iDK WORKSHOPS & AUDITIONS: iDK will host workshops and auditions for 2012 at various locations in San Diego on Saturday, January 14, 2012! Facebook Event - For more information, e-mail: iDK.DanceCo@gmail.com

ROC&THESIS FROM KNUCKLEDHEADS CALI PRESENT: “KNUCKLE UP”: Roc & Thesis will host a 2 vs 2 Bboy and 1 vs 1 Open Styles Battle in Tucson, AZ on Saturday, January 14, 2012 - FACEBOOK EVENT

ABDC SEASON 7 AUDITIONS: Season 7 of Randy Jackson’s Americas Best Dance Crew auditions will take place in Chicago, Illinois on January 13, 2012 - HERE

JUSTE DEBOUT PRELIMS: Juste Debout Pre-Lims begin in Tokyo, Japan -Friday, January 6, 2012 – Check it HERE

CULTURE SHOCK DC PRESENTS: LYLE BENIGA - Lyle Beniga with Movement Lifestyle Tour will be in DC on Sunday, January 15, 2012 and you can pre-register HERE

BEAT BATTLE – THE WORLD HIP HOP TOURNAMENT: 1 vs. 1 Hip-Hop Battle ; 1 vs. 1 Popping; 1 vs. 1 House
1 vs. 1 B-Boying Battle ; 4 vs. 4 B-Boy Crew Battle in Germany on 1/21/2012- FACEBOOK EVENT

“BIONIC” (MGF/MOVEMENT LIFESTYLE/LXD) WORKSHOP IN SACRAMENTO: Our boy, Bionic, will be doing a workshop in Sacramento, Ca. on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - HERE

FRIDAY THE 13TH BBOY MASSACRE 8: In Brookly, NY on January 13, 2012 Full Crew battle – winner gets $2,000 – Check the Facebook Event - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEaR8zCxzpI

REGI FROM CRIMINALZ CREW (FRANCE -LES TWINS) WORKSHOP IN VEGAS (TUNAY) - REGINAL from Criminalz Crew (France) will be doing a workshop with Tunay Ink on Saturday, January 14, 2012 – 1:30 PM- Facebook

ALEX WONG, LEGACY & LIL’ C WORKSHOP WITH DANCELINK UTAH: Dancelink in Utah presents Alex Wong, Legacy, and Lil’ C Workshop on February 18, 2012 at Davis Conference Center. Facebook Event

CALI’S BEST HIP HOP DANCER BATTLE AT ORIGIN STUDIOS IN SAN DIEGO: ORIGIN Studios is hosting a battle to find CALI’S Best Hip Hop Dancer! On Saturday, February 18, 2012 4pm! Facebook Event

BEASTMODE BATTLE OF THE BELTS VI: BEASTMODE BATTLE OF THE BELTS JANUARY 21ST EL PASO TX @ Desert Eagle Productions - 3 different catagories 1on1 Poppin ,1on1 BBoy, 1on1 Allstyles winners take home the championship belt! FACEBOOK EVENT

iDK WORKSHOPS & AUDITIONS: iDK will host workshops and auditions for 2012 at various locations in San Diego on Saturday, January 14, 2012! Facebook Event - For more information, e-mail: iDK.DanceCo@gmail.com

ROC&THESIS FROM KNUCKLEDHEADS CALI PRESENT: “KNUCKLE UP”: Roc & Thesis will host a 2 vs 2 Bboy and 1 vs 1 Open Styles Battle in Tucson, AZ on Saturday, January 14, 2012 – FACEBOOK EVENT

ABDC SEASON 7 AUDITIONS: Season 7 of Randy Jackson’s Americas Best Dance Crew auditions will take place in Chicago, Illinois on January 13, 2012 – HERE

JUSTE DEBOUT PRELIMS: Juste Debout Pre-Lims begin in Tokyo, Japan -Friday, January 6, 2012 – Check it HERE

CULTURE SHOCK DC PRESENTS: LYLE BENIGA – Lyle Beniga with Movement Lifestyle Tour will be in DC on Sunday, January 15, 2012 and you can pre-register HERE

BEAT BATTLE – THE WORLD HIP HOP TOURNAMENT: 1 vs. 1 Hip-Hop Battle ; 1 vs. 1 Popping; 1 vs. 1 House
1 vs. 1 B-Boying Battle ; 4 vs. 4 B-Boy Crew Battle in Germany on 1/21/2012- FACEBOOK EVENT

“BIONIC” (MGF/MOVEMENT LIFESTYLE/LXD) WORKSHOP IN SACRAMENTO: Our boy, Bionic, will be doing a workshop in Sacramento, Ca. on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 – HERE

FRIDAY THE 13TH BBOY MASSACRE 8: In Brookly, NY on January 13, 2012 Full Crew battle – winner gets $2,000 – Check the Facebook Event - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEaR8zCxzpI

REGI FROM CRIMINALZ CREW (FRANCE -LES TWINS) WORKSHOP IN VEGAS (TUNAY) – REGINAL from Criminalz Crew (France) will be doing a workshop with Tunay Ink on Saturday, January 14, 2012 – 1:30 PM- Facebook

ALEX WONG, LEGACY & LIL’ C WORKSHOP WITH DANCELINK UTAH: Dancelink in Utah presents Alex Wong, Legacy, and Lil’ C Workshop on February 18, 2012 at Davis Conference Center. Facebook Event

CALI’S BEST HIP HOP DANCER BATTLE AT ORIGIN STUDIOS IN SAN DIEGO: ORIGIN Studios is hosting a battle to find CALI’S Best Hip Hop Dancer! On Saturday, February 18, 2012 4pm! Facebook Event

BEASTMODE BATTLE OF THE BELTS VI: BEASTMODE BATTLE OF THE BELTS JANUARY 21ST EL PASO TX @ Desert Eagle Productions - 3 different catagories 1on1 Poppin ,1on1 BBoy, 1on1 Allstyles winners take home the championship belt! FACEBOOK EVENT

DJ SOULRANE: SOUNDCLOUD

DJ BZBEATS: SOUNDCLOUD

DJ LEAN ROCK: SOUNDCLOUD

DJ ELEMENT: SOUNDCLOUD

THE BBOY FEDERATION MUSIC: SITE

BREAKBOY.NET: MUSIC ZONE

DANCEPROJECT: MUSIC

WAIT, WHAT?! THE FARMS?!

Yes, the farms! Like Footloose style, sort of in a way!

Wait what urban city has farms?!

Salt Lake City, Utah!

From Logan to Provo, Hip-Hop Culture is expanding enormously in Utah! First thing you think of is multiple wives, Mormons, and mountain scape (probably even 127 hours the movie), but you may not know that Utah is one of the most talented states, outside of New York and California, to produce dancers, singers, and performers. Why do you think SYTYCD, American Idol, and a number of these other shows continue to hold auditions in Salt Lake? Why do you think movies continue to be made around Utah as well? Having known where the Utah scene has come from, from personal experience and friends telling me about the “good ole days”, I am not surprised as to what people like Joshua Perkins have developed the Street Dance scene into in Salt Lake City and surrounding communities.

Through my buddies: Tyler Hollingshaus, Tyson Stevens, Nate Kukahiko, and many others, I was able to start bringing bboys and poppers from Salt Lake to battles I was organizing and throwing in Idaho! I knew that most of the bboys in SLC had done a bunch of things like the 2002 Winter Olympic in SLC and a number of other battles. So there definitely was a scene! People like Chad aka Critter would organize battles among other people throwing small jams at Uprok. There’s ALOT more to this story about SLC, but this is the short of it! Other battles happened in Provo, sometimes at BYU with BYU Break dance Club as well as jams at UVSC. All in all there’s been a steady scene for years in Utah.

Over the last 2 years, Joshua Perkins has developed Bboy Federation into a well known name! Not just for the battles he’s throwing, but if you look at the website, there is music downloads, merchandise, blogs, and videos of the battles. It’s a way of life for most of these cats, and Perkins is pioneering the notion that bboys, poppers, lockers, house heads, and many other styles have a home in Salt Lake City and surrounding communities. Check it out: www.bboyfed.com - http://www.facebook.com/TheBboyFederation

Other organizations have stemmed from Bboy Fed, including Urban Dance Organization: http://www.facebook.com/utahudo - which sole purpose is “bring the diverse group of urban dancers together to collaborate and expand the urban dance scene in Utah. It is also to inspire new dancers and educate people on the different styles of urban dance.” Most known at the moment to come from the urban dance scene right now is Tadd Gadduang who is in the Top 6 for So You Think You Can Dance. Here’s a video of him in a locking battle from X Series by BBOY Fed:

With that being said, I caught up with Josh Perkins on Facebook about his start in bboying, his first organized jam, and Bboy Fed:

INTERVIEW:

1. I first got into bboying my senior year of High School, 1999. lol i started cuz of the Rappers Delight video.

2. There are two of my first battles that I can remember. One was against some kid that had moved into town, Logan. We battled at like a stomp. was pretty bad, pretty sure I lost. been dancing like 3 months.

The Second was at Club Aztec in Ogden. I battled with Corey, Cubano . Against Brad, Sid, Moses. been dancing like a year at that point. Those are the two first battles I remember the most. Super scared and unprepared for both.

3. My first crew was called “Uno”. It was me, flexum, paul, ricardo and hardhat. lol I think Unite 2002 was the only jam we entered together.

My influences were pretty much the standards for late 90′s. Remind, Crumbs, Ken Swift, Flomaster. Locally it would have been Joaquin, Flexum, Ballistick.

4. The first battle I ever threw on my own was called “Of Sound Mind & Body” 2004. Had Renegades, Circus Runaways, GWT, Ronnie, Dizzey at it. Lol and it snowed the day of so only like 150 people showed up ha ha ha. Jam cost $5,000 and I think I ended up losing like $400 on it. I think a lot about if i could have those same people here today for a jam how much different it would be.

5. The main idea behind the FED was to help Utah bboys travel and battle more. It’s very hard to travel for us due to the distance we are from everything. Vegas isn’t THAT far but you need a place to stay and all that which is hard if you’re 18. In fact It would have been impossible for AOD to travel as much as we did if it weren’t for me and Pyro being older and able to get cars and hotels and what not. 
So the FED was put in place to grow the scene and make the traveling easier on the crews. With the idea being that if we could just get our dancers to an event that people would see the talent pool we have here, thus helping motivate and grow our scene.

6. What i’d like people to know about the FED is that we are 100% invested into our local dance scene, not just bboying. Any money we make off events goes back into the bank for further events. The staff isn’t making anything and we are always trying to find new ways to support other events and people. The idea of a “Federation” is a group of individuals or organizations working together to benefit the whole. Sounds corny but we have such a small market here that I don’t feel like we can afford to not help each other out in at least some way.

7. The Utah Hip Hop scene has always existed and has always been passionate. The difference now is that, for dancers, I feel like there are more opportunities. The FED and our experiences and connections are allowing more dancers to travel and succeed. It’s also bringing more outside dancers to Utah.
I think this helps us see that there are possibilities outside of personal gratification for dancing. That if we just focus our efforts on a goal that that goal is attainable. That, I think, is whats led to such a rapid growth in our scene. The idea that there is no goal that’s unattainable for us.

8. The future of the Federation is all about education. We can throw battles, that’s the easy part. But without dancers we have no scene. Right now its tough for dancers, especially high school and college kids, to justify the time investment for the return they get. Doesn’t seem like it’s worth all the effort, especially to parents. However, if a kid plays soccer or basketball or whatever, parents seem ok with their kid missing homework or coming home late.

 The goal of the Federation is to find a way to earn the trust of the parents and to help develop a programs that meld education with dancing. For example we have started taking on interns. They are taught design and organization skills and earn school credit doing it. The Bboy Spot scholarship program is another good example.
Ha ha this is more like a 5 year plan but I think it’s doable as long as we keep our focus. 
Anyone who gets into Bboying or Urban dances are always changed by it and usually for the better. It’s had a positive impact and “saved” so many kids. Yet there still seems to be a negative stigma attached to it. I would like the Federation to to grow into an organization that receives the same kind of support as sports and other arts programs.

A Battle Back in 2003 – Critter threw: 

LINKS LINKS LINKS:

BBOY FED: www.bboyfed.com / http://www.facebook.com/TheBboyFederation / http://www.youtube.com/bboyfed

UDO: http://utahudo.com/ http://www.facebook.com/utahudo