Insight of an Insider


Want to hear his voice?

Meet Mahmud, a 25 years old skilled b-boy dancer. He is one of the best people around, as is very well known among dancers in Singapore. He was spending his time with his buddies in the underground pass near Esplanade, practicing his dance. We were lucky enough to be able to catch him chilling and ask a little bit of his time to tell us what he thinks about "cool" from the eye of a great dancer like him.

Someone who was once represented the Medical Force, he thinks that cool is all about attitude and staying healthy with regular exercises. No dancer can dance if he/she can't treat his/her body well. And for those who dance to look cool, we guess that there is nothing worst than looking bad because you lack physical fitness.

Claimed himself as a 3rd-generation b-boy dancer, he also mention about Chinese b-girls prefer to dance in Korean b-girls style while Malay guys prefer the b-boys of Perth. And among their group, the youngest member is 15 years old and the oldest one is 35 years old.

Once again, for him cool is all about attitude. Coolness can be cultivated during exercises. It is like when you are practicing, those people who are watching can think that you are cool. That is, of course, with the right attitude the dancer has presented themselves are. Nobody likes anyone with arrogant attitude no matter how skilled they are.

Mahmud also mentioned that he teaches dancing in few places in Singapore, notably in Chinatown and Studio Wu. It was said that most dancers do not really open classes like he does. We figured that being someone who had won B-Boys dance competitions before, he is willing to share his knowledge to anyone who are determined to be a dancing champion like he is.

TRIVIA: The underground tunnel where showed on the video is one of the most famous secret practicing spot; starting from BMX bikers, skaters and dancers. They are all often seen practicing their techniques in this very place, usually in groups. Although, about a year ago a new rule was created which forbids skateboarders and bikers to enter the area.

Video editing by Chan Shi Ya Pearl
Original text composition by Lew Houy Ping
Editorial by Teguh Limantoro

3 comments:

CJ Tay said... / August 8, 2009 at 6:05 PM  

Hello, really nice interviews of those breakdancers and all. I suggest a better place, Oschool. It's a dance school, I go there for my popping lessons. Many hiphopers, poppers, breakdancers there. There's a shop in Heerens called Sexydiamond just happened to be opened by one of the instructor at Oschool. He used to teach me luh that's why i know. anyhows, I hope this helps!

-CJ

Teguh Limantoro said... / August 13, 2009 at 5:51 PM  

Thanks CJ :)

We were very lucky to be able to catch this Mahmud guy. Otherwise I don't think we will have that much of things to see or learn except for dance demos :p

And thanks for the suggestion! We went there to check things out, but to no avail since they were closed at that time (Tuesday) :( and also we didn't see this coming: it appears that we need to arrange an appointment if we're to interview anyone inside officially... a bit cumbersome we think :( we haven't checked Sexydiamond though.

And yeah although we didn't get much from the trip, it helps a lot for our direction, thanks a lot :)

Brien said... / August 15, 2009 at 8:46 PM  

Great job. indeed this guy is real useful in telling us wat breakdancing is about..

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