Johanna Rodrigues discovered her first dance-heroes in Tyler, Nora, Moose and Andie from the Step Up streets franchise. But for the Red Bull BC One Cypher B-Girl champion from final weekend, who craves originality, pursues and meditates after it, coaching in Bharatanatyam and Kalaripayattu gave her a definite benefit.
Winning her second India title final Saturday, B-Girl Jo reckons she’s extra confident now. And as Breaking erupts its method into multi-disciplinary video games like Asiad and Olympics, Jo is worked up to carve her area of interest, whereas exploring her roots within the two Indian art-forms that began her dance journey.
Before she joined up with the Black Ice Crew in Bengaluru and went off jamming to hip hop beats alongside the borders like HBR Layout, B-Girl Jo did a one-year stint with Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, positioned at Wilson Garden within the enterprise district, off MG Road. It was behind the glass facade of the four-storey dance studios, stacked one on prime of one other, that Jo dipped her toes into one thing completely unfamiliar.
“There isn’t another dance form that uses the floor as much as Breaking. My one year in Bharatanatyam helped; it’s similar in the sense of holding poses (‘freezes’ in B-Girling), precision and patterns. Kalari is ofcourse the martial art and all about responding, reacting, and holding breath. And when I seek originality, I draw from these two dance forms,” Jo explains.
The 25-year-old, now established as India’s greatest B-Girl, remembers quitting her diploma, pursuing dance, initially as a dabbler. Her footwork and flows are her signatures, lighting up cyphers, nevertheless it’s taken her some time to reach at a method she says affirms her conviction.
B-Girl Jo poses for a portrait at Red Bull BC One 2021 Cypher in Mumbai, India on September 04, 2021. (Photo: Red Bull cypher India)
Hip Hop began out as an import into streets of the world, and every metropolis paints the acrobatics in their very own colors. B-Girl Jo was conscious of forming her personal type even when it was American fictional characters, Nora and Andie who had piqued her curiosity.
“I come from a Catholic upbringing background. You have to understand my dancing was nothing like my Hindu and Muslim contemporaries — India’s best B-Boys. So I set about finding my footing, to understand everything about one part of India’s dance culture that I didn’t know about,” she says, about searching for numerous influences – people and formal – and doing the neighborhood lessons at Attakkalari – which dabbles at Bollywood, Contemporary, Kalari and classical Indian dance varieties.
Breaking although, has some common strikes. And equally common bloopers too.
“Look, first couple of years were trial and error. There were times no doubt when I must’ve looked silly performing. In a couple of Battles, it was goofy even,” she remembers.
While in Japan on her first worldwide, she even blanked out. “That can happen, you just don’t remember the moves, you freeze or slip out of a move,” she says.
Joining Black Ice Crew would get her the form of neighborhood composure that comes from being amongst fellow Breakers – all experimenting, all perfecting, all gunning for the daring. She had performed basketball at college, however not a lot else of dance or sport. “My parents were confused initially about what I was doing. They warned me asking me what I’d do in a sport like this, when I got older,” Jo says. She saved getting house prizes and is now headed to Poland, after the BC One triumph.
Off for a fortnight of silence in Vipassana, the champion B-Girl, additionally a yoga teacher says Breaking has come a great distance for Indian ladies, even when they continue to be novices internationally. “Numbers have elevated. Skill ranges are excessive, and principally ladies have realised it’s greatest to concentrate on enhancing robust factors.
Power-heavy dance kind
Breaking stays a power-heavy dance kind, and because it sidles into the Olympic mainstream, with North America and Europe on the forefront, the macho, strength-move vibe of hip hop stays all-pervasive on the game.
“Everyone has their own style. But I think girls compensate for the technical skills with a lot of (movement) threads (relying on agility) and details,” Jo reckons.
She’s excited concerning the sport being on the Paris Games. “The underground scene for Breaking will always remain strong. But the Olympics open up avenues as a career opportunity and to travel internationally and meet different dancers,” she says.
The grounding would possibly come from the classical Indian dance varieties, however a brand new type in B-Girling is underway, she says, when riffing off a number of influences. “Thing is I know what I’m doing, learning from everywhere.” And successful besides.
