Our start to 2024 has been incredible and full of so many amazing moments & opportunities. Thanks to God and the hard work and effort by the entire team, we have been blessed to be able to send Bboy Tranquil, Bgirl Labyrinth and Bgirl Ammo all representing Clean North Crew, to Houston Texas for Bgirl City VII.
This trip is a testament to true connections made through Hip Hop. Members of the Clean North Crew (Bgirl Fox, Bgirl Labyrinth and Bboy Elijah) were sent to New York last year in October for the Pro Breaking Tour Open event and to celebrate 50 years of Hip Hop. This is where they met Beast Boogie for the first time and where a strong connection was formed. When it came to selecting judges for the Tech Styles 8 event, we knew we had to make this collaboration happen and have Beast Boogie join us here in Bradford.
Beast Boogie is one of a kind. He has made a big impact on the Bradford scene in such a short space of time. It was amazing to be able to visit his hometown and get a sense of his journey in the breakin (breakdance) dance/hip hop scene. He is well respected amongst the Bboys and Bgirls in Houston and this was great to see. Beast Boogie spoke very highly of the Houston scene, especially the Bgirl City team that he works alongside of, our team couldn’t wait to see what it was all about!
For this trip, Bgirl Labyrinth and Bgirl Ammo were going to be representing in the Bgirl 2v2s and Bboy Tranquil was invited to judge the 1v1 40 & Up battles and sit on the guest speakers panel. Texas has a very rich history when it comes to breaking, so making a strong impression was key for the crew. They also wanted to learn as much as possible during the trip. Visiting local breaking/Hip Hop spots was amazing for them and they got a real feel of the culture in Texas. Watching old breakin footage from the Texas scene is one thing, but meeting the people in person and exploring the scene itself is another. These kinds of experiences can really bring about new perspective, which is exactly what it did and it also gave everyone a massive boost of creative energy.
Bgirl City officially kicks off on the Friday & finishes on the Sunday but for anyone getting into town earlier, you can hit the Houston Revision training sessions. This is highly recommended, without a doubt. Even at the general training sessions you get a real sense of unity, from the setting up to packing down, everyone was playing a part. Hip Hop culture is always best when there is a sense of community and that could be felt in Houston in more ways than one.
“This trip was easily one of the best trips I’ve had in my life and it has taught me to not minimise my ideas & dreams but to maximise them. We all start from somewhere. Houston has a huge scene but they didn’t wake up with it that way. It built up overtime through hard work and perseverance from people within the community. Why can’t Bradford be a key place for breaking culture? If we keep up the work we are currently doing – why not?”
Beast Boogie made sure that they got an amazing Texas experience from the moment they landed. Bradford has a lot to offer in terms of different cuisines however authentic Mexican food is very hard to come by here so it was great for the trio to experience that amongst many other things. Supermarkets such as H.E.B provided plenty of non-processed and organic options for them to cook together enabling them to bond more through making healthy meals day to day & ensuring they all stayed hydrated & fresh. At Tech Styles this is something we really value and we want the bboys and bgirls in our scene to have strong knowledge of physical and mental health. Eating right, amongst many other factors has a massive effect on the creativity and the abilities of artists.
Day 1 of Bgirl City was incredible. What an atmosphere! They had a variety of workshops going on with plenty of time for cyphers and exchanges to take place. The DJs were on point, providing the hype music across all 3 days. It was amazing to see Tranquil on the discussion panel alongside Asia One, Jeffro, Meelisa, Kaotic Blaze and Beast Boogie. Everyone got to know each individual through the carefully curated questions. There was no competitive element on the Friday, it was all about true Hip Hop culture & people from all over the world coming together. It was a beautiful way to set the weekend off.
That Friday evening they were also joined by Bgirl Trinity and Bgirl N’Tegrity. They really looked out for our team & quickly felt like family too. The passion in which they spoke about their dancing was really inspiring. They spoke as though the memories were created just yesterday. Even after 20+ years of dancing, the passion & energy was undeniable. Meeting these incredible people will go down in the history books for sure.
The final 2 days of Bgirl City were incredible. Labyrinth and Ammo made to the semi-finals of the Bgirl 2v2s against LilyBreeze & Rascal Randi. This was a great exchange and a very close battle. Our Bgirls left the competition on a high. They came to represent strong and this was definitely achieved, through each stage of the competition. Our Bradford Bgirls went up against some of the best and had some of the most exciting battles of the night! There was so much energy and excitement in the atmosphere.
The young guns showed a lot of heart on the Sunday as they battled it out for a chance to compete at the World Kidz Breaking Championships in Slovenia, happening later this month. Ammo entered, reaching the Top 8 against Houston’s own Bgirl Jaeli. It was after this battle that OG Samson (organiser of the World Kidz Breaking Championships) gave her a Wildcard invite to Slovenia! This moment took everyone by surprise and is a cherished memory that all of our bboys and bgirls should take note of. ‘You never know who’s watching’, is what Beast Boogie said many times to the Bradford scene, whilst visiting for Tech Styles 8. It’s important to put your best foot forward and make the most of every situation. This really rang true in this moment!
“Thank you to Tech Styles International & Beast Boogie for the trip of a lifetime!”
“It is hard to know where to begin, when speaking about our incredible experience in Houston, Texas at Bgirl City. It was amazing and so much was experienced in a short time. From my experience I would encourage anyone thinking of visiting Houston to do so, especially bboys, bgirls, hip hop heads or for the food alone. Definitely check out Bgirl City and thank you once again to the team for having me judge and sit on the discussion panel. I thank God, I got to experience it and I hope to visit again in the future.”
As the trip came to a close, the Tech Styles team created some tutorials with Beast Boogie. Four were created in total and they have done incredibly well since being released, gathering 5+ million views across multiple social media platforms! It was great to collaborate with Beast Boogies once again, making the tutorials was lots of fun and it was good to see how Beast Boogie approaches creating breaking content. He’s very efficient when it comes to making videos and there was a lot to learn from his approach! You can click above to check out each tutorial.
Thank God for this opportunity and thank you to Babygirl & the entire Bgirl City team for putting on such an incredible event. We are so grateful that an event like this is happening. The work these guys are doing and the spaces they provide are beautiful, we are so grateful to have experienced this event! We hope to visit again soon!
If you haven’t done so already please take a look at the full album of photos on Facebook and Flickr and check out the incredible recap video on YouTube. Please don’t forgot to like, follow and subscribe to our social media accounts, this really helps support us and keeps our community growing.
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