The year 2006 was one of the most turbulent and exciting years of my life. But due to certain events during that year, I decided to lead my interests into a different, more stationary direction. Touring is fun, but if it´s getting too much it´s draining you out. If anyone is interested in reading the facts on how life as an artist could be, here is a story:
In December 2005 I left my hometown Berlin already, to work on my new Solocreation called “Virtuelevation” The choreography was ready by the end of the year, so from january on I started to work on the lightcreation at the “theatre Jean Vilar” in Suresness with my Lightengineer Jean Yves.
From my girlfriends house, it is about 1hour by train and another 25 minutes by bus to get to Suresnes we had 4 days to set everything up and test certain things. Not really enough time to try out new things and experiment with light and the ambience its supposed to produce. So again we mainly kept it basic and with what we knew would work.
The regular workday was about 12 hours, since I also had to reedit the video for the show each day when I came back home.
Finally on January 7th I premiered “Virtuelevation” after working on it for about 3 months straight. I also introduced two new “sub” styles that Mio and me developed in the creation. The “Xeffect” and the “Zollstock” are popping styles that are based on the Toyman. We started working on it more than a year ago and maybe it´s a bit early to perform it, but since I will tour the solo for a while, it leaves spaces for development and improvisation.
Altogether I did 3 shows in Suresnes and went back to Berlin on January 10th. Lucky to have a girlfriend who dances too, Debbie came shortly after to Berlin as well, since she is dancing for the Berlin based Raggagroup “Seeed”.
Once I installed myself at home again, I started working on the second creation for this year. A show that is called “Geometronomics”. In this creation I had to work a lot on the videoinstallation, which had to appear in a “Bauhaus” type like style on the cyclo in the back of the stage. So I started driving around the city at night, filming all kind of squares and buildings, chose some music that inspired me for certain formations and images and noted everything down that might have been relevant.
On 21st and 22nd I interrupted my creative flow to drive with “Vartan” from”Flying steps” and “Mode2” to the “Battle of the year meeting” near Hannover. This “Bboycompetition” is the biggest competition in the world and has preliminaries in 20 different countries. I am very concerned about the stability, the growth and the image of the “Bboyculture”. To be a part of the creative team around the event is an honor for me, but also a lot of responsability. Within these two days a lot of decisions are made, that concern the hearts of thousands. All participants want to be treated fairly. So the most discussed theme is mostly the transparency of the judging system.
Back in Berlin I tried to get my mind back on my creation “Geometronomics” but the “Battle of the year” meeting still swings along for some time.
In February I kept on creating except for the weekends. On 3rd and 4th I went to Rome to perform my new Solo “Virtuelevation”. I didn´t get to see anything of the city this time. I wanted to go to the Vatican, but decided to have a proper rest.
The weekend after I went to Düsseldorf with Raphael. Amigo from “Flying steps” and Takao organised the german elimination of Bruce´s “Juste debout”. After sitting mainly behind the computer editing music and video the whole week, it was a well treat to be in the audience, seeing germany´s elite battling in the styles “Popping, Locking, House, and HipHop New style”.
Driving back at night was better for me than driving the next day. At night the streets are empty and Raphael and me took turns.
During the week until 18th I tought dancelessons for children in Berlin. The theatre “Hebbel am Ufer” initiated a schoolproject, where the children got dancelessons instead of normal school. Very nice project with a studentshowing and a lecture performance of “Virtuelevation” at the endof the week.
On the last day of the workshop my sister called me, telling me that our mother passed away.
After 16 years being in a home for enabled people she left us. The next day I drove up to north germany to see her one last time. The minute I came back to Berlin, although I was definetely not in the mood, I packed my stuff and went to the theatre to do my “Lectureperformance” that same day.
The day after Debbie arrived. Now this became the most turbulent week in my life! We found out she was pregnant! So I didn´t know what to do anymore. One minute I felt unbelievably sad, the next minute absolutely happy. All in all I feel like my mom gave us the child.
Debbie and me spent another 2 days together enjoying Berlin and all it´s beautiful advantages, then I had to go away for almost 2 months straight. The trip started with a show in Rotterdam. I did “Virtuelevation” and got to see “Frank” the leader of “Discipulos do ritmo” first, before we started working with all the others out of the company three days later. He also did his solo “Som do movimento” in Rotterdam. We drove to Paris the day after, where I had to go directly to Nanterre, since I had to perform “Virtuelevation” again.
From February 28th “Discipulos do ritmo” and me were working on “Geometronomics” day and night. I hoped that Debbie was with me in Paris that time, but she had to practice for the tour of “Seeed”, so she stayed in Berlin. Especially because of the recent events in my life I felt I needed somebody by my side, but then I drowned my feelings by working even harder. Everyday from 10am to about 8pm we worked on choreography in the studio and after I kept editing music and video at Debbies house. For one month I didn´t know what was going on with the rest of the world. I slept 4 hours per night and used renderingtime of the computer to take showers and eat something. Although we also had Stephan from Lyon produce a documentary about the making of the creation and my way of working, he did not have the chance to really show in that film how much time and energy was put in this piece. It still turned out very well. In all that working time for “Geometronomics” I had a three day break inbetween that was completely filled out as well. March 17th I took a flight back to Berlin early in the morning, to then jump in the car to drive to Eisenhüttenstadt, where I did an extract of “Virtuelevation”. I still had to go back the same night, since on the morning of March 18th I had to go to Lübeck, for the funeral of my mom. After saying goodbye forever to her, I took the nighttrain to Lindau, where I met Frank again. After we both performed in a theatre that night I felt some strong pain in my right kidney. I drank some water quick and it got better by the next day. Whatever that was, it showed me again that I work too much.
Frank and me took the train back to Paris on 20th where the rest of the group was already waiting for us at the studio. This was the last day of practice. On 21st we did a “public rehearsal” where we invited a lot of potential theatredirectors friends and colleges to show the new “piece of art”. Jean Yves explained the lightcreation, since we couldn´t set up anything in the studio and it was a big part of the whole thing. Caspar almost fainted during the show, so we needed to change some of his parts around, so he would survive the upcoming Netherlands tour. But that was quickly done. So we left by Bus the next day and headed for Germany first. Dirk rented a little van. It was way too little for allthe bags and people that were supposed to get in.. We squeezed ourself together for six hours to arrive in Remscheidt. Here we played twice. After the first show we went celebrating in the only Mexican restaurant in town and half of the team got sick for the next two days including me. After that we played in Düsseldorf and after that we went on tour in the netherlands. Our Bungalows were located in Harderwijk. We preferred to keep things budget and operated from here everyday, instead of checking out and checking in in a new city every day. Everything was easily reached by van and the maximum driving time was supposedly 2,5 hours. Of course we sometimes got lost or took detours to windmills and ferries to see the beautiful landscapes of the country that´s known for it´s cheese, but all that I looked at as an advantage. The next days we did “Geometronomics” in:Zoetermeer, Arnhem, Breda and Barendrecht. After that show we went altogether to Amsterdam, where we met the whole team of John Agesilas´s show, including Seb, Raphael, Magic and Jazzy. I stayed in Amsterdam to get the plane to munich next morning. Since we met the other dancers at a club, Everaldo and Jeff wanted to explore Amsterdam. So the others left and those two were with me until the club closed. I went on to sleep a bit at Levi´s app. Who left his crib for Raph and Seb. Of course I didn´t get to sleep at all, took a cab, took the flight to munich ran in the subway, went to my hotel and cought on some sleep, until I met Thomas Hergenröther and Parago to discuss the mission we were on, which was the opening ceremony of the soccer worldcup in Germany 2006. The day went by fast and we disussed the main things pretty quick. Then we were also talking about how we can find the necessary dancers, since the budget was pretty limited. All in all everything went fine and I took a flight back to Amsterdam the next morning. It took some time until I reached Dirk to meet, but finally I had the chance to throw my bag in the van and strolled around Amsterdam until we went back to our temporary domicile in Harderwijk. The tour continued and we went on from city to city. Enschede, Eindhoven, Dordrecht, on a little break we went to Amsterdam again and then we had the last Gig in the Netherlands in Delft. Inbetween shows I had the opportunity to sometimes go to the same fitnesstudiochain that I was member of, so I could do a little something for my spine. I felt my back more and more during the tour and was afraid I would have to stop. But in that way I did just enough to keep me going and the pain acceptable. The day after Delft we had to check out of our Bungalows and were happy to leave for Berlin. The Hebbel am Ufer booked “Geometronomics” and finally after 10 years I was able to present one of my pieces in my hometown again. Also I was quiet nervous about the fact that my father was coming to watch. He also didn´t see a show of mine in ten years. I was glad to come home after 3 weeks. I could sleep in my own bed and show “Discipulos do ritmo” the city of Berlin. Finally Frank had the chance to see my city after I told him so much about it since 2001. Also really nice that they booked the show twice, which gave them a lot more opportunities to catch the vibe.My father arrived right on time. I just finished a little sightseeingtrip with them, when he called. Later we went to the theatre for the runthrough and the show and then we all went together with Mio my poppingpartner Mio and Blockbuster to our cultrestaurant in Moabit “La Mandria”. The next day my father left around noon and I started packing again. The show went good and after the show we went to a club, where we still went busy and also danced with Khaled from Btown and Saigon who were also there that night. I didn´t stay too long, since I still had things to arrange at my pad and the next day we went to Paris. Near Rouen I had to play my solo “Virtuelevation” along with Franks “Som de movimento! The town was called Canteleu. It was a cute place, except that there were some abnoxious people in the audience that were making trouble throughout Franks whole performance. I was lucky they got kicked out before I went on stage. We went back to Paris right after the show, slept there and went the next morning to Charleroi at the belge French border. Here I also had to play my solo and “Geometronomics” thanx to Rival, a belge MC that I was on tour with a couple of years back. The crowd was also a bit unpleasant about the length of the night, but kept its patience. I was supposed to play at 23.00 and finally went on stage at 0.30.
Considering the fact that the group had to go to Poitiers the next day that was very late, but hey...we made it. Discipulos were teaching for a day in Poitiers. I took one day out in Paris with Debbie. She took me their the next day with the car of her sister. We played “Som di movimento”, “Virtuelevation” and “Geometronomics” and ended the tour that evening! I wish I could have stayed with the brasiliens a bit longer that day, since we just ended a very successful tour and a very exciting and funny time in Germany, the Netherlands and France, but Debbie had to bring me directly to Charles de Gaulle airport, so i can fly to Boston. On our way we were still stopped by the police who frisked us for drugs, but I still made it on time. I took my flight had a little stopover in Montreal, but still arrived in the afternoon in Boston, where Megatron brought me to the hotel. I arrived 2 days pre the event, to have a chance to hang out with my old friend Float from NYC who I haven´t seen in years. Just a shame that he had to take care of business a lot, but “Floorlords” and “Shallow” took good care of me. All participants and judges from out of town stayed in the same hotel and I had a really good time while being in Boston. The event was crazy! The judges for popping were “Skeeter Rabbit, Poppin Pete, Jazzy J, Klown, and Boppin Andre”. For Bboying the flew in “Ivan, Ken Swift “ and me. The whole event was off the hook. The afterparties were jamming and the hotellobby was even better. The event was called “Peace and unity” and was organized by Shallow and Megatron. Hopefully it´s going to be an annual thing. On my flight back I slept through, since I had a crazy conversationnight behind me with Ivan and Boppin Andre in the breakfastroom of the hotel.
I had one day in Berlin, then I had to be in London for Breaking convention. Here as well i saw a lot of people that I haven´t seen in a long time and I was really happy to see my old buddy “Zulu Gremlin” again, who was performing with “Media Sirkis” from San Francisco. The event was huge! So many people were performing and giving workshops. Emma and Jonzi also invited Miss Prizzy, Frank Ejara, Wanted Posse, Frank II Louise, Zoo nation, Frank Wilson and Drifters to perform on stage. Everytime I am coming to London I am just happy to hang out with my old time friend Kevin to go to Nando´s, but this time was off the hook. The afterparty was really rocking it, too. Frank and me were dancing all night again until DJ Timber was stealing the show in the Breakbeat room. The second day before leaving I still tought a class about HipHoptheatre and participated for half an hour in Miss Prizzy´s crumping workshop. I wish I could have done it all, but my plane was going. Finally I had a week home which I mainly spent to come up with the choreography for the soccerworldcup and for a video that Mio and me filmed in front of the new Hauptbahnhof in Berlin..
On May 14th I left again for Paris. Frank and me were both presenting our solos in Villiers le belle. This time he brought Claudia, his wife with him. Debbie and me haven´t seen her since the last time in brasil, and so we were very happy to share some moments together. The day after I had to do a little showcase and judge a competition in Bilbao in Spain, so I took a very early plane in the morning. I was there for about an hour, when “Dj Renegade” shocked me with the message that “Skeeter Rabbit” died. I saw him last in Boston and we had such a nice time out there. I couldn´t believe it, so I called “Jazzy J” who confirmed it.
There are going to be big repercussions.
The same night I was brought to the airport in Madrid to take the first plane to munich. I had 1 hour sleep in the car and another hour and a half on the plane. When I arrived in Munich I had to go directly to the studio to tech the choreography to the chosen HipHop crowd of the soccerworldcupopening.. The next morning I took the train to Paris, where I again, only had one day to get back to Berlin for 3 days. Because of my crazy travel schedule in the next couple of days I actually wanted to do everything by car, but Dirk, my manager found a much better solution. Frank and me had to play our solos in Tourcoing in Belgium on Saturday. For me it went really adventurous again. Directly after the show I had a driver, taking me to Düsseldorf airport, where I just arrived in time to go to Munich again. Here I tought the same 80 dancers the same choreography in the formation they were supposed to do. It went pretty fast. Parago, one of the guys that actually asked me to do the job, fed me with some delicious Indian food and mango lassi, so I did not fall asleep and I kept the attention. Iwent back to Berlin with Parago the next morning. Now I had some time get in touch with my peers again. I had the whole week in Berlin without any stress, but had to do my taxpapers for the 2nd quarter of the year. On Friday I took the last train leaving to munich that still arrived the same day and tought the choreography to the 20 chosen Bboys in the next two days in a gym outside munich city. From here I took a train to Ljubljana where I met my brasilien troop again. We played “Geometronomics” and had a good time with some local HipHoppers like Sam and next morning I flew from Zagreb to Berlin. The day after I had to go to munich for the last time, this time for 10 days. The day of the openingceremony was June 9th. I had the great pleasure to take my train from the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof for the first time. I was really impressed by the architecture and how things were functioning.
The days in Munich went fine. I worked with all the dancers all day. Had good backup from Parago, Ricarda, Thomas Hergenröther and Nils and on afterhours I chilled with Claw, whose girlfriend was living in munich. After 2days Debbie came, and since she was working on the show and doing the show as well, except that she was performing centrestage with “seeed”, she had her legitimate place with me in the hotel. On June 9th it was crazy! It was my first time at a soccermatch this big. After the ceremony which was televised very bad, Costa Rica was playing against Germany. I never heard people that loud and being that enthusiastic about something. It was a shame that Debbie had to leave directly after the show on the field to perform with “Seeed” once again in Berlin, so she didn´t get anything of those massive impressions in the stadium. What was also really nice was the fact that we had bad weather for the past 8 days and on the day of the show, the sun was shining to the fullest. That same night we were all still going out to a club in munich centre, where DJ Mirko was spinning. Claw and me danced all night again and enjoyed getting loose. Early next morning I had to go to Venezia. Since I only had to do my stagerehearsal that day, I walked around a lot and checked out the city again. Then I took a long sleep. Next day I started with my first time on the beach that year. Just for an hour I relaxed in the sand after breakfast until I got myself ready for “Virtuelevation”. I was also participating in a panel about Dance. I was truly worried about that, but I came across pretty well i think. When I was flying back from Venezia I wished I could have stayed a day or two longer, but also I was happy to go back home to Berlin. The weekend after I was booked in Gdynja again. This time I wanted to take the car, to see if there is time enough to find the village and house where my ancestors were living. I was already really excited when I came closer to Gdansk which was Danzig before. I enjoyed driving by a lot imagining how it was in the days when it was part of germany and when my grandparents drove by or went there. Then in Gdynja I focussed mainly on my show, but when I had freetime during the day I went to an internetcafe to find where this place called “Wormen” is. Finally I found something. I printed it out and put it in the car for the next day. After the show I still went to the afterparty where I was battling a popper from Poland. I just wanted to have some fun, but he was getting more and more serious. Whatever, I guess he never learned it different. So although I was on a mission for the next day I got up pretty late and just made it for breakfast. I still said goodbye to Jean Yves my lighttechnician who also wished me good luck and I left eastwards. Of course non of the names were still the same and all the german towns were called something polish now. I had two maps printed out. One old german map and one in polish, so I could relate. Then when I finally thought I made it, I found out through a phonecall to my dad, that I was in the wrong Wormen. There were two. He started to help directing me and finally I seemed to have found it, when I stopped the car and looked hectically around with the phone on my ear when somebody started talking german to me. He had the same accent like my grandfather and kind of had the same look as well, so I feld comfortable right away. He invited me in his house and tried to help me. He had old maps and family registers of that area and soon he told me that I was in the wrong village. I was in Wormienen. Well, quiet similar, but still wrong. Then I called Daddy again, who really couldn´t help me anymore. Suddenly my eyes went on the corner of the map where I saw a name that was similar to my familyname. My father told me about passing by a sign while he was there with the name Robity. So it must have been close to that. Then my friendly eastprussian helper went to his son asking him if he knows of a Wormen in that area. He laughed and said that it´s really small and that there are only 5 houses left and everything else got destructed in 2nd world war. At least he knew it and could give me a description of how to get there. I was really happy and finally found the place after driving through the most beautiful nature the whole day. I wonder how I must have feld in the winter, but it was a nice day in the middle of june and the sun was beaming hot. After another german helped me still, I finally found the place, spent a little while with a neighbour that got deported from Sibiria to live there and took pictures of the ruin of the house. I left much too late, when I saw that the sun was going down. On my way back I met the second german again at the same crossing, with another car, who told me how I could go back to Berlin the fastest. He sent me on an illegal road, that was actually part of Hitlers Autobahn from Berlin to Königsberg. Madly I drove 150km/h through until it ended, still checked out the most impressive Fort I have ever seen in my life in “ “ which was built by the german Ritterorden in 1300 something and went on with a civilized speed. I arrived at the german boarder around 3.00 in the night, got frisked by the customs again for drugs and cigarettes and arrived home at 5.00 in the morning. Since so many interesting things happened that day, and only within these couple of hours, my brain was fully functioning and I wasn´t tired at all. I opened the door to my appartement, started packing and left for Grenoble 2 hours later.
I had no time to sleep at all. The plane was packed, the Dirk and me rode to Echirolles by car and many things to discuss and all in all I was so tired and stressed, that I kinda forgot my womans birthday! In Echirolles I performed virtuelevation and went to Paris. I packed my stuff and left to Pantin. I had to perform at the CND for the next two days and also gave a two day popping workshop. Moov ´N Aktion organized their “Danse Hip Hop Tanz” festival again and I was participating amongst a lot of other colleges I haven´t seen in a long time. Like I saw Bernard Pambe´s Solo for the first time fully. Irvine Louis came to town with dave Graham and showed some of that London jazz style at the same night as me, two very nice Bgirl solos, actually the best I´ve seen so far were also programmed. After this heavy weekend I had time to chill with Debbie for two days until I had to go to Düsseldorf. Joker invited me for the second time for his event called “Global skills”. I had to teach for three days and at the end they throw an event at the Tanzhaus NRW where they have a little dancecontest for the local groups and workshopparticipants and a performance of the teachers. The teachers this year were, John Agesilas and Magic from Amsterdam, Suga Pop from LA, Rabbah from paris and me. For our little performance at the end of the week I edited the music 30 minutes before going on stage, and called it the 32 beats concept. Basically, rabbah, Claudio and me performed each one 32 beats freestyle and then the next person came on. Like that we did it 5 times in a row and we had our little show. Of course I took the microphone first to explain what it was gonna be like. It was really fun and I am sure I will use this concept for a futureperformance.
In Düsseldorf I barely slept. Too many people that I haven´t seen in a while and too many discussions and parties. Claudio also stayed in my room, so even when there was no Jam, we talked until the break of down.
After Düsseldorf I had a week at home in Berlin. Finally I could live a week in peace at home hang out with my homeys. I mainly practiced with Mio and Raphael, and each time after that we would go to some restaurant to eat and to philosophy about our dances and new concepts. It´s been like that for quiet some time now. This week, Mio and me decided to work together with Robozee and Claudio for a future project that will be called “eins eins null”. A pure popping project from germany. It really sounded good, so also i briefed Dirk my manager about it, who was going to try and find some coproducers for the upcoming creation. One deal was safe already, a residence in Bagnolet, which was starting in fall already with my “Virtuelevation” and some workshops. After Mio and me started our Animatronik project, which is about popping and it´s philosophy, it was just the next step to do.
On the next weekend I had to go to Washington/DC. Frank from Sao paolo and me were invited to Lincoln Centre for the HipHop Theatre festival. On my arrival date already I was interviewed for 5 hours for a documentary about Bboying that was going to come out in 2007. The guys were really interested about what i had to say and how I see the Boyworld these days. They had me talking forever! They filled about 3 hours tape just with me talking. Whoever had to make the choice about what to take, has a really hard job. Next day was performing day. Frank, Dirk, our lighttechnician Stephan from Lyon and me were wandering through the city to see some sights first, before we headed to Lincoln Center to do our rehearsals. It was a beautiful day. We did the rehearsal, ate at the Watergate and performed. After the show they had a party at some club and had fun still, until Frank and me were too tired and we went to our hotel. Next day we had to do a lecture performance. Basically we were supposed to talk about our work and demonstrate at the same time. It was a lot of fun. I basically did the whole show “Solo for two” and talked about the making of the video and the difficulties I had while filming and editing and how I went about the whole production process. Still had time to go to Georgetown, and also to meet some old friends, like Stephanie from the “Red velvet girls” and Russel, who I met at Breakers delight 2003 for the first time, House from “Asassins” who lived in Stuttgart for a long time and his partner “Richaad” who won the Popping contest in Boston a month before.
Directly after Washington I was supposed to perform in Ramallah again, but we cancelled on time due to the warlike situation in Palestine. So I had 4 days off until I was going on my annual trip to Vienna to teach at the “Impulstanz” festival. This was my 6th time going there. What´s really nice is that I usually et an apartment for the time of my stay, so I could bring Debbie. This year I was scheduled for two weeks of teaching, so Debbie and me installed ourselves in an appartment not too far from the arsenal, which is the venue with all the studios. Debbies belly was so big already, that she had to stop every 500m while walking, I think I took photos on every bench she sat down on. In the evenings we would talk about possible names for our baby and how we would organize our future, so I could be more with the family. The second week, Bruce was also teaching in Vienna and it wa really beautiful to see how he brought his family along and how they went swimming at a nearby pool during the day while he tought dancelessons.
Everytime I leave Vienna I think I have to change the way I teach, because I am loosing so much weight during my stay. I am always coming out of my classes looking like I took a shower with my clothes on, while everybody else seems more or less dry.
And this year for the second time I had to teach another week in Erfurt. While it´s usually two lessons in Vienna, I teach 3 lessons in Erfurt. One of the teachers I met here for the first time was Johnny Loyd from Boston. He is specialized in Swing and Lyndi hop. I wanted to take his lessons, but I was too tired and needed to safe my energy to make it during the week. Debbie was with me again and helped me out with some massages and walks to the nearby supermarket, to provide me with the necessary nutrition. In our freetime we mostly took the car and went outside of town, to a beautiful little protected peace of land, that we discovered the year before already. I was also really happy, that Mio, Robozee and Claudio came to celebrate my birthday with me. We had a little popping Barbecue in some park, danced the freak and the Prep, and had our first “eins eins null” meeting. They ended up staying for about 4 days at Michels house, who also had Silva from Hamburg as a guest.
After Erfurt, Debbie and me finally had some time for ourselves. We spent the time home in Berlin, went to Schlachtensee swimming when the weather was fine and enjoyed the cheap, but good Berlin restaurants.
I had about one week until I had all my paperwork done and answered all the mail I needed. I also made a deal with the tenents in my apartment that they move out in April 2007, so I could move in there with my family. On the last two days in Berlin I had to get back into our show “The art of urban dance”. I was afraid that the scheduled rehearsal day wasn´t enough, so I started practicing at home with the dvd, to remember all the routines. Then Debbie went home to Paris and I went to Zürich with Raphael to meet everybody else from the “Art of urban dance team”. Everytime we meet it´s like a family reunion and everybody that didn´t practice and doesn´t have anything new feels stupid. The piece is so energetic and full of live that it´s always fun doing it. This time we had three days on Zürichs “Sommertanzspektakel” right on a stage on the “Zürichsee”. The view was beautiful. It was just a bit cold I have to say. Bruce came by car and brought his family, which spiced up the whole trip. His son even became part of our last freestyle after the show. Karl brought Nani, and Claw came to be an understudy.
The day I left I also had to pack again, because I was invited to Sao Paolo for the BC1 Bboycontest prelimination in Brasil and my plane left the same day still.
I stayed in Brasil for two days only. I was really happy to see everybody again after 4 years, but when you only have 5 minutes time for each individual and you actually would like to spend at least 2 or three hours with that person, you have a problem. Well, Muchibinha won the Preliminaries and after the contest we still wandered through the city to find something to eat until we finally stopped at some burgerplace. I still bought a new hammock on Paulista since it´s the best way to chill in Tiergarten in the summer. I travelled with nothing in my duffle bag, so there was enough space for a souvenir like that.
Back in Europe there was no way to get over the jetlag. Two days later Sebastien, Dirk and me went on a trip to Hanoi to work for the Goethe Institute and the CCF. Plan was to meet with some Vietnamese Bboys and to decide if it was possible to do a create a show with them for January 2007. On our ten day stay, I talked to Debbie everyday for a minimum of a an hour on msn. I needed to know constantly that she was okay. The bbirthday of our baby was supposed to be October 21st. It was only about one month to go. Seb, Dirk and me rented bikes, on which we discovered Hanoi. Everyday at noon we practiced on a square near the turtle lake and in the evening we went to a stadium about 20 minutes by bike to practice again. It was hot and I washed my clothes every night in the bathtub. We got really close to the group “Big toe” and decided to do the project in December, although it ment that I was away from my soon coming baby for a month!
When I came back from Vietnam I just had enough time to finish my taxpapers for the 2nd Quarter, answered the important mail and packed my stuff again to drive to Amsterdam by car. Here I met Karl and Bruce. We had to do our “Popping” piece from the “Art of urban dance” in a hotel near central station. I also called Gary to meet up with him. We stayed in A´dam for one night. Next day after the show I left for Paris right away. Debbie organized a Garage space for my car, so we had it with us for the whole time of my stay. From that moment I was nearby and made sure I was there when the baby would come. I still had to go to Lyon for a week, to perform “the art of urban dance” at the biennale de Lyon, but I was in france and not too far if it was time to go!
The magazine “Danser” which is a very classy dancemagazine from france featured for it´s first time since it´s existence a HipHop company on it´s cover. Dirks photo of our show was all over the place!
We did our press conference with the whole group, went to another meeting at the Goethe Institute, practiced the things we needed to and got driven to the hotel everyday by some mad taxi drivers that should have gotten imprisoned!
After our job was done, I preferred to get back to Paris as quick as possible, so when I heard that Bruce , Eric and Clara rented a car, I shipped in and drove with them the same night still.
So now I was in paris waiting for my baby to come. Of course I couldn´t stay inactive and needed to do something productive. So Debbie and me decided to renovate the apartment and make everything nice for the arrival of our son. Of course I still had some jobs in Paris everyday, like meetings in bagnolet about my residence, judging the first “dancedelight competition” in France and my daily practice, but at least i was close to my woman.
Exactly one day after we finished painting the apartment, I brought Debbie to the hospital on October 5th at five in the morning and our son “Shan” was born at 9.40.
The next 4 days she had to stay in there. The day we left the hospital was magic!
Now we were home and we were 3!
We wrote the necessary emails and postcards, talked to all the relatives to spread the word and didn´t want to leave the house anymore.
On October 19th I had to go back to Germany, because the international battle of the year was coming up and I organized the “popping /Locking“ contest at the warm up party. Right after the big days competition I took the car and Mio and we drove back home to Berlin. The next day I flew back to Paris, where my family was waiting for me. Inbetween I had a show in Villeneuve la Garenne, but other that that I took it easy and enjoyed my new family life. We had 10 days together. So we took our baby and went to the doctors, osteopaths and all what needed to be done, tried to get information about his german citizenship, went to make a passport for him and did all the necessary. And although we already had a lot of clothes and presents for Shan, we still had to get him some wintergear and things for the apartment needed to be modified. After this beautiful time I had to go to brasil again. My first time to be away from our baby for about three weeks. This tour was planned since the beginning of the year when “Discipulos do ritmo” and me were producing “Geometronomics”. The tour was scheduled different in the beginning, and it looked as if we had to fly within brasil a lot, that´s why I didn´t take Debbie and Shan with me, but some dates changed last minute and we ended up being in Sao Paolo for most of the time. The first 6 days we spent there, first practicing and cleaning up the show and then performing at the SESC Pinheros. I also had a few meetings already with Deborah and Steffen from Redbull, since I was hired as a the headjudge of the international BC one competition that followed right after our little “Geometronomics” tour. After Sao Paolo we went up north to Crato, which was really boring, but an interesting place when it came to natural living! We had bungalows in which we slept. For three people one house. Frogs jumped into toilets, wild animals made noises all night, and Geckos that scared you running up walls whenever you didn´t expect them. The first performance was in a theatre near the Goethe Institute. It was so hot, that we could have danced in a sauna, it wouldn´t have made a difference. The whole day the sun was shining on the roof. And then at our performance the stage light gave it the rest. An uninvited guest has thrown the table over with all the catering, so there was no food left, and on top of it the technician of the theatre wanted to switch off the light in the back and turned out the general fuse, so the whole show stopped, and we had to start again. The next day we had to leave for Recife. Everybody was happy. The airport in crato was as big as a subwaystation in any other city and to our luck our plane had a delay of almost two hours. When we finally took off, everybody was worried about our flight changes in Porto Allegre. We did have enough time and still had a little practice session on the boarding gate in Porto Allegre.
Finally in Recife it was night already. We still didn´t hesitate and went to the beach right after checking into our hotel, which was a block away. The performance was on next day in the evening and some of us decided to go on a sightseeingtrip to Olinda, which is a beautiful town nearby, before the show. This was the only day, to develope a kind of touristic Brasil feeling. Beach, sunshine, houses in pastel colours and fresh fruitjuices, feijoado, churrasco and pao de keijo all day long. The show was in a beautiful old Opera house. The people were pretty reserved and reacted different from how we knew, but at the end still sure have shown appreciation for our art. I went to bed pretty early that night and didn´t go with the others. They still went to eat something nearby the hotel. Everybody has arrived for the BC 1 in Sao Paolo and I was awaited to do my job there a s well.
When we arrived at Garulhos airport in Sao Paolo everything went pretty fast. Dirk stayed for a couple of days in Olinda, so didn´t even take the plane with us and Andrezinho and me as judges for the competition were getting picked up by the red bull bus. We were brought directly to the hotel where I met Shaq and lil´Cheng to my surprise. Johnjay and Charly from Korea with “Hong 10” and “the End”, Do knock and Ronnie from the US and a bunch of other dancers from “America do sul”. It took a bit until I met everybody involved. I finally met all the participants at the “stage test” a couple of hours later. But there were so many more people invited, especially press, that was flewn into brasil, that I was mainly busy giving interviews for the next two days. The worst is always when journalists don´t want to accept that Bboying is the real term for the dancecategory that people compete in at BC1 and that it´s not Breakdancing. Or when they talk about “Breaking” but mean popping! Terrible! Well i was hired to state things clear, so I did my job. For most of the journalists it was way too complicated what I was talking about anyway, but at least they understood why not just anybody could judge a competition like that. At nights I always went to practice with “Crazy monkey” from Phase T / France, “Hong ten” and “the End” and my old friend “So” from Sao Paolo. Red bull provided this huge space next to the hotel where everybody could have practiced, but it was always just the same 5 people there.
On competition day it was raining badly and they almost had to cancel the whole event. At a certain moment during the competition it was so bad, that while a Bgirlbattle went on some helpers jumped on stage to wipe the floor dry. It was a mess and everything seemed to end badly, but mysteriously the rain had mercy and almost stopped, so we had a chance to finish the BC1 2007 with “Hong 10” as the winner. The after party was waiting for us and was far ouside! It took the bus three hours to arrive since some wanted to eat something and others took a shower, the bus waited forever and then when it left it was still so far, that everybody that arrived and got through at the door was hustling the hostesses for the pizza they were giving out. The jam was pumpin´and we danced until it was brought daylight.
The next day I had a day off and spent time justifying my votes and with interviews for the worldwide press. That was combined with a Sao Paolo sight seeing tour, which I probably did for the third time this time. I had an appointment with some friends of mine from Rozinha to visit Val in a hospital in Diadema, but I didn´t make it. My workday was over a lot later than expected and the trip to diadema was about 2 hours.
On next day I had to go to the neighbourhood anyway to teach at the HipHop house. Rocafella Junior and me were teaching each for an hour, went to eat something and then went on with a discussion. It was supposed to be a discussion about the BC 1, but it ended up as an endless general discussion about HipHop. On that same day, most of the people went back home. Rocafella and me were the last guests and left the next day in the early evening. During my whole stay in sao Paolo I didn´t even have time to go into the centre once. I used every minute available to go online and talk with Debbie. Towards the end of the stay my computer got slower and slower and I was afraid to loose everything inside, but it lasted until my takeoff.
Back in Europe Debbie and me went to Berlin, where I bought a new computer. There was a big production coming up, where I needed a fast and clean up to date notebook. I got it last minute before I left again. Debie Shan and me had a good month together, and she also came with me to Orleans in mid December, where we kind of had a bit of a xmas spirit in a nice hotel room. I had to work everyday, performing “Virtuelevation” a couple of times, but it was okay. Then my commitment of the year came up. I left for Vietnam on 18th of December. My family had to spend the first xmas alone in Paris and me with Seb and Dirk in Hanoi. On our arrival we went to get some motorcycles first. Now we were more independent, which helped us a lot to get to know the city better, which was also necessary to be able to produce the video for the performance. The xmas over there was celebrated like we celebrate New Year, with fire works and parties. We went to some italien restaurant which was pretty poch, even for our budget. But hey, it was Christmas in Vietnam at the turtle lake. New year is on some other day then 31st of December, and there wasn´t a celebration at all. Just another normal day! I drowned myself in work in Vietnam, also just so that time passes by quicker and I won´t think too much about my son, whom I missed a lot every day. We had wireless in the hotel and I could chat with Debbie daily, although she was really hard to reach the first couple of days. My new year started again with loads of work and I finally went back to Europe on January 19th after producing a successful dancepiece with the group “Big toe” from Hanoi, Dirk and Sebastien.
