Saturday, July 19, 2008
Words by Nicole Martinez
Photos courtesy of Vince Horiuchi

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In case you were out of town, busy working or just plain not in the know, then you may have missed one of the freshest jams this summer. Starting mid-afternoon on the beautiful, sunny Saturday of July 19, beneath the spaciously shaded and covered 28th and B Street Skate Park in downtown Sacramento, organizers Vince Horiuchi, Abe Dunham and Sacramento’s own Flexible Flave Breakdance Crew hosted a momentous 2-on-2 B-boy/B-girl battle entitled Back to the Future II. All ages, complete with a center dance floor, practice floors, snacks, vendors, live painting and all around positivity, made for an event full of folks, fun and good vibes well into the night. Roughly 60 crews from all over the West Coast came out to compete and rep the floor with their most flavorful uprocks, cleanest footwork, skillfully practiced power moves and unyielding break styles. DJ Ripp 1 from Ghetta Clue and DJ Chuy from Stockton supplied nonstop breaks and competition judges included Tony T (LA Breakers), Poe 1 (Style Elements, one of the first West Coast crews to make it big internationally) and Marx (Flexible Flave).

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If you’ve never been to a jam before, picture this: First, doors opened and good music played, as B-boys and B-girls warmed up and signed up to sweat it out on the main floor, in the hot weather, in front of everyone, like true champions. Matched to compete with other crews at random, each had to battle down, strictly breaking, which is basically anything goes as original and smooth as they can make it, from 32 matches at the start until only the best two crews of the day remained. The final round was no easy place to get to and the top crews were challenged to give it all they had in an electrifying, athletic and artistic display of creativity and stamina made only more hype by the performance and musicianship of the live funk band 2nd Level. Yeah! Showcasing even more moves than they’ve already demonstrated earlier round after round in order to earn their spot in the finals, winners of the 2-on-2 competition were Nasty Ray and Lucid from the Bay Area. They took home a tough win over Sac’s own Legendary Steps (Phia and Coby). In between all of this, there was even a 1-on-1 exhibition that manifested between winner Random from Portland, Ore. against T-co (Art of Freestyle, Florida), Future (Flexible Flave), and Kane (Bham Tribe, Los Angeles). All oh-so fresh and oh-so right here in Sac! The perfect way to spend a summer Saturday! Nice job Vince Horiuchi and all the folks who helped, came out and supported. Keep a look out, because no doubt there will be more jams to come and the battles just keep getting better and better.

“I’m glad to see so much support for dance in the community these days. I’ve seen a lot of good changes happen throughout the years and I can’t wait to see what’s in it for us in the future. I put on these events every couple of months, to give young dancers the same inspiring experience I had when I started,” Horiuchi said.

On top of being a strong organizer, he is also a hard working break dance and performance instructor, not to mention he puts on motivating assemblies for grade schools and community programs throughout the area as well! For more info on this or other programming contact Flexible Flave at Flexibleflave@gmail.com.

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