Yesterday I came back home from the Red Bull BC One World Final 2019, which went down in Mumbai/India. The trip was an outstanding experience, and I want to share some of my experiences here. As Manny and I already covered the event itself as part of our work, I will not talk about everything that happened there. You can find the links to those stories below:
- Red Bull BC One 2019 Event Recap. Find out what happened.
- Red Bull BC One 2019 Judges Feedback. Read this to find out Why Menno won Red Bull BC One 2019.
- Kastet Interview.
- The Killa Kolya Story.
- All the Winners of the Red Bull BC One Camp Mumbai 2019
- Best Battles of the Red Bull BC One Camp Mumbai 2019
- Last Chance Cypher Recap
- Best Battles of the Red Bull BC One World Final 2019
Photo: Little Shao/Red Bull Content Pool
I want to share my experiences with the Indian dance scene and the culture instead. Here is what stood out at my time in Mumbai:
- The hospitality: being friendly and helpful seems to be part of the culture in India. Never before, I have experienced a welcome as warm and honest as during that stay in Mumbai.
- The enthusiasm for the hip hop culture: the Indian dancers celebrated the dance, the music, and the gathering in the name of hip hop on a whole other level when compared to events in Europe. As Poe One pointed out, most of these dancers have never been outside of their country, and seeing all the dancers that they only know from videos alive in their home country made the crowd go wild.
- The positive vibes in the Cyphers: Sadly, I didn’t have the time to dance with the local guys a lot, but I managed to make my way into one cypher during the camp. What should I say? My level is nowhere near that of a BC One competitor or even a BC One Cypher winner. Nevertheless, the dancers cheered for everyone and appreciated every round that was rocked in the circles. Also interesting: when the music was right, breakers and hip hop dancers shared the cyphers without the urgent need for separating. Watch and learn, Austria. 🙂
- The freedom in dance. Probably as a result of the two points above, most dancers (also from abroad) had an easy time to let go of the pressure that comes from the competitive mindset that usually is present in our dance. That led to people dancing more freely and giving way funkier rounds than we are used to.
- The will to connect: During the World Final itself, I was sitting in a sector with dozens of b-boys from India. Connecting with these guys was super easy, and we casually exchanged opinions and stories during the finals.
All in all, this trip was an outstanding experience, and I learned a lot about life and dance in these few days. Also, the energy of the dancers from India refueled my desire to get back into dancing.
All that’s left to say is: Thank you so much for the beautiful experience and the outstanding trip. ābhārī hōṅ