So...
The big theme of the difference between hip hop and new style,
right?
What we call new style now already has other influences.
It is a mix of all these parts,
from locking, popping and bboying.
But it has more influences from other styles.
For example, now we have some influences of contemporary dance in the new style.
It has a more personal interpretation than there was in the hip hop.
The essence of new style comes from New York Style,
but, back then, the french wanted to name the movement they were creating
and they started to call it new style.
The dance doesn't change a lot, but the meaning is very different.
I'm not an apologist for the term new style
if we are talking about hip hop.
I can't be radical in this subject, but there are people that are.
There are those who defend that new style is one thing and hip hop is another.
I believe that the two complete each other
and that both are terms that people created to define better what they do.
Bounce. Rock. Groove.
Bounce is the way you put your body in the beat.
Groove, feeling is the vibe, the energy...
This person has a great energy, this person makes me feel something.
The essence of hip hop is the rock. It's what bboys do.
You rock
and you bounce.
The groove that we had in the oldest moves
seems like it barely exists today.
Now we see a lot of static movements, almost like images.
We started by watching videos on the internet, mostly videos from Les Twins.
We liked it and we tryed to copy them.
But it wasn't like tutorial videos, it was only watching people dancing.
It became an obsession to keep watching videos and then we started dancing.
This is my story. How did you start dancing? I saw a beautiful girl
and the only way I could talk to her was becoming a dancer.
I never dreamed of becoming a dancer...
but I saw the girl and that was it.
But of course nowadays dance is my life.
Yes, I felt discrimination for being a girl.
Mostly at the beginning because there weren't many girls dancing.
I could count them on the fingers of one hand.
Of course there were girls dancing bgirling in Lisbon,
but dancing hip hop, competing like 2vs2, for example, no. It was me and Landisch.
We were in an environment dominated by men.
Because we were girls, when we started we didn't have the same credibility, which is really bad
and we were able to change that.
In the beginning we danced with large clothes, those super big t-shirts
just for them to understand that "we are the same as you, allright?
Don't think we are just two pretty girls and that's it. No.
We are here and we are going to kill it".
I found out that
I have something that could make my family happy.
I could make my mother proud, my grandmother,
the people from my neighbourhood, from Santo António, Cavaleiros, Miratejo...
I had something that
I could say affection and with pride "I'm from here. I represent this people".
I think there is a lack of correct information for the new generation of dancers.
But also lack of interest.
Because if you are interested you will find the correct information.
You are always working hard
like "I'm going to get there and I'm going to do great stuff".
And then the people you are doing it for
don't even recognize it...
In classes - something that is very normal here
You get people like
"Ok. Let's go.
Are we going to warm up teacher? Really?"
You know?
And it is descouraging.
But then you get the other side that doesn't let you quit,
which are the people that when you arrive are already warming up
and are like "Let's go. What do you have? What do you have?"
I consider myself a light dancer.
I don't like to define those strong moves.
I like to let my body flow with the music, move several parts.
It's funny that a lot of people only realize it after training with me, after dancing with me,
after I explain "no, no. To do this I do this and this".
"Oh, okay, that's different. I got it. Your movement is slightly weird".
Yes, I move in weird ways, it's true.
We went to perform
nd it was a choreography that we had about a circus.
I was the clown and I did some mortal jumps.
The kids were there like "weee", it was when we went to Portugal's Got Talent.
And we were performing in a stage of tables
I was performing...
Mortal jump.
And the clown...disappears.
Because the floor broke.
I fell inside.
Imagine me, dressed as clown, like this.
And they kept dancing because this was a mortal jump in the back so noboday saw the hole.
And I got off there and I kept going.
On that part when I gave the mortal jump,
the crowd went like "Ooooh"
and then they didn't know if it was
because of the mortal jump that they went "woooow
or if it was a reaction like "Oh my! He died".
It's the best achievement that can exist.
It's trying to do what we love
even though it won't make us rich or millionaires.
Professional dancers travel a lot, invest a lot,
so when they ask a certain amount... Come on, we invest. It's normal.
We don't stay here seated waiting for everything to happen, no, no, no.
We go and abdicate things
I quitted college so I could dance. Basically.
So, once I gave up on college, I want to dance for real.
I had to chose. There was no chance.
It wasn't possible to work, study, dance when I was supposed to pay for everything.
It was... Humanly impossible.
It was dope to have people investing.
Sponsors.
Like they won Hip Hop International. They won? Who are they? What are they going to do?
It was cool to invest in these kids.
If I didn't have so many responsibilities,
if I didn't want my personal self-sufficiency,
I'm sure I would have left by now to other places to try to evolve,
educate and invest in dance.
I want to change the hip hop culture, be unique, create my own moves and be a role model to somebody.
In the future, I want to open my own dance school.
This dance school wouldn't be only in Portugal.
I would like to have my own dance company in four places of the world.
One would be my country, of course, Angola.
Because in Angola there is so much talent, so much,
but they don't have the resources and the type of mentality is completely different.
To be able to make an exchange between these four dance schools...
a turnover of teachers
to always assure differences between moves, music, mentality...
Be able to do this.
Because, yes we are in 21st century,
but still there's a lot of this in dance and we need this.
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