after a last minute chat with Breaker Ben Robinson from GWS I was lined up to host a workshop. Blessed to be back again (read last year’s review here), the second Cypher for Change (C4C) was a monster: now five days instead of three; over 50 bboys, bgirls and community builders from coast to coast; and an all-star lineup to DJ, Judge, perform, host workshops and discussions: DJ Lean Rock (Floor Lordz), Luigi (SKMZ), Flea Rock (SKMZ), Wicket (Renegades), Kid David (Renegades), Tony Styles (Renegades), Miles (Renegades), Gadget (Boogie Bratz), and Project Soul (Vancouver).

Things literally jumped off with three workshops: Wicket, Kid David, and Flea Rock. Everyone was juiced and ended up totalled in the same day. As usual, Big Wick ran a boot camp, stripping everyone of any ego they had and demonstrating how important training for endurance is. For Kid David, style still reigns supreme, and I’m not talking style vs power. If you’re still thinking that way, please take a second to realize this dance is about being well rounded. David stressed the details: hands, feet, pace, levels – the works. Just remember that a move is never done, it’s not wack unless you make it wack (lol), and it’s never about what you do it’s HOW you do it. Onto Flea Rock. Realizing that everyone had gassed out, he decided to do a little Q&A. Great idea. Everyone got to pick his brain, hearing answers from a guys who’s been deep in the game for years with arguably one of the illest crews in the World – Skill Methodz. He talked about growing up, how his crew changed him and that there’s still nothing doper than an ill backspin to freeze. Some things never change.

That night we finished off by watching the documentary Byron Wong and Justin Lovell produced about C4C last year. It was amazingly well done, and it really set the tone for all the newcomers as far as understanding the bigger picture and what this weekend was all about – connecting, building the Canadian community, and making a difference back home. When it’s released, the film will serve as a tool to communicate the power of what we do to organizations that often have a hard time understanding what hip hop is all about.

Over the next two days everyone got involved in discussions, and community workshops (click for notes):
Making Projects Go: An Approach to Business and Life (Fingas – Famous Circle)
Grant Writing (Lil Bear – KAIVA Dance Group)
Teach the Teacher – tips from an educator on teaching breakin in schools (Drew – Concrete Roots)
Building a Community (Twister – Quebec Bboys)

Discussions:
EGOs (panel: Flea, Tony Styles, Wicket, Lean Rock, Kid David)
Fear of Failure to Desire to Succeed (Drew – Concrete Roots)
Cipher Etiquette (panel: Flea, Tony Styles, Wicket, Lean Rock, Kid David, Luigi)

Friday and Saturday nights were Cypher Fest: including the Cypher Styles challenges, Klondike Heat 3on3 battle, U15 battle and two nights of “Rock the Street” shows by dancers who participated in Breakdancing Yukon Society’s two week intensive summer program at Leaping Feats Dance Studio.

The shows were ill, including pieces coreographed by Showtyme, Kim Sato, Project Soul, and Kid David + friends. Kid David showed up two nights early with the LA/Bay Area boys and they brewed up one of the dopest bboy shows I’ve ever seen. The way they interlaced pieces from the two week intensive with their own ideas and over-the-top acting was hype, clean and entertaining. Project Soul stole the show on the second night with their story about the commercial dance world and discovering the underground. Amazing messages for the youth about life in hip hop culture, and growing as people.

After the shows it was battle time. Things kicked-off with the cypher styles challenges – hands down one of the funniest parts of C4C every year. Highlights included Tornado George’s Kung-Fu and Old School throwdowns and the one-handed rounds. These are too great for words – post your memories and links to your pics/videos in the comments section!

Ground Work Sessions were on fire, taking the win against Ground Illusionz for the Klondike Heat title. You had to be there. This is a call for footage – post up the cypher styles challenges and top 8 battles in the comments section below!

Even though everyday was dope, Sunday was fun day for sure. We broke up into groups and did Geocaching. Each team had a compass map and GPS and had to run to various locations and complete challenges; some were solo and some were against the other groups: human pyramid pinecone tickling, tire toss, giant team plinko, teeter-totter balancing, group wooden plank ski racing and more. Mid-way through the day we switched up and did the rockwall and zipline. I hate to say it Frost, but the ground illuzions boys scrambled past the overhang, no sweat.

We rounded out the weekend with a final cypher where people had the opportunity to share what the weekend meant to them. There’s nothing more than I can say, but the impact was huge and there were a lot of surprises. The energy was completely different than last year, but not better or worse. All I know is that if you pack bboys/bgirls from across the country into a hot springs retreat centre and have Big Wick throwing on “Ante Up – MOP” at 3:30 am – that party won’t stop til the break of dawn… or even by 5:45 when I had to catch the bus outta there. There were still three soldiers dancing passed sunrise. The Yukon will do that to you.

There’s no telling what’s next. Famous Circle, Kim Sato, Pulse Studios, Lil Bear, Quebec Bboys, Concrete Roots, Andrea (C4C) and Ben (GWS) had a roundtable meeting, forming the roots of a national support network; and a slew of young and talented people just left the Yukon to return home completely inspired to make a difference in their communities.

For all of you who were there, share your memories and post your pics/vids in the comments section! For all of you who weren’t, get up, get out, and talk to the people who went to C4C, because if you’re a Canadian, if you love hip hop, and if you care about your community, you need to go.

Thank you to Andrea and fam, Ben Robinson, BYS, GWS, all the organizers and amazing volunteers. You’re changing Canada more than you’ll ever know. So tell us, what difference are you going to make in your community? Everyone wants to hear it, and everyone wants to help.

-Fingas

PS we went in hot springs errrrrday!

Making Your Project Go: An Approach to Business and Life

Cultivate these abilities -> habits

Learn -> student of life, humble, beginner mindset (no ego), learn how to learn, embrace not knowing (don’t fear it), seek those who’ve done it before

Adapt/Solve -> take it as it comes, find solutions, be resourceful, internet research, build a network of helpful people with different skills/knowledge

People -> be genuinely interested in connecting with others, listen, don’t assume people are like you, adapt your style to suit them, ask people what they’re good at, what projects they’re working on, how you can help them. This is how you build a strong network. If you support others, you’ll be one they call when cool projects come up.

Challenge/Rethink -> don’t accept things as they are, always ask “why?”, nothing changes/improves until you do. Always challenge yourself, never become comfortable, push your comfort zone, this is how you grow.

Awareness (of self + others) -> be mindful of thoughts, actions, movements, energy. awareness is the first step, change what you’re doing to get what you want. this is the key to personal growth and success.

Vision -> Goals -> Projects

Ex: Famous Circle
connect canadian dancers -> national event to connect them -> circle prinz

Your Project
What – what’s the project
Why – is it in line with your vision and goals? if not, ditch it
Who – what sort of team/skill sets do you need? (organizer, creative, promoters)
Where – is it online? a blog? Is it in person? an event? where is it geographically?
When – create a timeline, what needs to be done before other tasks can start?
How – break down major tasks into as many little ones as you can (this makes action simpler), decide who’s doing what, set deadlines for each task based on your timeline

Timeline
depends on project scale (basic jam example – start 3 months in advance)

- Talk with your team, decide what you’re doing
- Book date + venue (now you can tell people when it is)
- Book judges, DJ, any other talent/guests
- Creatives make the visuals/promo materials: flier, poster, images/video/audio for web

PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE until jam day!
facebook, twitter, local events (classes, shows, whatever is related), email list, blogs, related websites, online event listings, local media. If people don’t hear it at least 7 times they won’t show up.

- find volunteers
- sort logistics/scheduling/preparations for guests + setup + event + takedown. Tell the volunteers
- get event equipment
- JAM DAY
- ask for feedback, what did ppl think? You can ALWAYS improve.
- thank people, blog about it, post pics/memories etc.
- meet w team and discuss how it went, what could be improved
- decide what’s next and get started

Budget

Venue = $250-1000 for medium sized hall. Nice venue $5,000-16,000.
Judges/DJs $100-$500

Revenue – Expenses = profit

What would you pay for it?
Work backwards from your total expenses
How much do you need to break even? price x quantity = total expenses
If the numbers don’t work, change something or ditch the project
Making money is NOT wrong. Get over it.

Summary

Cultivate the right abilities and habits within yourself
Only take on projects you are passionate about
Find someone who’s done it and ask for advice

TAKE ACTION
- take the first step
- simple, not perfect – get it out there and then make it better, “ghetto but it works”
- use the tools available to you: web, people etc.
- tell people what you’re doing, it builds momentum and people will want to help

KFC
Know what you want
Find out what you’re getting
Change what you’re doing to get what you want

We’re always here to support you. Ask questions

Go get the most out of life. Goodluck!

Robbie Raw Fingas (Robin Campbell)
Filthee Feet/Famous Circle
robin@famouscircle.com
@famouscircle @robncampbell

We want to thank everyone who came out from across Canada and overseas to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary. It was truly a special event for us. We had a blast every second, and we hope you guys did too. It was a crazy feeling to have almost the entire crew together again, minus Steve and Dave who is off in Brazil filming for MTV’s The Buried Life. It’s been over 6 years since we’ve all been in the same room, and that alone was a win in itself.

It was a day for the underdogs. In the 4on4, Dance Broomz (Ash, Wooty) battled all the way to the finals, only two men strong, to go up against O’Mighty who were also one man short (Mezu, Jbugz, Reflex). A big congratulations goes out to O’Mighty Crew for sweeping the event! Reflex also went on to win the 1on1 IBE Qualifier, receiving the honour of representing Canada in Holland at the Notorious IBE later this year in September. There’s just something about the way the day happened that really felt special to us. For the past few years, us Filthee Feet have sometimes felt like the underdogs ourselves. We know what’s like to only have 3 active crew members. It just goes to show that if you put in the work and want something bad enough you can reach it. For the rest of you, let’s hope that added some fuel to the fire. Train up and go get ‘em.

Some special thanks and memories going out to Dance Broomz and Massive Monkees. There’s no doubt that you guys have had a major effect on our crew from day one. The Broomz became our good friends after judging our early jams like Sicktoria (Victoria), and both them and Massive have been huge inspirations as we’ve progressed. Truly great role models as far as dedication and crew spirit.

The only way to last in this game is to invest in your family and have fun. See you at the 15 year! Thanks to NorthFreshWest and Mr. Mato for capturing the memories and producing some dope clips.

Filthee Feet 10 Year Anniversary from mr mato on Vimeo.

We called on the six winners to share their thoughts on the opportunity to travel to IBE and represent for Canada. They have been answering with short video clips and we will release them up as they come in. First up is T-JO of QC Rock – your winner of the Montreal Qualifier. Peep our homepage for a complete list of the six Canadian IBE qualifier winners. Thanks for sharing T-JO! A message to our viewers: be careful not to be seduced by his French Canadian english.

Anijha got me through a language barrier, a culture shock and taught me to navigate my way through the most crowded parts of Tokyo to find the most random and hidden gems available.  Repping Fresh Sox, Mighty Zulu Kingz and Keep It Real my dude always comes fresh.  Anijha is one of the most humble cats i know.  He showed me the time of my life for the year i spent in Tokyo and I will never forget it.  This guy brings with him everything that i love about bboying: good times, fun vibes, cipher styles, fresh gear, music knowledge and awareness, respect and humility.  If you see a kangol style ventilator bobbing up and down in a circle while a kick drum and funky bass line are bumping through the speakers you better believe that’s my boy getting down.

Anijha is going to be one of the judges for the IBE Qualifier and 4vs4 battle at the Filthee Feet Anniversary this weekend (July 2nd @ The Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Ave, 1pm competitors/4pm spectators).

I don’t have too much else to say about my boy here except that I’m extremely hype that this dude traveled half way around the world to be here just to celebrate my crews 10 year anniversary with me and my family.  And really, after doing this for 10 years and all the things I have been able to see and experience, I realize that’s exactly what its all about.

-Roketto

Fast Forward to 2011 and the crew is rolling thicker. Co-owners Tara Wilson, Vince Truong, Peter Strickland, and Gill Co now run the only studio in Calgary that is 100% dedicated to Hip Hop and urban dance styles, creating a space where the knowledge and traditions of Hip Hop in dance, music, art, and lifestyle can be shared. Opening the doors to Pulse Studios was that natural next step to continuing building one of the strongest Hip Hop communities in Western Canada – Calgary.

We finally had the chance to meet Gill and Vince at Canada’s first City Vs. City Championship in Calgary at the beginning of June and we asked if they’d be down to give Famous Circle a walk-thru of their new crib, so they did (shout out to Glen Co for editting the clip!):

Pulse Studios: a Tour of Calgary’s Illest Hip Hop Studio from FamousCircle on Vimeo.

Before Pulse, Tara Wilson instilled this vision by exposing Calgary dancers to Hip Hop pioneers and legends such as the Suga Pop, Popin Pete, Greg Cambellock Jr. Skeeter Rabit, Ken Swift, Link, Caleaf Sellers, and Brian ‘Footwork’ Green. Vince, has also contributed to the growing Bboy/Bgirl community by flying in respected Bboys like Kid David, Luigi, Tony Styles, and Tommy Gunz.

Studios like Pulse, that actually get heavily involved in the community are rare in existence, and from what you can see, Calgary is in good hands. The city now has a home for Hip Hop and Urban dance, and beyond bringing in pioneers and innovators who can share their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives, Pulse also employs an impressive roster of homegrown talent. Pulse and our Calgary fam are rolling 4 cars deep out to the Filthee Feet 10 Year Anniversary this weekend, so get to know your YYC neighbours!

PULSE STUDIOS-FAMOUS CIRCLE, your West Side Connection!

Twitter:
@PulseStudios_ / @FamousCircle

Facebook:
Pulse Studios / Famous Circle

-Fingas

YOUR VANCITY IBE QUALIFIER TOP 8

The IBE Vancity Battle Comittee decided to narrow down top 16 to top 8 due to the fact it was getting difficult to fill the top 16 spots with people who truly met the selection criteria. Here is the final list of Canadians throwing down for the trip to the Notrious IBE in Holland. Congratulations for being chosen:

1. The Alchemist – Ground Work Sessions (Whitehorse)
2. JK-47 (Surrey)
3. Marks Iller – Filthee Feet (Vancity)
4. Reflex – Soul Felons (Calgary)
5. Art Attack – Floor Storm (Surrey)
6. Savage Rock – NON (Surrey)
7. System – Fresh Format (Victoria/Montreal)
8. Se7en – Dangerous Goods (Winnipeg)

See you at the jam!

-Fingas

Photos by Glen Co

(glencophotography.ca)

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Ruthless Ryan (illmovements):
“Damn! What an amazing weekend.  First and foremost, i want to thank the dancers from all over Canada for coming to Calgary to support the event. As most of you know, we have been doing our thing here for a really long time and my mindset with the Ready or Not Series is to only do another event if it’s better than the last one. I was worried at first that a lot of cities might not be able to reach but in the end we had 6 solid crews come down (pictures below). Everyone repped hard, the battles were dope and I saw some good ciphers. The talent in our country is definitely strong. It was a great start to City vs City and after seeing the turnout and getting such a positive response, there is no doubt in my mind that we will be doing this again next year.  My 2012 goal is to get 9 cities and have more East coast representation. Planning will start way in advance for next year.

Part of the Calgary experience is not just the event but also the Pre and After parties. This is usually a big highlight of my weekend and it didn’t disappoint this year.  In Calgary, we like to make sure you get to know everyone not only in their element (bboying) but outside of it too.  That’s why the parties are so important. Its a time to get loose, have a drink, dance with the ladies (or gents for the females), smoke a blunt together and more. If you’ve been here before you understand, if it was your first time here and you didn’t get stuck in a line then i’m sure you had a blast. We have really tight scene here that supports us and I want the rest of Canada to see how we do it.

The only thing I hate about running an event is that i don’t get to speak to everyone, especially the out of towners. I apologize in advance if we didn’t get to speak or hang out. I know most of the older katz but I really don’t know a lot of the new generation so if i talked to you or even if i didn’t please stay in touch and add me here on facebook.

Lastly, this could not be done without the support of my team and volunteers. I understand that people see me as the face but there are so many others that do their part and deserve credit. So here it is and i hope i don’t forget anyone:

My partners Clarence and Anthony
Dandee – you did so much work man.  Thanks!  This is the new up and coming promoter peoples!
Original Rudes Family
Check It
Judges: Ynot, Thesis, PowerSerge
Bay Area Peeps: Isaac, Rich, Freya,
Sound: RJ Molina
Pulse Studios – Vince, Gill and Tara
Aaron @ The Gallery – for getting our shirts done
Glen Co Photography for filming and shooting
U of C hip hop and funk styles club – Giang and Travis
Djs: C-Sik / Fat Rok
Darski for all the design work
Volunteers / Staff – Josephine, Caroline, Lana, Albert, Francis
Legacy 1 especially Caralee, Chantel and Greg – for hosting the Vancouver Team
Chelsea Jones and Edmar – for hosting my Bar Area peeps!
City Team Captains – Boob (wpg),  Creeazn (edm), Braden (sask), Rory (Van)
East Coast Cats: Frost, Piecez, all the Maritimes peeps and more!
The Calgary Dance Community
FFWD Magazine, All Rush Print, City Breakfast TV, The Gallery and Group Seven.

I know I’m forgetting people so if I did I apologize!

I just hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.  Thanks for coming to my crew’s (Original Rudes) 13th Anniversary, coming to the event, after party at Opus, after after party at my spot and house night Sunday at Hifi!  All I ask is if you had a good time, come back next year and spread the word so we can get bboys and bgirls in our country together here for City vs City: Canada 2012

P.S. I’m all about constructive criticism so if you see any way it can be improved, please message me privately!

Til next time … much love and respect!

Ryan Josue aka Ruthless
ILL Movements Productions
Original Rudes Crew”

Much respect to you and yours Ryan, we had a blast.  And we will leave you with these photos of the squads who represented at the first City vs. City Canada and a wrap up video from Check-It (Chicago Tribe), the creator of the original City vs City. Enjoy, and share your stories in the comment section!

Peace
-Fingas and Roketto

IBE Qualifier Winner: A-Plus – Original Rudes/Fresh Format

City vs. City Teams:

Vancouver

Calgary – Winners!

Saskatchewan

Winnipeg

East Coast Mixed Squad (Toronto, New Brunswick, Halifax)

I was hit up a few months ago by my boy Ryan aka Illmovements from Calgary Alberta with a request to coordinate a Vancouver squad for the City vs City battle in Calgary at the Original Rudes 13 year anniversary. This event was something that he has been talking to me about for nearly 5 years I think. He regularly puts on Ready or Not, Calgary’s premiere event. He has always approached the event with the opinion that if he can’t make it bigger and better than the previous time then he would rather put it on the back burner and do something else. This mentality has led to some of the greatest events in Western Canada and I have been lucky to be apart of 3 of them so far.

I agreed to take on the task, as crews were requested from Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. I wanted to make sure that our squad would be both a strong representation of the crews out here, both old and young and a good squad. I wanted the rest of Canada to be exposed to how the west can rep.

My second goal with this was to get some of these younger, less travelled and less experienced bboys from Vancouver on the squad in order to give them some much needed experience. Organizing and executing bboy travelling is a daunting task in itself but once you get the first experience out of the way it can change your life forever.

I first appointed 2 assistant captains to help me select the squad: Savage Rock of NON and Art Attack of Floorstorm. We discussed our selections at length and finally drafted up what we wanted to be the Vancouver team:

Roketto- Filthee Feet
Savage Rock – NON
Art Attack – Floorstorm
Razzy D- Filthee Feet
Marksiller – Filthee Feet
Tricky – NON
Special Ed – Floorstorm
JK47
Invader Jim
Einstein – Floorplay
Honghui – Breakaholics
Kendale – Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz

There have been many setbacks along the way. Unfortunately NON can no longer attend the event due to prior bookings. We are still short a driver so 3 of the squad members currently have no way of going and Honghui is now unsure if his work will grant him the time off. Either way, we have a Squad, full or not and we will rep for the West to the best of our ability in every circle and in every battle. Wish us luck and follow us on twitter for updates throughout the weekend.

www.twitter.com/famouscircle

Event Info here – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198438916841668

Peace

Roketto