B-Boys Turning It Loose
Breakdancing rocks, shame about the competion
Released by Revolver Entertainment on 20 September, Turn It Loose: The Real Street Dance follows a handful of boys from all over the world to the breakdancing final competition in Soweto, South Africa. Between dancers Lilou, RoxRite, Ronnie, Taisuke, Lil’J and Hong 10, the two-hour Red Bull sponsored sweat-fest is sure to catch your attention for a solid minute and a half. But once you’ve seen one kid stand on his head and hop around, you’ve pretty much seen the whole show.
Breakdancing dudes, or B-Boys for short, started doing their thing in New York some 40 years ago, but now out of the six featured dancers in Turn It Loose, only two are from the US. After performing, one of the American boys said the crowd “automatically booed because I’m from America,” then later added on, “they think we all have it easy or something.” I don’t know if it’s exactly easy to have another man get all up in your business and “battle” you on a circle stage, then have judges pick out which of the two popped-locked-and-dropped it the best… but we get his point.
Lil’ J traveled all the way from Senegal to South Africa for the breakdance dance off, only after being given good graces by some sort of wiseman-Ghandi-type-figure in his village. J’s good luck charm bracelet given by the wiseman may or may not have paid off for him, after he dismissed his countries disapproval of this westernized genre of dance.
No matter what hardship any of the six dancers had to overcome to get to South Africa, their sob stories are all pretty much the same; dance is all they have… they really need this title to prove something to themselves… all they want in life is to breakdance… etc. etc. But by the third mini E! True Hollywood Story, I could basically predict the remaining three.
In the end there was a winner, who got a giant belt and some bragging rights, and a bunch of sad-faced losers. If dance is your forte and you want some pointers on how to be the best at breaking it down, then I suggest watching at least 10-minutes of Turn It Loose: The Real Street Dance. If it’s not so much an interest of yours, however, I wouldn’t bother.
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Guest: nattyTue 28 - Sep - 2010, 13:19I think this is an overly harsh review of what I found to be a beautifully shot and engaging portrait of what has quietly become a truly international subculture. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in hip-hop culture or just a good dramatic story. Natty
