Letting their hair down

A lot of youngsters chose to spend their time at the two-day fest ‘Freeze 2012’, held at different venues in the City recently. Boys and girls turned up in large numbers to witness hip-hop artistes from across the world battle it out in DJing, beat-boxing and Bboying.

Day two of the festival was held at Mount Carmel College and those who turned up for the event — that was exclusively for Bboying — were either professional Bboying artistes or those with an interest to learn the dance form, which is slowly gaining pace in the City.

The day-long event saw many young boys come up and do their own thing in Bboying.
Vineeth Vincent, who was instrumental in organising the festival, says, “Freeze has gone through a natural evolution over the last three years and due to the demand, we have evolved it into a festival with the five elements of hip-hop.”

Vineeth feels the City doesn’t have many avenues for Bboying enthusiasts to share the Bboying culture. He observes that some of the performers in the festival are professionally trained and others are largely self-taught. “Currently, beat-boxing is picking up in colleges around the City. Bboying is slowly catching more attention,” he adds.

Patrick Grigo from Germany, popularly known as B-Boy Parrish, thinks Bboying is all about sharing the culture of dancing. “There are no written rules in Bboying. At events like this, if there are people who know a few steps which they may have either learnt or invented, they are free to show it so that the others can learn from it. Bboying is all about sharing,” he says, adding, “Bboying is changing every minute, everyday. And people are always creating something new from the old.”  

Bboy Thesis from the United States of America feels that the Bboying scene in India is still very young. “Bboying is a joy which should be shared. It has changed from what it was and my inspiration for the dance comes from things around me,” he says. DJ BlesOne, also from the USA, makes his own music.

He says, “Bboying music is a personal translation of how I interpret music. I mix new tunes and remix old ones, just to create something new. The idea is to break away from the mundane.” Vishtas Kothavala, a first-year BCom student of Jai Hind College in Mumbai, came all the way just to be a part of the festival. “Platforms like this give you an opportunity to share what you know about Bboying and also learn a thing or two from the others. It’s very popular back home in Mumbai,” he states.

The other events were ‘Fashion Swag’, which showcased the latest trends in hip-hop fashion with a touch of Indian culture. There were also fillers by local artistes and the finals of the beat-box battle. The show ended with a special performance, which saw all international artistes jamming to a tune by DJ Blesone. The winners walked away with cash prize and some merchandise and the champion got the title of ‘Feeze Bboying Champion’.