Quick Links

• Violin page
  
  
• Ian Eastwood
  
  
• Yak Films
  
  
• Breakdancing
  
  
• IaMmE Crew
  
  
• Turf Feinz
  
  
• My Friend's Hip Hip Dance Video Blog
  
  
  
  I love hip hop dance.  I only realized my love for it the senior year of high school.  A friend of mine in my calculus class choreographed a dance for our dance team Orchesis.  He needed more boys for it to work.  So told me "I need more boys in my dance, so... you're joining Orchesis."  I showed up and ended up being in 4 dances.  Dancing gave me so much energy and made me so happy in a way that I hadn't really felt before.   Two of the dancers in Orchesis that I looked up to, Brian and Ethan (Ethan runs the blog I posted the link to above) were such great dancers.  When I asked both of them how they got so good, both of them had the same answer, "I watched a lot of videos."  So I started spending lots of time on Youtube finding dancers that I liked and learning from them.  Soon enough I came to Tulane and a friend of mine saw me dancing at The Palms and asked me if I wanted to join her Hip Hop Dance Club.  I said absolutely, and now I am the VP of Events.  We performed at McAlsiter Auditorium last year!  I'm really proud of us.  Next semester we'll be performing at half time shows for basketball games. 
            Anyway, this web page is basically a compilation of the videos and people that I follow on Youtube.   Enjoy!
  
  
  
  

  ---

  
  
  
  Yak Films
  
  
  
  
  
            Yak Films is a small film production company that aims to show the world the growing culture of hip hop and urban dance.  The main two members, Kash Gaines and Yoram Savion.  The two of them have created a name for themselves from their Youtube channel YakFilms.  They first discoverd their passion for hip hop dance while working at a youth center in Oakland, California.  There they met the Turf Feinz, a street dance group that specializes in a style known as Turf Dancing.  TURF stands for Taking Up Room on the Floor.  For more information on them, see their section below.
            One of the things that makes Yak Films so special is their weekly webisode called Yak Like You Know  (YLYK).  Each Monday Kash Gaines host the show in which he showcases at least three different hip hop dance videos.  He tells the viewers about each dancer, detailing what style they practice, where they're from, and why they're famous.  My favorite part of YLYK is the Featured Style section.  Here Kash shows a specific style of hip hop and tells where it's from, who's good at it and its origins.  I really love this because people often think hip hop dance is all one genre when in fact it has countless categories and sub-categories. 
  
            Here is one of my all time favorite Yak Films videos.  The dancers are Firelock and Hurrikane.  They are experts at a style called Locking which is considered fairly old school.  I'll try to describe each different style of hip hop that they go through.  At the very beginning of the video, Hurrikane starts off with some Popping.  Then Firelock does Waving.  Hurrikane then does some Toprock, followed by Firelock's Breakdancing.  Then comes the best part: the two of them go out into the streets of Chinatown in NYC dressed in traditional Locking garb and do the style that they're best at. Check it out, these guys are fantastic performers.
  
  
  
  
  Back to Top
  

  ---

  
  Ian Eastwood
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
            Ian Eastwood is a young choreographer famous for hip hop dance.  He has gained global attention from his Youtube channel djicon.  I found out about him from a fellow student in my hip hop dance class here at Tulane University.  She thought I would like his style, so I looked him up and watched some of his videos.  After watching a few, I realized that he looked vaguely familiar.  Then it hit me where I had seen him before: in the cafeteria at my high school back near Chicago. 
  
            Unfortunately I did not realize that he was such a phenomenal dancer while I was in the same place as him.  He's now living in Los Angeles and he frequently travels around the world teaching his choreography.
  
  Here's one of my favorite videos by him.  This is choreography he created with well known choreographer/dancer Jillian Meyers who has worked with Janet Jackson, among others.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Back to Top
  
  
  
  
  
  

  ---

  
  Breakdancing
  
  This little guy's pretty good!  I'm currently trying to learn the move he's doing which is called a flare.  That's when you spin around on your hands with your legs spread apart (I can already do the buttspin).
  
                Yak Films films breakdance battles around the world.  Just earlier this week they filmed the Braun Battle of the Year (BOTY), an international breakdancing competition.  I really wish I knew more about breakdancing.  I was fortunate enough to meet two breakdancers earlier this year.  I help organize Tulane's Breaking Waves Hip Hip Dance Team and we were lucky enough to enlist two bboys this year.  They've been teaching me some of their moves.  Someday maybe I'll be as good as that little man in the green shirt. 
  
  Here's Yak Films' video recap of this year's Battle Of The Year.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Back to Top
  

  ---

  
  IaMmE Crew
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Dancers, from top (and, where applicable, left): Jaja Vankova, Phillip "Pacman" Chbeeb,
  Brandon "747" Harrel,  Emilio Dosal, Di "Moon" Zhang, and Chachi Gonzalez
  
  
  
             IaMmE Crew is a hip hop dance crew from Houston, Texas (except for Jaja who is from Czech Republic).  Their name comes from the phrase "I am me", which stresses individuality, and the acronym I.M.E. which stands for Inspire, Motivate, Energize.   They won the 2011 season of America's Best Dance Crew (ABDC), a high profile TV series in which hip hop dance crews come up with their own choreography and perform it each week.  The viewers then vote on who they think should go on to the next round.  Since winning ABDC, IaMmE Crew has been featured all over the urban dance community including the World of Dance Tour.  Pacman got invited to be in fourth installment of Step Up, a very famous hip hop dance studio movie.  Their styles mostly include Tutting and Popping.  Their signature is what they call "Brain Banging," a set of choregraphy that makes the viewer have the rewind the video in order to understand what just took place.  Check out one of their videos below.  They're pretty talented. 
  
  Unfortunately I cannot embed their video due to studio copyright issues, so here's the link:
  http://youtu.be/0e0DRq67XCE
  
  
  
  

Back to Top

---

               
                Turn Feinz

                             The turf feinz are a group of dancers from Oakland, California.  Their signature style, Turfing, is characterized by smooth footwork, illusion dancing, animation dancing, tutting, and power moves.  The Turf Feinz that are most famous are Chonkie F. Tutz and E Ninja.  You can find a remarkable battle in which Chonkie and E Ninja, Turfers, take on Bones and DJ Aaron of Next Level crew here.  Next Level specializes a dance style called Flexing where the dancers utilize their grossly flexible shoulders to create illusions of breaking their bones.  This battle took place at Battlefest 14, a street dance battle that happens every year in Brooklyn. 

Here's one of Yak Films' most viewed videos in which dancers No Noize, Man, BJ, and Dreal dance on the very street corner where Dreal's brother got shot the night before they shot this video.







Back to Top

---

               I hoped you enjoyed these videos as much as I do.  I probably spend around ten hours per week watching these videos.  They're really quite addicting. 




















Carrion!

























This webpage created by:
Nick Stracco
Environmental Science major
Tulane University, New Orleans
Last updated 12/6/2011