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Ivan's ABD Site
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PERFORMANCES
ABD's First Performance Our very first performance was at OACC (Oakland Asian Cultural Center) in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza. There was talk about a dance performance being scheduled by AYPAL for it and I signed up for it. The first meeting had like 20 people, but none of them ever showed up again. I didn't show up for the next few meetings too. AYPAL was scared of the dance group not happening and brought it up in a club meeting which I then discussed with my fellow ABD members. They were skeptical, but then the fact that we could be performing in front of people in our first official appearance brought everyone around for it. Except for David, he just wasn't into it. So after 3 months of once a week practice we were about to perform. During that time, we became tight with another dance group which we helped give them the name LD (Legendary Dancers or Dreamers). That night is memorable because it was ABD's big openning. We were happy for our performance even though we did mess it up and it didn't come out like we thought it would in practice. From that first performance we built a bond with Esther Avia, our dance instructor. The LD girls, Karina (Cra2y Dreamer), Amanda (Day Dreamer), Shirley (Baby Dreamer), Lupe (Wild Dreamer), Mabel (Sleepy Dreamer). Penina that works at OACC and was supporting us from the start and still is supporting us.
ABD's Second Performance
ABD had it's second OACC performance. Our best ever. It was cireographed in two nights and it took that long to learn it. We have never seen the tape it, but we are so sure we had it right. We had the right music, " Back that ass up" by Juvenile mixed with " When Thugs Cry " by Bizzy Bone
ABD's Guest Appearances
Since then, we've been guest starring at dances and parties where we'd yell out ABD and people would recognize us and the crew. ABD started up breakdancing in the halls of Oakland High last year and brought it up full steam with regular gathering of familiar breaking faces and faces in the audience that be supporting us, or just curious strangers that hear the music and stay for the breaking. With that, we brought up the notion of a breakdancing club and we're seeing how it goes since it's just starting up.
Oakland High 1999 Talent Show
Me and Wilson did the Oakland High talent show earlier this year in October. The only Asian people in it too since it was the black student union that was sponsoring the talent show. We had a good time even though they cut the music off one minute early, before we could do our grand finales, but it's cool. We didn't win first place, or 2nd or 3rd. First was taken by a Genuine imitator. But we did win recognition and we still do. There was some people that was like, "I like your breaking" or "Hey, you're the dude from the talent show". And I'm like, yeah. We didn't even compete for the money, we did it because we wanted to show that breaking didn't die in the 80's and that if we do this, maybe we'll inspire other people to do it too. Which I hope we did.
ABD Inspired Influence In Urban Arts: CAAP 1999
I had a summer job with dealt with Environmental racism and there was a play with breaking in it. I was one of the breakers, Johnson from O-tech was the other breaker. It was two hour play where we strutted and breakdanced in vests to entertain the audience. After it was over, it was showoff time and it was people just showcasing. There was one of my co workers that rapped and busted 4 backflips without a running start, and out fell his pager, wallet, comb and keys. Then it was the ABD boys to perform and there was Wilson and his flares, Danny with his flares to windmills, Sheng with his hydro-turtle combinations, David doing a lil popping back stage, I was just throwing out whatever I had and hoped it looked cool. Then Johnson's friends did popping, 2 t-flares to hydros, handspins equivalent to mine and other stuff. It wasn't a battle, it was just people breaking after watching or doing a play. Later on the video person lady, Mikayla said she would like to do a documentary on us since she has never seen asian people breakdance and since I was in the program, wanted to see how my summer job would affect me later on. Sadly, it never materialized and she ended up picking 4 of my co workers to do the documentary with.
First Major OACC Show Without ABD In It
Then last week friday, 1-21-00, there was a talent show at the OACC, then it occured to me. That was the first major OACC performance that ABD wasn't a part of. I wanted to be up there and be a nervous wreck backstage then do a k to loosen myself up. But I was just stuck in the audience being awstruck by performances by JW(sometimes referred to as J scrubs), AAC(all aspects crew) and SP(Street Poppers) which is the most well known breaking group out here. JW had some people do a rountine from the Run Dmc video, "It's Like That". A bronco, then a two step, then continuos windmills. Dude in the middle did nutcrackers by the 10th windmill. JW had a new dude that did a flare into a headspin for 2 rounds. SP was just on fire with Louie popping to start it up and doing headspins later. James was doing his wild stuff that no one wants to mess with. And I finally saw a clean looking suicide hella high in the air.
ABD Future May Performance
ABD might do a performance at OACC again this may, but it will be decided later. We're not organized and we're missing the originating members of ABD that caused the magic to happen when we're performing.
RE:ABD Future May Performance
I thought we had something going until 1 week prior to the OACC performance. It was when Danny called me, talking about something else and then he brought up the fact that we weren't gonna do it this year. You know how you say to a girl, "Oh, I'll call you later" and you never do and the girl knew you weren't gonna call her, but that you were just trying to be nice, and that's how it was like last year. We were like, "That's fun, we should do it again sometime". But the thing is that we did do it again a few months later and by then we thought we were gonna do another one in May for our millions and millions of fans. But as luck would have it, with the December breakup of ABD in half and thirds, we were left with 3 original members of ABD first generation and the young buck, Daniel. We had an idea of doing a battle sequence with wrestling moves and involved stuff from Genuine, wrestling and Battle of the Year, but it didn't come out. Sheng wouldn't be back until the week after the performance would be over, I was still getting used to walking on two feet, Daniel was doing all he can for his career in the NBA and Danny was the only one that was down and capable and not full of excuses. He could've done an one man show (that would've been something), but he just stuck it out with me and Daniel in the audience watching all the pretty girls at OACC. Wilson and Cheng were good sports about it because of Danny's talking with them and said that they'd be down to do a joint performance with us if we need them, but it just didn't happen. So anyways, whether ABD still only exists in memories or on tape, this website will go on.
First Battle (imaginary one, don't take it too seriously everybody)
It was a fierce battle that stemmed from a traffic accident and name calling. Then it became an all out battle. Like all breaking battles, it must start off with some kind of ground rock to warm things up. Then when the crowd was warmed up, it was time to bring in the poppers, who started coming onto the stage to continue battling. The audience was absolutely loving it. Even the ravers were loving it. The end was near when they brought out their big guns which was just some scrawny dude doing a flare into a 90. But our side was not scared and turned to our secret weapon. They tried to come back with some alright looking flares, but we killed them already. The crowd was going wild again, screaming "ABD...ABD...ABD!". And the battle ended, we were declared the winners and took all their girls. Now we're waiting for our next battle so we can shut them down like we did for this battle.
Last updated 8-11-02
First created ?/?/99
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