hey everyone, this is d.ho

[itsdho]

Hi everyone!

My name is D.Ho; I'm from the South Bay, and I'm new to popping. I started out in liquid and glowsticking and stuff like that, and I got interested in popping because it combines really visually stunning illusions (like waving), with really intense musicality on the hits (which styles like liquid sometimes lack). I saw clips of people like Nam Hyun Joon and Salah (and the DS Players ;)), and I was blown away. I've been trying to learn from the internet for about a year now, just watching tutorial videos on youtube and practicing on my own.

Since I just graduated from college, I've got a lot more free time this summer, and I'm trying to meet (and learn from!) poppers in the Bay Area, before I leave for grad school on the East Coast in mid-August. Mostly, I want to get a better grasp of the fundamentals of popping. I was hoping to take Bionic's popping class in SF this summer, but it's currently on hold. I have started going to Aiko's weekly sessions at Northside Community Center in San Jose, though. (They're a lot of fun! It's mostly b-boys and b-girls, but there are some funkstylists too.)

Anyway, I hope to meet some of you, either online or in person! :)

[Switch Step]

Hey what's up! There's a weekly session in San Jose? That's cool, when is it exactly and what poppers go there? I might try to hit that up if I have time. I remember learning from the internet and videos when I first started. There's definitely a lot of little things you don't quite get that you get from learning in person.

I'm located near San Francisco but I'll generally drive down to the Santa Clara area at least once a week to get together with my boy Frankenberry. Maybe we can all get together if you're not too busy.

Peace and welcome to the community!

[ceech]

welcome to the site d.ho. glad to see you here and pleasure chatting with u online. see u monday yeah ?

[Magic Mike]

welcome d.ho! Good to see ya on the boards. Yea, you definitely gotta train hard so you can bring it when you're off to school :)

[itsdho]

ceech:

Absolutely. See you Monday!

Switch Step:

Every Wednesday for the summer, from 6-8pm, there's a session at Northside Community Center in San Jose. It's at 488 N. 6th Street, San Jose, CA 95112. It's a wooden building on your left, just past Empire Street and the railroad tracks. There's a $1 donation to keep these running.

Every Friday, from 3-6pm, there's a session at Alum Rock Youth Center.
It's at 137 N White Rd San Jose, CA 95127, next to James Lick High School.

Both sessions were started by Aiko Shirakawa (http://www.google.com/search?q=aiko+shirakawa), from Jam Patrol. Usually, it looks like anywhere from 8-20 people show up, ranging in age from kids to adults. Like I said, it's mostly b-boys and b-girls, but there's a handful of funkstylists (maybe 2-4, depending on the day?). We're mostly just beginners, but I met Spacewalker (http://youtube.com/watch?v=vNttnAp-R7I) at one of the Wednesday sessions; he taught us some popping. And Aiko herself shows up at all the sessions; she's been teaching some locking lately.

When/where do you and Frankenberry get down? I'd definitely be up for meeting you guys!

[gizmo]

Hey D. Ho! Welcome and see ya soon!

[Magic Mike]

yo d. ho! good to see you get down some last nite =)

[ceech]

wsup d.ho. glad to have met you.

[Larry Pink]

i love the northsdie community center! i threw up in their parking lot two years in a ROW!!!

but seriously, i may have to JAM out there. sounds cool. is it mostly the SJSU guys that go (the ones who used to jam in front of the library?)

[r-fbi]

hey d.ho! glad i've gotten the chance to meet you at ceech's class this past week. that's great you are learning from lots of different funkstylers this summer :D

[DocLock]

Welcome D.HO!

Always good to see folks getting their Bay Area funk on! And spreading it all the way to the east coast.

Hope to catch some before you head out! Enjoy!

[The2euceofSpades]

hey man! thanks for dropping off that info in my thread about Aiko. Hopefully when I have more mobility in and around San Francisco I can go out to learn from her. She seems nice, I havent heard anything but good things about her. I read your introduction and i gotta tell you man: i started the EXACT same way. After i saw HIlty and Bosch i did nothing but lock for 2 years, haha! This site is a great resource, and its good you found it so quickly: i was still in the dark until i met Ceech formally maybe 4 months ago. But keep watching those tapes and hope to see you on the dance floor. Ive been trying to learn how to do boogaloo for a little over 5 months now and want to meet new dancers everywhere. Check out those Groovmekanex sessions on Monday nights, I can usually be found there. Bt anyway, nice to meet you and thanks for the info on Aiko's sessions. hope to see you around bro!

-Kan

[timmah]

good to see you absorbing the funk at mission bro. represent san jo!

[itsdho]

Hey all! Just wanted to let y'all know, I've been on the East Coast now for a couple months, and so far, life is good!

Brown is awesomeness, distilled from mountain springs, carbon filtered, and subjected to an extensive reverse osmosis purification process.... My apartment is nice, my roommates are chill, and I'm cooking delicious food. Classes are just meh, but the first-year neuro students are turning into a tight group, we're doing super-exciting science in lab, I'm still dancing, and I'm still trying to REP the BAY. ^_^

I joined up with the b-boy club at Brown, and I've been trying to make it to practice at their open sessions every Monday. Sadly, the hip-hop dance scene isn't as big here (although I think their ballet / modern dance department is pretty legit). So far, I've only met one other popper, a freshman undergrad from Atlanta; I liked his style -- he had pretty sweet waves and isolations.

Although! I recently just sent out a mass email to the dance community at Brown, asking if there were any other poppers around (or if anyone was interested in popping). Mostly, I'm just trying to find other people to dance with, so I don't get lazy and stagnant.

I got one response that was like -- "YES! I didn't think there were any other poppers here!" -- and I'll be meeting with that dude on Wednesday. I also got a bunch of responses from people wanting to learn popping. I'm not sure how many of them were really serious about it. One freshman girl did show up to this Monday's session to learn, though, and she seemed really focused and hardworking. (She'd been doing ballet and modern all her life, and she wanted to try another style). So I'm currently trying to teach her some basics (even though I'm not sure of my own qualifications as an instructor at all!). I guess the process is helping me stay focused, though, because I have to try to remember the way Ceech taught me.

On that topic, I've posted the notes from this Monday's teaching session at my blog: http://itsdho.wordpress.com/category/session-notes/
(Sorry, it's kind of verbose.... some things are hard to describe in text.)

I'd really appreciate it if the more experienced poppers here could look it over and correct me where I'm wrong. Help me out -- I don't want to be teaching things the wrong way!

Eternal gratitude,

--dho

[itsdho]

Ok, update: so I just met up with the other popper who responded to my email. He's a freshman from Massachusetts, and he is solid. In fact, he actually came from the same high school, and practiced in the same group, as Michael "Onion" Kim (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrMteIMzGSI&fmt=18). Hopefully, we'll be able to teach each other a lot.

I'm pretty excited; since all three of us are "first-years" in a sense, we could potentially keep practicing with each other for a long time. (And maybe, just maybe, we could start building some kind of funkstyles community at Brown.... but that's for the long term. We'll see. One step at a time.... =)

[ceech]

that's dope. definitely keep me updated on the Brown popping scene. looks like you'll have to start it up and make it happen.

[compleckz]

You still in San Jose man ? We should session sometime.

[itsdho]

You still in San Jose man ? We should session sometime.

Nah, I'm in Providence right now.
I'm definitely going (going) back (back) to Cali (Cali) for winter break, though, so we should meet up then! =)