Dance

I've been dancing since I was seven years old. Breakdancing, in particular, has been an important outlet for my personality and self-expression. As a form of dance and competition, I love that it demands originality, strategy, spontaneity, athleticism, and aesthetics. I fuse different styles in my breaking to bring as much originality as I can when I move. I've also really enjoyed learning about the culture and history of breaking and joining the Boston breaking community. Turns out that Boston is one of the top 3 breaking communities in the country with multiple world-class b-boys and b-girls. During the COVID pandemic, my school went totally virtual and theatre productions were canceled. I decided to pour a ton of time into my breakdance game to elevate it to a whole new level. I'm fortunate to be mentored by some of the top b-boys in Boston. Breakdancing is now an Olympic sport-- no surprise given the athleticism involved. I'd love to compete on a university team.

Breaking Highlight

This video showcases my breakdancing style and original sequences. It highlights several of the combos and routines I have created, many of which take advantage of my flexibility and strength as demonstrated through original movement in complicated threads. I've incorporated a good amount of footwork and freezes. I'm starting to include more power moves to balance things out a bit more.

Improv

I love breaking because so much of it requires improvisation when you battle. You also have to show a lot of originality. Judges will dock you for biting (copying someone else's moves). The degree of improv varies, with b-boys that deliberately choose to go into a battle with no plan and spontaneously freestyle, and others that choose to have a set of original short combos that they string together dynamically in response to the music and the opponent. I try to mix the two approaches. I'm drawn to breakdancing because it speaks to the creative, strategic, and spontaneous aspects of my nature.

Flavor

Since breakdancing's inception, it has always rewarded dancers who are able to make themselves unique. Breaking has a huge original style component. It's so much more than being able to do cool moves with strong technique. Every b-boy/b-girl needs to develop their own special flavor to be successful. Flavor reflects who you are and must be authentic and fresh. It can be something as big as your overall style of movement, or something as small as how you hold yourself. As my repertoire of freezes, top rock, power, and footwork has expanded, I'm working more and more on developing my flavor.

Choreography

Given my experience with breaking, choreography is nothing new to me. However, the formality of choreography taught in my high school classes brought a new challenge. I enjoy the opportunity to apply these more formal methods of choreography to create song-specific pieces. I like to experiment with new styles and approaches and I relish the chance to expand my dance horizons.

Do I wanna Know

This is an example of a class project in Advanced Dance Techniques and Choreography. This piece was inspired by the music video Do I Wanna Know where the acoustic waveform of each instrument is shown in adjacent panels. This choreography reflects both my engineering and artistic side. Each panel builds on the previous and targets a specific part of the song, like gears in a machine, each with a clear goal that executes it with precision, to produce the holistic ensemble.

Bottle Dance

This is another class choreography project where the assignment was to choreograph a folk dance. I had just seen Fiddler on the Roof and was inspired by the Bottle Dance. Of course, I had to do it with a twist and threw in a breaking-inspired move to spice things up. On researching the Bottle Dance for this project, I learned that it is not actually a traditional Jewish folk dance. In actuality, Fiddler on the Roof made it popular, and now it's commonly performed at Jewish weddings. I also experimented with different bottles. Turns out that balsamic vinegar bottles are the optimal form factor.