Robozee presents : Dance Characters #7 with AquaBoogie

It's interview time. The real Aqua Boogie is already in. Wow, let's check. I hope it's gonna work. Yes, it's working. How are you, bro?

I'm good, I'm good. Yeah, Germany, Germany. Yes, Germany. Uh, yeah, we can go out. It's quite good. It's, it's okay. Yeah, it's, uh, it's good. I'm happy to be here, bro. Thank you. I'll give me a second. I'm gonna turn something up. Okay, bam. Oh, right. Ah, yes, that's better. Yes.

So today, I was outside with my family and, uh, yeah, it's, it's quite. But, um, is it cool? Many people still outside in Germany. But next week, they want to make it, uh, open some stores and so on, right? So, yeah. Okay, awesome. Is it cold right now? No, it's actually 25 Celsius. I don't know how much Fahrenheit it is. Yeah, yeah. It's chilly over here. It's chilly where I'm at. Yeah.

So where are you at right now? Okay, so I'm in the mountains right now, bro, of North Carolina. I'm in the, oh, okay. Yeah. So it's pretty cool. I've always wanted to. And last year, we finally were able to buy it. So, you know, we finally got our house. Wow. Yeah. Mountains, bro. This is the perfect thing. You have your quiet. It's quiet, right? A lot of nature. A lot of nature. Yeah. Perfect. That's perfect. We got bears. Yeah. Yeah. The thing is, all the bears are coming out because they think we're dead. No, from the city. No. Yeah. So suddenly, you have in your garden a bear. Oh, you might, you just might have a bear in your garden. Yeah. Um, yeah. Yep. So the thing is, you, you wait, right? You wait. You wait till he's gone. This is, you know. Ah, okay. Okay. There's, uh, people, they come and they check everything. Wow. Okay. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. We don't kill the bears. We don't kill bears. Yeah. It's perfect. Yeah. I think, I think the time change. I think all over the world. Yeah. You know.

So, so let's start. Let's start with the interview. Um, so Aqua Boogie, when did you start and who was your teacher? Wow. Okay. So I, I was one of those, uh, kids that grew up with Soul Train. So I watched Phil Train as a kid. So I was already waving and trying to lock in the 80s as a kid. I was trying to imitate. So, okay, early 80s, I was already practicing learning how to wave. I already knew the term popping. Um, I was trying, but I'm still a little kid. So it wasn't until the 90s that I really got into it. Okay. 90s. In the 90s? In the 90s. Okay.

Um, but yeah, who taught you the way? It was like from watching from the telly and your family, or it was literally from practicing? In the beginning, from the telly, just watching, uh, videos, music videos, you know, music videos on TV. Yeah. On Soul Train, we would wait for Free Runs to come around. That would play old, uh, episodes of Soul Train and we used to live for that to be able to just see it, right? And then the funny thing, in my room, I used to have a little mirror in my room and like look in the mirror and just try to copy, you know, and just try to absorb it. And that's how we learned until we finally got the VHS tapes of Wiggles in the 90s. Uh, we started finally. That era began for us. Uh, that's a lot of us. How we learn, by either seeing someone doing it on the street or Soul Train or which city? Which city was this? This is Miami. So I grew up. I and Miami was amazing because it was absorbing what New York was doing and what, uh, California was doing. Yeah. So it's like everything came together for us. What we had the breakers and the poppers and the lockers. We had all that. Like, like, yeah. Uh, we have lockers from that started locking in the 70s. Big shot, Kid Dynamo. Uh, he was a locker mentor of mine that passed away a couple years ago. Big shout out to Kid Dynamo. Um, there was locking crews and popping crews in the early 80s in Miami. Miami was a, a melting pot of of street dance. And so everybody doing everything.

So can you, can you, okay, now I skip a little bit time because I remember end of the 90s when we listened to East Coast hip-hop and West Coast hip-hop. Suddenly, suddenly, um, my Master P from Florida, or I don't know, from the South. It came from the South. So, so is it the same, right? Because in the South, like, there in the South, like Florida, like Miami, the influences meet, right? There's a lot of influences that meet. But let me, let me rephrase something. Yes, South Florida is like its own country. When you think of the South, right? South, which is, you know, Louisiana, yes, New Orleans, Mississippi, this, this area, right? Miami is its own country. It's like it's, it's from Latin America, like people's Spanish. Yeah. If you ever go to Miami, uh, you might not understand what anybody's saying because there's, we speak Spanglish, which is English and Spanish put together. Okay. Okay.

So, but what's the difference? Because when you go to, I heard when you go to San Diego, they speak also a lot of Spanish, right? There. So, is it, is it similar, or is it still different? It's, it's similar, but we are, we're so different in the sense that we have all these Hispanic cultures that that come together. So we have, uh, dialects that are really different. Like, and, and you might hear Spanish one way, but then someone speaks Spanish. Yeah. This, I know because I work together with a Cuban, with a Cuban. So, so I think in California, you have the Mexicans, right? And in Miami, or South Florida, the Cubans, Puerto Ricans, you know, all these people go this way, right? All the above. Oh, okay. Interesting. Yeah. Then it's different, right? You'll find a Mexican-Cuban restaurant. There's a restaurant with both Mexican and Cuban, which is the bar, you know? Yeah. Fun menus, tacos menus, like empanadas. I'm like, so, so we can't, we can't relate this also in dancing? Because, because it was mixed, right? Like you have the East and the West. Absolutely. Because there was, there was dance being created, right? In the 70s and 80s, and we're watching it where we're at now. We're a big Hispanic community. So we got South Samarin, you know, we have all this flavor, right? Mambo, right? And then we're seeing these dance forms that are coming from other parts of the United States and we absorb them. Also, people that lived in New York used to travel to Miami. Like if you're a Puerto Rican and you lived in from the Bronx, you came to Miami for vacation. Oh, okay. That's just the way it is. They stayed in Miami. So, yeah. Okay. From Puerto Rico to New York to Miami, right? Wow. Um, we, they would bring these styles to us. And in the 80s, you go to South Beach, it's just like Venice Beach, right? Yeah. And you would see it on the street right there. All the breakers, you know what I'm saying? Uh, Miami Pro-Am. Major shout out. Yes.

But wait, wait till we go to Pro-Am. Because Pro-Am, yeah, I grew up, I grew up with Pro-Am. So, so just tell me, just finish this, and then we're going to talk about Pro-Am. Yeah. So, um, basically, as a kid, you would be growing up in Miami, you go to South Beach, right? And among clubs and everything, you would see dancers performing and street dancing and breaking. And so at one point, that all it was until the, the era of the Pro-Am era started coming in. Uh, E-Legs, Hip Hop Elements. It was a huge era for us where they started, uh, uniting, uh, scenes by bringing, by, by the creation of these events. A scene is basically a scene. A scene. A scene. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They started uniting scenes with these events. And that's, okay. Okay. That turned into what we had. The Pro-Life era. The Pro-Am era changed everything for us. Everything.

Okay, so look, I started watching Pro-Am, I think '98 and '99. Two tapes I had. In 2000, 2001, or two, you know, like this. So, so watching, watching the, the popping, the electric boogie contest, or, you know, with Tommy Boy, with Domino. I remember, you know, I remember, uh, Shrimp was a judge. Yeah. So, so tell me more about this era, right? Now. Oh, man. Yeah. I wish I had a time machine, bro. Yeah. Uh, or even just the time window. Time machine window where we could just look and and give you guys a window of what that was like. Because here, let me, let me backtrack just a little bit. Yeah. Um, street dance had disappeared in the 80s. In the late 80s in Miami, like the way it was in the culture, like in the, in the limelight, the way it was in the 80s. Like, pop, you could see popping in commercials. You could see locking in commercials in the 70s, right? Um, in the 80s, it started changing. Late 80s, everything started changing. Everything started, uh, the haircuts started changing. Uh, everybody, it was a house party, you know, street dances. Yeah. And, uh, what they later called New Jack era, what not. And one of the things that that hurt me because I was one of the few people in those parties. Like I was in, like high school, right? '89. Yeah. I would start trying to wave and they would be like, I would try to tuck and they'll be like, no man, that's that's old-fashioned. That's like, we don't do that no more. And that's interesting. Same over here. You don't do that no more. Yes, the same over here. Yeah. Yeah. I used to do it all. So, but I was like, I want to, if I wave, you're like, nah man, that's that old stuff, you know? And it wasn't until the 90s, man, until it started getting respect again. And when these events started happening, it was like, you know, I felt like I had missed the 80s wave of things because I was too young. I was a little kid, right? And I grew up in a very religious household, very religious. Uh, my, my grandfather was a minister, a pastor of a church. So I had a really strict upbringing. So I felt like I had missed that first wave of hip-hop. But now came in the second wave of hip-hop, and now is international. Yeah. Now we started getting VHS tapes coming back from other people in Europe doing. Yeah, right? And then, like, like that, like Storm, right? Yeah. We seen them going to New York and battling our dudes, right? And I was like, yo, hold up. This is, it's become a worldwide thing now. Like, we need to come together. And, uh, Speedy Legs, um, uh, in Miami, started this movement with, uh, Hip Hop Elements, which became Pro-Am. And Pro-Am was like this, this magnet. And it became a magnet for people from different parts of the world to come to Miami to experience, like France, right? Benji, you know what I'm saying? Of course, of course. Uh, uh, uh, Sally Slide. Uh, Sally came out. Yeah. You know, all these guys are coming to, not to Miami, the beaches and whatnot, but to experience hip hop the way we are doing it, right? Yeah. This, I think, like, the, bro, it blew up. It blew up. It became a lifestyle, a passion. And, um, it was the first platform for poppers to compete again. Yes. Because up to them, we were just battling in raves, joining dance competitions for like, alcohol. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And silly stuff. Yes. Yes. It was the first time was like a popping competition, you know? Yeah. And, um, it was the first time in Miami that we're like, yo, these guys can pop, you know? And it brought, it brought, uh, Don Campbell, rest in peace. And, uh, all a lot of originals.

So, so was it, was it like this that you, when they bring it to Pro-Am, that there were also workshops? Or it was more like, because I remember in Europe, it was like culture and there was exchange. There was a battle, you know? You have some big egos, some small egos, you know? It was really, it was really like a, yeah, like a jam, right? It was more of a jam culture. And what I mean by jam culture is there were parties. Parties including, like, a park party on Sunday. Yeah. So we've been having park parties and hip hop since day one, right? Yeah. So it was a, it was, it was a cipher. And a lot of times before the battles actually happened in front of the video cameras, right? Yeah. They happen in, in the pre-parties. People are already battling in the pre-parties. Like, yes, people would show up and they'll be like, oh, look who just showed up. France just showed up. Immediately on site, dudes were already battling. And we're, we're like, mind you, we're trying to hold back too, because we're trying to compete, right? We're trying to compete. We're getting hurt in the pre-parties, man. Yeah. Yeah. All backed up, knees, knees all bruised up, doing ground moves, you know? And we're looking at each other like, man, we went too hard. You know what I mean? But I think, I think it's normal. I think it's over. This is, this is a, this is how, how beautiful are the 90s for me. I have the same experience over here in Germany, end of the 90s and beginning of 2000. So actually, I know you. I know you. Long time. Long time. I know you since the Mr. Wiggles forum. Wow. Yeah. You're taking it back. So, yeah. Yeah. I know you since 2002 when I get my first computer, 2001 computer. And, you know, very slow internet. But, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, used to write articles from Mr. Wiggles. Uh, and, um, it was, we were trying to expose, uh, the dance forms. Yes. Those days, we're trying to reintroduce the world to a dance form that a lot of them thought had died. For like, it's not dead. It's really never been dead. These art forms never really died. They just didn't, they weren't in the limelight. Yeah. We were trying to reintroduce and say, look, look at these art forms. This is a pure American amazing thing that that that is new again. We gotta, we appreciate it now. The whole world's appreciating it. Yeah. Entire world's appreciating. So let's, let's all come together. And that was that was the big message in those days. As let's, let's all come together. Let's battle. But let's talk afterwards, you know what I mean? Yeah. Because the people when they used to come to Miami, we would battle, but afterwards, we would hang out and and talk about each other's culture. Take them to events, parties, clubs in our neck of the woods. And we were like, hey man, come check us out, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. We exchanged a culture at that point. We're exchanging cultures. Yeah. That was the real true best part of it. It was not just the battling. That was the fun part. Yeah. But it was how we came together afterwards. Yeah. Totally. I really, I really, I'm like 100% absolute.

So, so after, like, you had the beginning of the 80s, you start, then it was this pause, then in the 90s, it relived again. So, so when did you start to make, like, like to say, I make a living out of this? It wasn't until the early 2000s that I actually started making money and making a living off of it. Um, it was just a passion where we would travel and to battle. And in those days, uh, getting your name out was really hard. It was basically, you, you had no YouTube, you had no social media to upload your footage. You literally had to get a flyer. A flyer that some may or may not get to you in another state, right? You have to get a flyer about an event that's happening somewhere else. And you have to make plans to be there wherever that address was, you know, whether it was a warehouse, whether it was a community center, whether it was a park. It was like, and that's how the scene was. But there was beauty to that because it was like showing proof. Everything is so improved. If you had a dream, is because people were like, yo, have you heard of that dude? Yo, listen, when you hear that dude's name, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, have you heard of this guy? Have you heard of that guy, right? And it was a beautiful era because of that. It, uh, just because it was so real. It was, it was surreal. It was so real that basically you would show up and you would see this energy of in different faces. Every scene had his, had his, because there was nobody to compete against them, right? Sometimes, like, the one popper out of like a thousand B-boys, right? Yes. It's, this is my, yeah, this is my time too. Oh, you're the popper. I'm the popper. You know, they would see the way I was dressed, like, that's the popper right there. Right? Same with it. Everything crispy, white gloves, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The hat, the heads, how you wear your hands. Yeah. Interesting. It's so interesting because I really relive now my my memories. Um, because here over here, it was the same. And when you have like 30 B-boy crews, you have maybe five poppers or maximum eight. And then you don't, you battle halfway, but then the other way, you exchange because it's too small, the community, right? Yeah. And they, they'll play like two popping songs in the jam. Yeah. Like, like, uh, Planet Rock. And we're all fighting over Planet Rock. We're like, whoa, hold up. That's, that's an electro beat. That's us. Let's go. Get out of the way. These are the B-boys. Even the B-boys be like, oh snap, that's, uh, that's a pop and beat. Move out of the way, guys. Move out. Yeah. Because we knew that we only had one song. And then it was going to be breakbeats for the rest of the night. That was, that was my life in a nutshell. Yes. I love breakbeats. I'm a locker too. A locker box. Yeah. But there's something about crunchy beats and popping, you know? And, and we used to beg the the DJs. I'm like, yo, homie, a little popping set, come on. You know, we've been here all night. Incredible. I feel you. I feel you. They need a break. The B-boys need a break. Yeah. Look at them, they're all tired out. Give us a bit. That was our life. The 90s, man. This is so true.

So, because I saw you make shows, you make movies. So tell me a little bit of of this of this time. So what did you do? You make a company, you make solo show. How, how do you build yourself for doing all this stuff? It was wild. Um, I, I got with an a crew out of New York at the time, right? And it was called Soul Majestic. Shout out to A-Band, Band, New York, uh, City Breakers. And Bam Bam started a crew called Soul Majestic and had members that were in Miami, which I was one of the members, and members of New York. So I had gone to a place called The Skate Key in the Bronx in 2001 for an event to perform, okay? And, um, Skate Key was a, a legendary, legendary place for hip-hop. And if you ever get a chance to look that up, I'll look up the history. Skate Key was a skating rink, but it was known for having a long history of hip-hop. So there was an event there, right? And I, I went there and this producer from New York had seen me popping and he gave me his business card and he says, I have a show that's and it's gonna travel the world. Um, and we kept in contact. About a year or two later, I was traveling worldwide in a show that had like a lot of quote-unquote, what people considered B-boy legends, you know what I'm saying? And we traveled the world to expose what was the name of the show? Break. Break. Okay. Break, The Urban Funk Spectacular out of New York City. And this show went on for about 10 plus years and we traveled 20-something countries. And it was just a live show of breaking, popping, uh, locking. Uh, we had creative pieces, we had, uh, DJs, we had, uh, DJs with turntables, uh, beatboxers, you know what I mean? And, um, look up Break, just a Break show.

So my question, I have a question because there is a show, it called, there's two shows, it's Get Original and and Manhattan, I think. Yes. Yes. So this, this was before Break, right? It was before, before us. Ah, okay. Before us. As a matter of fact, The Ghetto Originals and and Jam on the Groove. Jam on the Groove was one of the inspirations for this gentleman named Steve Love to create Break. And what he did was basically took that format and flipped it, sent it across the world. And I was very lucky enough to jump on that show and travel, just travel and expose popping and locking to audiences around the world, man. That was my life.

So you was, you were the only stand-up dancer, or there were also others? There was a few others. Yeah. There was a few others that don't recognize their names, like Sweepy Tweety. Yes. Sleepy. Uh, uh, Doc from New York. Uh, he's also a DJ, DJ Doc from New York. And amazing, amazing dancer as well. Um, Locking Q from Japan. Uh, I was the only one that had an animating waving solo. Yeah. Okay. It was the only popping solo, a stand-up soloist in my time, during my era that I was with the show. So I would, I would get about three, four minutes on stage to just animate, wave, uh, for the, for every audience that I would, I would see.

So one question is, did you, did you, it was, it was choreographed or it was a freestyle solo? So the, uh, we did both. We made it where we had our routines, but everyone had a portion where they would do a solo. Now, sometimes, I've said this too, in the talk, when your job is to perform your solo, becomes choreographed after a while. True. You should create, you know, what your proud pleasers are, so you fall back on your crowd pleasers. Yeah. And I, I got frustrated with myself because I felt like, even though I was performing every day, traveling, touring, right? Seeing different parts of the world, right? But I wasn't growing as a dancer. Like I felt like I wasn't really growing or as a locker or any of that. It wasn't, I wasn't a full-time career like that. That I started. I felt like I was growing again because now I did it with the purpose of growth, not the purpose of constantly being on tour and, you know, doing. I would also do moves that I knew, uh, so well, I wouldn't get hurt. Because if you got hurt in the middle of a tour, you know, imagine you're 40, you have a 45 dates in an engagement and a tour and like in the middle of it, you get hurt. So that's, I've performed with a broken foot. I performed with a broken hand. I performed with, um, I got salmonella poisoning in New Zealand where I was out two weeks and sick, just throwing up. I mean, I got, I got all sick in Mexico once. It was terrible. This is show life. I know, I know this. I know this because I, I toured with Flying Steps and, and we did, yeah. So I feel you so much. I feel you so much. This is the tour life. And in the tour life, you're also happy. Yeah. You're not growing. You're not practicing anymore. You're not, you're not practicing. And only when you get to a place where it has other poppers and you guys get together, that's when you felt like you had a little moment of growth because you had an exchange. You got to see what they were doing, you know, whether it be a battle, because we used to battle people in the lobby. Like we're, we're, we're listed as the off-Broadway show and we're, we're battling dudes in the lobby. That's the way it was. Because it's cool, why not battle right now? Yeah. And the people are seeing another show. They got to see the show. Now they're seeing another show. And then we go to a club together and we battle again, you know? Yeah. With, with party, party and battle together. Yes. Absolutely. And get to know each other, uh, information, you know? That's how the global scene started really blowing up, you know?

So, so and when, so after this Break, after this, this show, what was after? What, what came afterwards? Yeah, I did, I did two contracts on a cruise ship. Wow. On a cruise ship as a popper on a cruise ship. And, um, I worked, um, with one, one contract was with Random. Random, he's a popper from from Las Vegas now. And, and then I did another contract with a B-boy, you know what I mean? Yeah. So we basically were entertainers that they would insert into the shows because they used to have like shows and they would want a popper and a break or two poppers to do routines. Yeah. And we, that's what our job was. And for how, how long time? Six months each contract. Six months. Six months on. Wow. Very small orders. Um, you're, you're, you're basically living in an island. I know you start, you start fantasizing with driving and you don't even care about driving in traffic. You just want to get a car and drive because you've been on a cruise ship for so long. And, um, that the cruise ship is where I met, uh, the woman that became my wife too. So we met on the cruise ship. Okay. Cool. That's where the story just switches up. And I met my wife in my last contract. Yeah. Okay. I was like, okay, I gotta slow the traveling down a little bit. And we started doing more theater, films, and all that good stuff.

So, so you're based then, so you're based in North Carolina right now, right? Right now. Yeah. But before, when you do the theater and, uh, and, uh, you was living still in Miami or New York? I was, I lived in New York. Okay. You changed to New York to make a living for dancing, right? Okay. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Full-time. It was full-time. Um, we basically only had a few months off, uh, throughout the years. And, and during that time off, we would travel, connect with the scenes, go back and jump back on the show. Yeah. So that was pretty much my life for almost 10 years. Okay. Almost 10 years. Wow. Show life. It's a show. Yeah. It was appeared. And it was the beginnings again of street dance. And this is like before the, the shows like on on television. It was theater. If you wanted like a real, real life experience, you would come and catch a Rainy Harris show, you know what I'm saying? You would come. That's one of our shows. Uh, Jam on the Groove at that point, unfortunately, was no longer. Yeah. But that era really set everything off. Jam on the Groove was the first like explosion. Yes. Theater. And it, it gave the audience a front seat to the culture. Like, you know, you got to think about where, or sometimes the environment of hip-hop is not welcoming for everyone. Yes. So it gave them a safe location to go and see hip-hop where they didn't have to worry about getting mugged. Um, you know, getting robbed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you know, people are like, oh, we don't want to go there, you know? But they'll go to the theater. So, yeah.

So, so now I have another question because it sounds very like, but it's my life too. It's show life. It's a theater show life, movie life. And of course, culture. The culture is the main, the source, our source, the foundation is our culture. So, so what do you think about an academic way to learn our dance forms and to have an institution or a university to work with this, you know, to look a little bit in the future? So what is your opinion about this? Oh, because I get, I think, I think I can talk to you like this because you do everything, right? You know, you're very split. Like I talked to Speed, I talked with Hugo about this. Oh, before I, before I start, let me show you something. Hold on. Okay. Now it will come something. All right. I don't know if you can see the badge where it says, yeah, but it's, uh, it's mirror, right? You know, I have to read it. Um, Duke University. Oh, okay. Okay. So I was teaching popping and locking at Duke University. Nice. For the American Dance Festival every summer. And before that, I worked with probably close to 100 colleges in my time, right? And I love, I love the fact that the world is interested in hip-hop. But there's something that's going on that I have to tell you. Yeah. Yeah. In America, in America, there's no official hip-hop dance degree. There's no official hip-hop dance degree, right? As right now, we're all teaching or taught as adjuncts, right? And unfortunately, that's not good enough. It's just not good enough, man. Like, there's, it, it's almost like they, they wanna, they want the style, but let's all come together and create credentials where we all can have a master's degree, like straight, straight up, you know what I mean? So there's a lot of great amazing teachers teaching in universities right now, but they're probably teaching under a modern program. Yes. A modern, a modern degree, yeah, as an elective. You know what you're saying? What that happens unfortunately is that sometimes you have to bend the art form to fit and contort to certain curriculums. Now, I've actually been very lucky to maintain my my essence, but some of the students didn't know how to take it because they were like, whoa, I was just thinking this was going to be a Zumba class. I didn't know this was a real street dance in-depth. Let's break everything down class. And so I felt like they would come to these huge universities to learn, but they wouldn't take what we did serious. And I didn't like that because it, it, when was this? When was this? What time was this? Year? Uh, this has been the last like five, ten years of my life. Okay. I'm teaching for universities this year, actually, where I took a break. And I love the, the places where I teach at because I actually have a really good festivals that I work for. But where I see worldwide, what I'm seeing worldwide is that they haven't given us the credentials that we deserve. Like, I'm sorry, you've been teaching an art form for 20-something years, you deserve a master's degree on your wall. You really do. Like, if you have a bonafide history in this, you deserve a master's degree. Like, stop trying with with little adjunct positions. And, and listen, people are going to take the jobs because we're all dancers. We need money. We have houses, we got, you know, we got to pay for insurance and, and, and we got children, and we got all kinds of stuff, right? But why are we still being treated like an elective, man? Like, I'm tired of being an elective, straight up. Exactly. Exactly. That's my, my belief in the institutions is when they are ready to finalize a hip-hop curriculum that's bona fide and certified through the masters that are already working within the field that recognize, hey, look, this guy is a master. This, this guy's a master at that. This guy's this credentials. This guy has that credential. Exactly. I'll get a degree. So we all can be a 10-year professor somewhere. Exactly. A 10-year term. Same over here with the respect that we deserve. Not an adjunct, you know, not an elective, you know what I mean? I mean, how, how long do we have to be a culture, uh, to stop being an elective and stop and start being the main, you know, curriculum, you know? And, you know, you know what I think? Because this, this topic, I have with a lot of friends here in Germany, and me, it splits. The opinion is split because we can also start something by our own and not waiting till the university says, okay, you know, we back. I think now maybe 20 years, like you said, it's like begging, like, come on, you see the potential, yes. And suddenly they don't, they don't grab us and say, okay, we help you. That's why I think we have to make our own institutions. I agree. But here's the problem. I'm not sure if you guys have the same problem that we do in America, but if you sit down certain individuals in your country, in our country, it's hard to sit down certain individuals in the same room. And, and it shouldn't be that way. And I'm not going to say names or whatnot, but it's hard to get a lot of people in different rooms that have a big say in all this because of things that they don't want to let go of many years ago. So in, in, okay. Ah, you mean like individuals from our culture? Yes. Yes. You can't, they don't, you can't get them to sit down in the same, in the same room sometimes. Um, there's egos. There's, yes, bad, bad old stuff that they don't want to let go. And it becomes really hard when people are still holding on to things and you're trying to be objective. I like that. By writing articles, yeah. I had a hard time writing articles. I'm going to tell you right now. A lot of people want me to start again, but one of the reasons why I stopped is everybody had a different viewpoint. Like, no one wanted to coincide on their viewpoints. And I'm like, can't y'all figure this out? You guys were in the same neighborhood. You know, bro, this topic, this topic, I, I followed this topic exactly. This topic in my interviews while talking with the OGs, right? And like, like, hey, come on, guys, you can, one time you sit, you talk about it, then you figure it out, then you figured out how, how are you going to call our culture, right? Now, you know, how you're going to call, you, you can call it whatever you want. All the respect goes to you guys. So I know I was like, can we all sit down and just put down timelines and agree on this, disagree on that? But whatever the case, every time you speak to certain groups, it's almost like they lived an alternate reality from one another. I know reality was like this, and they're like, no, I don't think it was like this. And you weren't there, right? Because you're from a younger generation. So all you have is conflicting views. And that is a whole lot of hard writing right there to write. So I had to be really objective to how I took information. So I would, I would like extract all the, the, the personal stuff. It's like I had to hack away through the personal stuff and finally get a little bit of truth and be like, okay, here's the truth. Finally. Jesus. Yeah. Right. But the truth here, now I've got a little bit of truth here. Let's match it with these truths. And that's how I learned my history. So same over here. And I think overseas is exactly the same way. All the people who really love the culture and the dance. And then suddenly, it's too much. Let's don't say ego, like individual perspective. Let's say individual perspectives. Suddenly you have to cut the individual perspective and get to the technique, right? And it becomes like an objective reality because you, of course, you know, the, uh, Neil deGrasse Tyson, right? I'm a huge fan of this, of the scientist from the States. Okay. And, and he explained like, uh, subjective reality and objective reality. And like subjective is, is exactly, exactly that. Your, your ego, right? Your individual reality. But the objective reality is like, okay, I have a glass, and everybody sees from a different perspective. And we, we say, yes, this is a glass. Well, here's the problem. I'm explaining another problem is everybody wants a simple answer, bro. They want a simple answer so they can write it down and say, hey, here's my answer. They're like, who invented popping? They want one name. You know what I mean? Who invented locking? They want one name. You know, we do know that the unlocking was created by Don Campbell. Okay. Done. Okay. Popping was created. What we know is popping was created by a community of dancers. They don't want to hear that. They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, the umbrella. You know, we talk about that. Yeah. I'm like, the, what we understand is popping was created by a community of dancers. And, and each era was responsible for innovations that we do today. They're like, oh man, that's too much for me to process. I just wanted one name and one and one group. And this is no, this is not happening. This is not happening because the truth is not one name. No. It's like, it's like you're looking back and you say, only, uh, Alexander the Great. Yeah. He did everything. No, he had a team. He had a huge team. He had his teachers and so on. So, yeah. He had innovations that his technologies were based on. Exactly. Like we have innovations. That's why it's really hard. Uh, some people, they use that word, create. They throw that word, create, a lot. Like, I created this, I created that. When I, I really believe that some of these movements are really, really old. Older than we think. Older than we think. Yes. For sure. And I believe that for sure. I believe that we began an interpretation of these movements in our era. And that's what we have as hip-hop. That's our interpretation of these movements. Were people waving in ancient dance history? Yes. Yes. Were people doing tutting angles? Yes. They were. Like, you can look it up. It's out there. Like, you could see ancient Polynesians doing waves. Hating Polynesian dance doing waves. Right? So we weren't the first to experiment with this movement, right? But we're the modern interpretation of this movement. So it should, in, in reality, give people more respect for what they do. They're, you're, you're part of the lineage that not only began in the 70s and 80s. That's our interpretation. That's where we began. Some of these movements are all, you know, like, uh, these movements have an ancient, uh, lineage that we can have a good time discovering, rediscovering them.

So do you think, um, instead of looking out of the creator, we can collect them? You know, or they have to collect, talk about it, see the objective reality, and then we can move forward to becoming bigger than we are right now, right? Yes. We need us all. Like, we would have to sit down, like, um, in my perfect, you know, work. Yeah. Yes. I would love to see people from the first generation of street dance. Let's start with popping. People like, like the, the original shredders from the Bay. All the original, original guys. The guys that came after, um, all the, the guys in the Southern Cali, right? All the guys from Fresno that that went to Southern Cali. Have everybody sit in a big, uh, like, uh, council. And we, we hash out timelines and names. Even if some people say, well, we call that the slot, and we call that the Fresno cool. Thank you. Both of those names. Thank you. Thank you. Exactly. Oh, you had that move. It doesn't. Well, we're not right now. We're not creating a timeline of moves. What we need is a timeline of when people were first discovering a movement. Now, here's the beauty of it. A lot of people don't, don't believe in this, but I want to put a notion here. We could create the same move and be in other parts of the world. There can be a synchronicity. I've done stuff that later on, I thought I created that only came in my imagination. And come to realize that that person had no way of seeing me and they created a very similar, if not the exact move. So there are synchronicities too. Like, I know that if you, if you start messing around with the movement, uh, very often, you may create a lot of the same similar moves. Like we want to believe that our minds are are totally disconnected, but our minds are not disconnected. We're all energy. We're all connected in many ways. We have synchronicities. Like I might create some, a combination, and some dude over there creates a very almost exact same combination. Yes. So we're so quick to be like, no, we, we created everything. I'm like, nah, we need to step back and say, look, we are all creatures that have been inspired by other things. Okay. Same. Let's see that we're all seeing the same cartoons. Yeah. You're seeing the same cartoon. I'm seeing the same cartoon. Yeah. You're seeing the same show. I'm seeing the same show. You start imitating that cartoon, imitating that cartoon, boom. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.

Um, look, because, because and, uh, I'm born in '83. So, so before '89, there was a wall in Germany. So my, my parents came from Greece, right? So, so they left here. And then I got born. And because it was the alleys and a lot of us influence was in Germany. That's why the, the inspiration were the same like in the States. Maybe not all the spectrum, but a little bit more than the half, let's say, right? So, so also when hip-hop came for me, it's the same. Sometimes I was like, okay, I'm the first. But no, then another tape came and I'm like, oh, wow, this movement exists already. So, so the combination is the key. How you combine things, how you interpret it, how is your energy to the things, right? So this is, this is, I think we think, I don't know, we think so much the same. And this is, I believe also the future of our culture. When we develop to the next step, we cannot stay in the same war of who did what and when. We have to write, okay, you did this this time, and the same move became this. Exactly what you say is my mentality too. It's incredible that that, um, that we stuck still in this in this, um, territorial. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's a box. It's a box that we have created. And, and I'm gonna, and, uh, another truth is this. Some people have created the box out of their own necessity for financial needs. It's survival. Yeah. It's survival, right? Right. So my thing is, let's, we need to create a new paradigm, a new, a new, uh, uh, era where we accept the collective history of everybody, not down of anybody's history because it's different than yours. Accept everyone's history and make it just about the dance, not about, well, I'm, I'm joining this team, or I'm joining that team. Yeah. Joining this ideology. I'm joining that, uh, nah, man, that's, that's the old way. And that's what, that's what's kept us in in the dark in a lot of ways, man. In order to get up and actually get to the next level, I believe is a collective understanding of what, who did what. Okay, strutting came from here. Okay, body came from here. Okay, bopping came from here. Was innovated here. They also leave that mystery of saying, hey, look, this is our modern interpretations of very, very ancient, uh, dance forms. Because when you start talking influences, because I, I believe we have influences in our DNA. I believe, uh, I mean, I've read articles and I don't know if you've read articles where where memories are stored in our DNA. So that means that your father can pass on a memory, which can be an instinct for you. You can do things instinctually based on your ancestors' memories. So why can't it be the same for dance? Why can't these movements be in our DNA? Meaning that if you have a colony, uh, completely isolated from the rest of the world, no television, they'll eventually start waving. They're gonna, they're gonna hear us a drum beat and they'll be like, let me move like the water. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And are they gonna watch? Are they gonna watch a snake and then start just moving? They watch the snake. They eat up. They eat one of those funny mushrooms. Start watching snakes and boom. Before you know it, they're turning into a taco. You know? Exactly. [Laughter] This is. Well, and then you look at yourself in the mirror and you look like, like pop and taco. Or yeah, I learned this. I'm like, this cobra taught me before it bit me in the face, right? But, you know me. Wow. This is so, yeah. But that's it, actually. This is, this is the, I think this is the key that we have to, we have to open this, this door. But, um, I don't know where to start, to be honest. Because now, as a community, and because we have the internet, we can't collect and, and, and organize ourselves. We're not doing only by our own, right? But

Organized by ourselves, I think you need mature people to do it right. It's about the maturity. It's not you need addiction. Yes, you need, uh, mature people that interpret the movement, not just the movement, but the movement behind the movement. Yes. And that's the hard part. A lot of people are really good dancers, but they don't understand the movement behind the movement, represented to a community, to have his own art form, a community that was oppressed, all these things that were going on when the deception of these art forms began. So there's a movement behind the movement that we got to get back to. And that movement is community. Yes, community, community. And a lot of people when they think I say community, I mean just the dance community. No, I mean go to your community centers, teach, you know, uh, start a program. I talked for free for six years in Miami. Six years, I ran my program where kids, where a lot of them didn't have a lot of money to come and learn for free. And what did that do? That began creating a whole new generation of dancers, and they created other generations. They became, uh, community leaders within the dance world. Now, wow. So it's all, it begins with you just giving back. Like it is, each one teach one. I know it's, you've heard that a million times. Yeah, but we have to pass it on and give away the jewels in order to re-manifest it in the next generation. Because I know people connect with people from their own generation. Yeah, people connect with people from their own generation. Some generations do get rebellious and they might not listen to older generations, but they'll listen to their generation. For instance, I had a student named Popcorn many years ago. Um, a lot of kids already were thinking that what we were doing was a grown-up man dance, you know, that's a grown-up man dance. We're doing, you know, we've done that, right? And it wasn't until they saw one of their own, like peers, one kid their own age that's killing it, then they're like, now I want to do it. Yeah, it's the one. If one just starts, because I have the same. Yeah, it's the same. You, if one starts to be good and practice a little bit more, then they're gonna like, oh, wait, when he can do it, I can do it too. And this is the key. This is the key. It could be the one. It could be just the attention. Yeah. Oh, no way. Hold on. I need to, I need to get into this, because look at all the attention that person's getting. Well, all it takes is one from their generation to get good, and it's, it's a landslide. Yes, it builds up. Then they start. Exactly. Then it starts. So cool. So cool. So, so what is your, what is your, because I see waving is your specialty. You love waving, right? Of course, you do. Locking, you do popping, you do all these elements, right? But, but waving is your, is your element. How comes that is it your element? What was the, the, where comes the love from? It's, um, maybe is growing up in Miami and surrounded by beaches. Um, maybe it could be part of my character. I was drawn to it because I just kind of like go with the flow with a lot of things. And, you know, um, I move like water in my life as is. But I, for some reason, I took to it when I was younger. And I used to call myself Aquanauts, which is an astronaut of the water or an explorer. Yes. Um, so, um, when I started learning how to, uh, adapt a little bit of boogaloo, right? And I started dating more, some of the B-boys started calling me, hey man, you're Aqua Boogaloo or Aqua Boogie. And they, if the name stuck with me. And so by the, that was the end of the '90s, you know, when all nice. So by the time the 2000s was around, my name had been established. I had already gone and competed, you know. And, um, waving became something that, like, I have to give credit to one individual. I have to get, I have to credit one individual. Domino, rest in peace. Tell me now. Domino, resting peace. Wow. Domino came right to Florida and the end of the '90s, early 2000s, because of the pronoun. And me and Domino got in a battle on South Beach. And I, I don't think I even made it past prelims that year. But somehow he saw me waving and he was like, you think you know how to wave? I'm going to show you how to wave. So he, back in those days, they would talk to you while they would battle, like they would, they would say things like to, to get inside your head, right? And he started animating and waving his, uh, in such an animated way, talking the whole time, like, oh, you thought you knew how to wave? How about this? Can you do this? Can you do that? Sorry, sorry, sorry, Aqua Boogie. I'm going to stop it right now because it's going to finish and I will start a new life and then you're going to finish the story. Okay. Okay. Aqua Boogie versus Domino. Yes. Exactly. Okay, cool. So what's up everybody? We're gonna have, uh, we already have one hour of Aqua Boogie interview with Aqua Boogie. And, um, now it's come the story how, uh, he battled against Domino. Domino, he's a, he, uh, he already passed away. Rest in peace. And, yeah, it's gonna be a, it's gonna be a nice story. Hola. Yes, it's gonna be a nice story. Yes, Domino was amazing, super amazing. Germany here. Yes, Aqua Boogie. Oh, wait, Nikki. What's up? We are back. Back again. We are back. And for people to log on. Yeah. So, but yeah, it was an epic battle. This must have been like 2000, the year 2000. So we're starting at a very pinnacle time where, um, people are really original that time because there wasn't that many influences. Yes, they had to dig deep for their originality. So, so here, here comes Domino, right? Yeah. He's off something. He called me out. He's in my face, isolating, doing all these crazy waves. And, and I was like, man, I started coming. And I cut it. I, I like to turn a lot. Still. And I still tucked. Yeah. But I started cutting against him. And I held my own. But in the art form of waves at that time, I have to say that he took it. He took it hands down. So I was like, I really wanted to jump into this art form to get my revenge. It's like a kung fu movie, you know what I mean? Like the, the hero gets beat up in the first episode and then he goes and starts training. That's pretty much me and me in the beginning of that, of that episode. And finally, I got good enough where I could battle him again. So it wasn't until two years later that who cares the most? Oh, oh, this was also, which it was Bionic Man against D.V. The first one, first pop and battle. And then the second, which was, uh, Six, that was me versus Domino. And is there a tape out? Is there a tape or something? Yes, there is a baby, uh, from Ground Zero Crew. Yes, more than likely has access to those, those, those tapes. But it originally came out on VHS. Yes, I know, I know. Uh, it was a while. And then on DVD, you know, like a DVD series. But not, but it, that was my second goal at it. And we battled probably a few more times in between. But that was one of my first, first, first, uh, like battle nemesis. Yeah. It was me and Domino, man. And we became good friends. Man, 10 rounds, right? 10 rounds. It was, I believe seven rounds. Seven rounds. It was a lot. It was a lot. It was a lot. Yeah. It was a lot. It was a lot. You had to really know your craft to entertain that crowd for seven rounds each side. So it was, um, a lot of people felt like I won. A lot of people felt like he won. You know, I, I look at his objective, but that it was a development for me to go through this with Domino, right? And, um, I started, I found the love of waving heavenly in those days. I really found the love of waving. And I dived into the style as much as I could. And, um, it's one of the things that the audience enjoyed the most when I would, uh, be on the road, when I was under spotlight, waving. They love the waves, man. Was a proud pleaser. I, I never found a crowd that didn't appreciate that art form for something interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So I think, um, so how many, and I don't want to see movement, so right, but how many waves do you learn or or did you, you know, like from left to right? I don't mean the full body wave. I just mean like from microwave to vibrating wave, you know? So how many types do you have? Did you ever count them? Um, I teach around 25 styles. 25 waving styles I teach, which I feel is should be the styles that most people should experience in order to start developing. They're like, a lot of those styles came before me, right? Um, and sometimes what I did is, this is one of the, the ways I developed my style. Um, the, the West Coast had a certain approach to a, a very aggressive approach. Um, even No Bone Tyrone, uh, in his interview on the Art of Popping, he, he, he would talk about how they would attack certain waves. They're very aggressive, right? Yeah. Domino, right? And, and, and the Boston cast, like, yes, shallow, very detailed, very detailed waves, very microwaves, parkways, you know, like, and they had their own approach. So what I did is, I, I learned from them, and then I learned from the web, and I bridged all them together to create who I am. So I don't discriminate any style of wave. I love. Yeah. I don't recall. Yeah. Any way that you can make your body look move like water, I love it. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there are, there are 25 concepts, or is it, is it technique, or is it how you call, how you go, how you call it? The way I explain it is, each style is like a filter. It's a filter. It's a way of filtering the same moves. Okay. So if your body only has so many joints, it only has so many ways, right? These, these are like filters that you apply and to make it look different. Yes. Different approaches, but there's like universal laws of waving, you know what I mean? And that those laws stay confident within. Yeah. Yeah. It makes sense. Yeah. For sure. Cool. So I don't know if you, if you, if people want to ask something, they can ask something. Yeah, I'm open for any questions. Yeah. Is there any questions? You can question anything, but I think from my side, from your career and your craft and what everything, I think everything is is a very, very good balance what what you said. And, and we go also to the to the university part, right? Okay. Who are some of your favorite waivers? Oh, man. Okay. So, uh, off rip, I gotta mention Taco. Taco, um, Poppin' Taco was, uh, a kind of like a god to us young cats coming up, you know, where not only was he one of the first Latinos that we saw like television along with Shabadoo, and, and we connected on a cultural like, hey, someone that looks like us up there, you know? But we saw him move in a way that we're just like blown away. Like Taco, um, um, Daryl Stokes, uh, No Bone Tyrone, Board Man, uh, the group of Trons, uh, got a shout out. Ace Rock, as well. Um, of course, Domino was a huge influence. Um, there was another guy that was legendary in New York, man. I've only seen little tiny, little, little glimpses, man, and I challenged the world to find footage of this guy, but, uh, Louis Neway from from New York City, passed away many years ago, but supposedly, not only from what I've seen, but legendary in the style of work, legendary. And unfortunately, some people, uh, got in the art form and left, some people passed away, unfortunately. But there's, there were so many really dope waivers, man, that happened. Um, there's a lot of new cats that are coming up. Um, I gotta give a shout out, respect to, uh, uh, uh, which, uh, uh, Boogie Frantic, you know, thank you, Frantic. Um, uh, and we had an awesome battle a couple years ago. I don't know. Nice. Frantic and Aqua Boogie battle. If you haven't checked it out, you know. Yeah. I have to see it. I don't know. I didn't see it. I have to watch it. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Um, wait, what is there? Thank you for answering so many dope flavors mentioned. Yes. Yeah, man. Yeah, I think, um, if there is nothing coming, what's up from Farmers? Yeah, Punk Foremost is actually the team I'm in. Well, with with the Paupers here in Germany. It's like a small community. Yeah. And we try to, we try to represent the culture, right? That's amazing. I'm glad you can spread the word. Nikki, Pogba, you guys are doing this, man. You know, it helps connect everybody. And, and I love reconnecting with with different parts of the world and people like yourself that that have a following and also you guys are connected to the culture, which is, uh, I think the, the culture is is something that could bring life to not us just as a community, but the world at large. They, they do need us. They need us now, probably more than ever, because that we're entertainers. We're, we're a distraction to them. We've always been attraction for the modern, for other people. Um, we're, we, we entertain and we uplift with our art form. So yeah, that's why it's so much more important for us to do these type of things, connect as a culture, build as a culture, because they need, they need us now more than ever, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. It's now, now is the time. Yeah. They need us now so much. And I believe also, I believe like, look, we have more than seven, seven billion people over here in this, in this small ball, right? Right. So, so, so our scene, our community is so small. We need to spread it. That for me, actually, a goal and my vision, right? The goal is to that in 2500 or in 3000, they still gonna say, ah, look, they can't go back in time because of movement and what this generation did for this dance, because I believe that we can do this. Correct. We don't have, we don't have to wait for others to do it. We don't, you don't need an institution. We don't, we don't need, exactly. We do it. We're gonna have our own certifications. What we do need is community and unity. That's what we do. Yes. Yes. Unite. That's, that's always been my question because you always talk people that actually say, yeah, let's unite. But when it comes to it, they don't want to unite. They have agendas. Yeah. And we, the agenda has to be the culture. If the agenda is not the culture, and how it could save lives, then we're falling far from the mark. So that has to be to uplift the culture that saves lives. And that's how you guys look at it, because it saved my life. It saved a lot of people's lives. If you want this culture, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the dance. I wouldn't be here. It wasn't religion, it wasn't anything, but this person that kept me out of trouble, this, this thing that kept me pushing away from bad influences. It was this culture. Yeah. Yeah. This is so true. This is so true, man. You're, how you say, yo, uh, in German, we have a speech, your words in God's ear, right? I don't know if you say this also in English, because it's, you, you, it's so true what you say. It saves so much life. This dance, this culture, this community. There absolutely. Like you have to understand, like this culture came from a poor community, always a lot of oppression originated. What we do, what does that mean? Is is that this is, uh, something that we can put all our energy into that's not only gonna pay us back, look after us, keep us healthy, keep your mind developing, yeah, keep you young, okay? Not only are you doing things to better your body, you're bettering your mind, yeah, you're bettering your soul, but now you're, if you're passing it on to the, to the young generation, you're getting them to fall in love. What have they got? They got now a passion. They got something to put their mind into. They got something to build towards, right? And, and that's what we need to get into. Like, I heard, I encourage anybody as this, go whenever they reopen society and we're able to get out there again, go to the local community centers and don't ask for a donation, don't ask for nothing. Go and teach for free. Yesterday, one hour. Just one hour. Yeah. Yeah. One hour a week. One hour a week. Yeah. One hour a week. Out of those kids, you'll find one or two gems that say, look, I really want to get good at this. Yeah. It might not be all of them. Don't even expect all of them. Yeah. But you got out of that, you'll find gems, and you'll be able to find somebody to pass it along to. That one individual will make his whole neighborhood get into it. It's interesting. It's interesting that you say this. It's so interesting. Um, do you, because now, now you're, uh, so, um, how old are you right now? I'm 45. 45. Okay. Yeah. I know. Yeah. It's okay. So, so when you, when you, when you see some young cats dancing, popping, like they dance now, 10 years or five years, 10 years, you know, and you, and you realize like, like nothing big changed, but you see similarities to your career, you know, and then you, you watch them and you're like, oh, okay, this guy is like in this stage of mind, right? Sure. Do you, do you, do you have this often? Do you see, and that's why it's given me a lot of patience. It's giving me a lot of patience to deal with with the younger generation because sometimes they're, they're so engulfed into what they know that their minds are very kind of, I guess, in a tight box in real time. And you gotta leave it in there. You gotta leave it in the box for a while because the mind is not ready to be removed out of the box. Okay. Yeah. One of the things that I do, and I always encourage every generation, is to, to like, learn their music. Like, learn about their music. You don't have to like it. You don't have to be into all their music, but know about it. Like, I respect all the new music they listen to. Known. Yeah. And I'm, I'm not just talking about people in the popping culture, the young guys. I'm talking about people, the young people, period. I know about their music. I know about their artists. But I know about it. I also know about their moves. I know about all the all the little moves, you know, all their moves because my challenge to my students are, bring me any move that you guys got, and I learn just as you try to learn what I do. That's it. Yeah. And they're like, okay, learn the world, learn the Billy Bounce, learn this. I'm like, yeah, I got you. Let's go. And I'll usually learn it real quick. So just to show you, look, I could do it now. I don't have to like it, but I know about it and I respect it. And when they, when they actually, I can do it really well, I give them props. I'm like, okay, now you're moving to, now you're, you're becoming a dancer. The problem is, is when we get it into this superiority level where we've done this for a while, we're down everything under us. Okay. Not, it can't be. This is the biggest problem. This is the biggest problem between the generations. You guys are are creating a generation. You don't have to like it. You don't have to look what they do on TikTok. You don't have to like what they, what all these new little dances, you know, that they create. You don't have to like any of it, but be in the know. And also give them their respect. Give them respect as a young adult. Like, like say, hey, even if I don't like it, I'll be like, yo, we could get it in. Actually, you, you're in the beat. You're in a pocket of your own, right? So of course, I'm going to give you your respect. I'm going to give you, I'm going to dab you up. I'm going to give you respect. Now, when we get into this whole separating, like, no, I don't, I to dance to new music, you're already creating a wall between. And that we should do my job as a, as an entertainer and also as an educator, is I look through new music to find things that I like. Yeah. I learn through new music. Me too. I do this too. Same. Sometimes you gotta go a lot of music and be like, man, yeah, find one or two, uh, tracks and artists that you're like, okay, okay. Yeah. Something's the same. Same. Yeah. But it's okay. Yeah. That's the thing for duty. We have to stay in contact, or else the disconnect happens. And when the disconnect happens, you stop affecting the community. And when you don't affect the community, the culture is not doing this job. Yeah. Yeah. Nice words. Yeah, bro. Hey, this is very nice. Nice. Aqua. Nice. Whenever you're in Germany, just let me know. I would love to. I'll come back to Germany. You were in Germany? You traveled to Germany? Yeah, we toured through Germany, uh, the Break Show, did, yes, in 2000, wow, 2003, and we went through eight countries, and Germany was one of them. And, uh, um, it was an amazing experience, amazing. Wow. It showed us a lot of love everywhere we went. They showed us a lot of love. We were, we were introducing the culture to them in that era, and they, many of these people had never seen hip-hop in their face like that. So it was an experience for not only us in the show, but for the world too. Perfect. Sounds dope. Um, yeah, I love to plug also the fact that I do have tutorials that I, I sell. I'm actually, most of my tutorials are half off because of the quarantine. And, um, I have the Wave Dictionary series, which breaks down 20 something styles of waves, and I break down techniques of how to break, you know, the trap shoulder, you know what I mean? Wow. Break the muscles down, how to, uh, break the arm wave into as many components. Yeah. And so, oh, wow. Nice. So you break, so it is very, it's very technical. Technical, technical, and explains also how to be within the beat. It teaches you the count of the wave, how to count, the count of the wave affects the illusion of the wave, you know what I mean? So it kind of, it gives you what I consider basic info, but it might not be so basic for people that don't know. So yeah, I figured everyone should know that this is a dance form that even though it's a move, there is a count to the move. Like, you know, a regular wave is about four count. Yeah. I, I say also the, the magic stars and the timing. Yes. You know, it's how you time something, how you prepare something. So, so our dance is very, so do you think also that our dance is very theatrical, very showish, right? Absolutely. Yeah. It's not only a battle, right? It's not only bad. There has to be a change in the way we present the dance, okay? Yeah. And this is what I mean. At some point, classical dances just became the backdrop. So they're telling the story in the 1800s, but we're doing a modern dance form in the background. We might be telling the stories in the '50s, but we're doing the modern dance form in the background, right? That's other dance forms have done that. We, and hip-hop, are still just showing people popping a lot. And we have shows, they're like, hey, this is popping, hey, this is locking, hey, this is breaking, right? What we need to do is, is put these dance forms in any backdrop, and we're telling a story from the '50s, boom. If we're telling the story of the future, boom. If we're telling the story from the fantasy, from from the Middle Ages, boom. Why we have to put the dance form in an era? Let's take it out of its era and put it everywhere. Yes, because that then it becomes an art form, because an art form, you can put it everywhere, and it's not only in one box. So, yeah, it's the same topic. I work here all over all the time. We had Jam on the Groove, we had the Break Show, we had the Breaking Convention. We've had these shows that show us what hip-hop is. That shows, look here's breaking, here's locking, here is animating. But why couldn't we just insert that in any way? That's our future. Until we get on that level, we're still just going to be showing the world, this is hip-hop, you know, like, here comes breakers. No, let's displace hip-hop in places that you wouldn't think to find hip-hop. That's my fault. Yeah, because if people want to learn, they're gonna dig. They're gonna ask. They're gonna find out how we did this in the '90s. We went somewhere in stores, small hip-hop stores, they sell videos or something, you know. So, and now with the internet, it's so easy. It's super easy. So, so we can transform. We're going to talk about the same topic of this, where breaking came from. This is, you know, like, you know, the story. The story's been told many times, both on a stage and in the movies. Yes. Let's put hip-hop where it belongs with the other master, uh, dance forms and partners. Is is is growing up and in Germany, and Germany, and in France, you know, because of theater, it's already, it's already existing like this. I, I made since 2006-7, I make theater pieces. Yeah. And they took the dance, but the problem is, you have a choreographer from the modern, and he directs you. But I had the luck. I say, I said, man, I said, to another interview, I had, I was super lucky because it was a nice, nice, we had nice conversation, and it was peace. Yes, it was like, yeah, I want to do this, and no, I don't do that. So I was really lucky with all these theater pieces. I made, there was peace inside, and we find compromises to mix, really the art form so well. When, in in this, the theater, career, and everywhere that we're in, you're gonna have to fight to get authenticity. I had to fight to get authenticity. Like, uh, I had problems in the beginning of my career where the, the got the producers like, okay, I want you in the breaking pieces too. I'm like, I'm not a breaker. Um, I was like, come and jump on and do the head spin. I'm like, I don't do head spins, and I'm not gonna learn it for the show. No, you got B-boys that specialize in that. That you need to have them do it, unless you want everything watered down and not looking right. You let us do what we do. Let them know what they do. And there was a couple of them that that could, that could, uh, do locking, popping, and breaking. But, yeah, I wasn't gonna attempt to start learning an art form just to, to be in a show that wasn't that. Yeah. Me too. Me too. And the breakers too. The breakers had to be like, listen, um, I don't, I'm not a popper. I'm gonna look foolish in the background doing the Fresno. And, uh, I'm just leaving the breaking pieces, please. And you literally have to fight for you to have your moment. So, um, unfortunately, until we get to the top and we're the producers, that's always going to happen. And that's why we need our own companies. We need our own academies so we can control it. Because we know that now, you don't want to put the next generation through that. You don't want to, exactly. Do the same thing. Exactly. Because then it's like, because then they're gonna blame us like, hey, you didn't do something right. So, for sure, for sure. It's our work now to do this. Yeah. Absolutely. Cool. Yeah. So, yeah, we have, I think we have one and a half hours. Yeah. It's dope. Thank you. Super dope interview. Thank you so much, Aqua. Oh, wait. There is a song from Parliament that is also called Aqua Boogie, right? Yes. Check this out. The original Aqua Boogie was a 1978 song called Aqua Boogie. All right. It was an album from Parliament called The Motor Booty Affair, right? The first name on the, the first song is called Mr. Wiggles, right? No, yeah. The first name of the song, the first song is This Is Funky. Yeah. This is so dope. Yeah. I don't think that's where Wiggles got his name. I think Sugarpop may have given him his name or something, but, uh, yeah, the name Mr. Wiggles appeared on the 1978 album of Motor Booty Affair. Wow. Motor Booty Affair. I used that song as one of my judge showcases too. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah, it fits. It was perfect. Okay, my brother. Thank you so much for having you. And, yeah, so guys, check his, uh, check his tutorials. Contact him for private class or something. Boogie, yeah. The real Aqua Boogie. Check everything, right? Thank you. Um, there are your, your articles are out there in the web? No, as a matter of fact, they're not, but I've been re, I've been thinking about reposting them and, and starting a new blog. So I'm thinking something. Yeah. Send me stuff that I can also like, like promote it, you know, in my story or something. I can say, look at this, something new coming out. So I think this is, this is our work in the community. Yeah, bro. Okay. Thank you. All right. Take good care and stay healthy. Stay safe. Bye bye. Peace. So everybody, thank you so much, Aqua Boogie, again. And, yeah, I am out. Good night. And, uh, yeah, I think next week I have some other interviews, but, um, they're not clear now, but we're gonna check and we're gonna see. And all you guys, stay healthy, stay safe. Love you. Peace. Fall pat's piss down ozone. Take good care. See you. Bye bye.