REVIEW | RED BULL BC ONE UK CYPHER 2019…AND THE WINNERS ARE…

Red Bull BC One has grown to become the biggest on one breakin’ com­pet­i­tion in the world, thus the title is much sort after. Hold­ing world finals in dif­fer­ent coun­tries each year it reflects the glob­al appeal of this art­form and the com­pet­i­tion is fierce, bboys and bgirls must battle through their coun­try qual­i­fi­ers for a place in the finals. This UK cypher was in invite only. The most skilled 16 B‑Boys and 8 B‑Girls picked to battle it out one on one for the top spaces at Vil­lage under­ground in Shored­itch. Solo B‑Boy and B‑Girl Cham­pi­ons of the UK cypher will go on to rep­res­ent the UK at this year’s Red Bull BC One World Finals held in Mum­bai, India.

As a nice little extra, dur­ing the day Red Bull in col­lab­or­a­tion with the UK B‑Boy Cham­pi­on­ships organ­ized a free work­shop with the infam­ous Red Bull BC One All Stars — Roxrite and Neguin. It was a once in a life­time oppor­tun­ity for B‑Boys and B‑Girls who wanted to learn from these pro­lif­ic dan­cers and it didn’t mat­ter how long they had been dan­cing for, you could learn a lot from these B‑Boys.

The main event was held at Vil­lage Under­ground in Shored­itch — out­side the ven­ue was adorned with art and mur­als. As I joined the queue I was asked if I had a spare tick­et as there were sev­er­al people who couldn’t get into this sold out event. Tick­ets were also avail­able for free with a promo code for those attend­ing the UK B‑Boy Cham­pi­on­ships the fol­low­ing day. This week­end was all about breakin’ in Lon­don and this night kicked it off in a spe­cial way.

Secur­ity shouted down the line, ‘no liquids allowed, there are free drinks inside’ in true Red Bull fash­ion drinks were avail­able for free at this over 18’s event, it was going to be a party. Enter­ing into a quirky under­ground ven­ue com­prised of a ware­house and ship­ping con­tain­ers I loved its intim­acy. Ambi­ently lit it was filled with famil­i­ar faces mostly dan­cers from the scene. The lim­it­a­tion on the num­ber of guests was an advant­age so every­one could be closer to the main stage and the action.

Filmed for the Red Bull live stream con­trib­ut­ing to their 36 hours live stream, it felt like it was a part of some­thing much big­ger. Hos­ted by none oth­er than Crazy Legs from the Rock Steady Crew, he brought his usu­al cha­risma and wit to the stage. Each dan­cer was called on stage to be intro­duced before the battles began, which helped put names to faces or rather moves, it was a moment to appre­ci­ate who had been invited to com­pete. The 16 B‑Boys: Mari­us, Enos, Sheku, Shoggs, Kid Kelvin, Daz, Izaak, Vic­tor J, Infante, Eggy, Razzleroc, Echo, Sunni, Jack­son and Gribz. The 8 B‑Girls: Raw­gina, Jenn, Fid­get, Short­bread, Munir­at, Zana, Vanessa and Angel. The judging pan­el con­sisted of Red Bull BC  One All Stars – Neguin and Roxrite with the pre­vi­ous win­ner of BC One Cypher UK – Spin (Soul Mav­er­icks). DJ Khan Fu from Manchester was spin­ning music for the night, restric­ted to what he could play due to copy­right laws as the event was being live streamed but he still con­tin­ued to keep the selec­tion hype for the battles.

Sunni won his first battle against Jack­son but had to unfor­tu­nately pull out of the com­pet­i­tion due to health issues. Before he stepped out, Crazy Legs brought him out to the stage to give him a shout out for his con­sist­ency. Each dan­cer pushed the lim­its of phys­ic­al and men­tal endur­ance to give all they could, but there could only be one win­ner in each category.

Red Bull BC One UK Cypher Solo B‑Girl Win­ner — Vanessa

The final B‑Girl battle was between Vanessa and Raw Gina. Both came out really hard with both style and tech­nic­al moves. Neither lacked energy. As a woman it was inspir­ing to see so many B‑Girls on this plat­form. The win was taken by Vanessa who thanked the people who prac­ticed with her and helped her reach this level. Crazy Legs remin­isced on see­ing dope B‑Girls as he grew up with one in par­tic­u­lar Head­spin Janet from the Bronx. He told Vanessa she now has the oppor­tun­ity to take it to the next level and con­tin­ue the leg­acy of dope B‑Girls and inspire oth­er women. Vanessa then took this time to con­grat­u­late and thank all the oth­er B‑girls in the com­pet­i­tion battle who man­aged to reach this level. I caught Vanessa after the battle to ask her a few questions.

Cy: Vanessa, huge con­grat­u­la­tions on tak­ing the win! What does all of this mean for you?

Vanessa: Thank you. It means a lot to me, espe­cially because this was a major battle against myself and my own mind. It’s a lot of pres­sure and expect­a­tions we put on ourselves. Let­ting myself down is my worst fear. So by win­ning this is proof that I can do whatever I believe and put my mind into”.

Cy: Breakin’ is very much men­tally demand­ing as it phys­ic­al and takes a lot of train­ing. How often did you train for this?

Vanessa: I prac­tice really hard for this, my work been con­sist­ent, is not some­thing we just do one day, its every day! I always say we need to prac­tice twice as hard to get half as much. So I’m really happy for this win.

Cy: You should be very proud. What’s next?

Vanessa: Well hope­fully this win will give me more oppor­tun­it­ies to travel the world and help me share my story and know­ledge about this cul­ture and dance.

Red Bull BC One UK Cypher Solo B‑Boy Win­ner —  Jackson

The Final B‑Boy battle was between Jack­son and Izaak who both went all out with what seemed like bound­less energy and style. Jack­son took the win thank­ing his crew Bat­talions and giv­ing Bad Taste Crew a shout out without whom he said this would not have been possible.

Cy: Con­grat­u­la­tions on the win Jack­son! I know you must be buzz­ing right now what does this win mean for you?

Jack­son: This win means the world to me! Just to get to com­pete on a Red Bull BC One stage was amaz­ing!!! So to be able to have a chance to com­pete on the stage at the finals is crazy!!

Cy: It’s most def­in­itely a massive achieve­ment. How do you think this will influ­ence your jour­ney in breakin’?

Jack­son: It’s made me just want to break more than I ever had and def­in­itely been the biggest motiv­at­or for me. I think in terms of help­ing my jour­ney in breakin, it’s just going to make me get bet­ter, train harder and exper­i­ence new oppor­tun­it­ies which I think is def­in­itely the main thing.

Cy: That’s great to hear, I look for­ward to see­ing more of you in future. How do you think this win will open up new doors for you?

Jack­son: I’ve had so many people mes­sage me who I don’t know and it’s amaz­ing to get sup­port like that! It was super over­whelm­ing! So yeah I think it’s going to open so many oppor­tun­it­ies for in my jour­ney, I feel like I’m just get­ting star­ted now haha.

A great night filled with high level breakin, both Vanessa and Jack­son will be going to Mum­bai to rep­res­ent the UK at a world level.

Wish­ing them the best of luck!