成人快手

Doors open

As the doors opened at PM the queue outside was building rapidly, not with the typical scantily clad weekend ravers, oh no, but enough old skool trainers to open a shop, trucker caps, bandanas, sweat bands, and baggy jeans. This night was set to be the real deal when it came to break dance. On entry, everyone received a free CD from Breakin' Bread, a funk and Hip Hop collective based in South London, which turned out to be a good listen so thanks for that!

Rules of the night

Although the night was young, the black and white checkered floor was surrounded by B Boys and B Girls cheering on as the judges were being introduced. The first was host B Boy 10 Tonn, a professional break dancer and teacher who works in various communities with Breakers Unify. He was hyping up the crowd with ease alongside Donald D, from Ice T's Rhyme Syndicate. In New York, he started his career as a rapper, as part of The B-Boys, working with Afrika Islam and Grandmaster Flash. He relocated to LA as a member of the Rhyme Syndicate. His solo LPs have included "Notorious" (1989) and "Let The Horns Blow" (1991.) The third judge was Alien Ness, a 24-year veteran of the B Boy dance and inventor of the first battle of the night, The Octagon. With a bottle of champagne in one hand and microphone in the other he explained the rule:-

• You must start outside the octagon and dance your way in before doing your set.
• You cannot hit, move, disturb, or disfigure the octagon. All moves should be done within the perimeter but one isn't limited to it. Playing with the perimeters and showing one has total control and improve skills can gain a competitor extra credit.
• Last but not least, no repeat moves. This rule is another element that sets the Octagon apart from all other battles and should be the stand art for battles to come.

Let the battle commence!

The judges picked names out of the hat for each one on one battle, while contestants waited nervously at the side watching or practicing in the designated area. I was surprised to see that there was only one, I repeat ONE!, B Girl in the competition. What is that all about? She definitely represented though, so I made sure I gave her a big well done when she finished! When it came to the final, B Boy Mouse - representing Manchester - came through with a win after his opponent knocked over one of the cones! (A tense moment, I'm sure everyone will agree who was there...)

Bradford B Boy

As the night continued with various other battles, I got to meet 20-year-old Lloyd Thompson aka B Boy Tranny, who was representing Bradford. Seven years ago he was attending a football camp with his church and while he was there he watched a break dancing performance. After that there was no looking back for Lloyd: "When I saw it,I loved it straight away and went to practice on a Sunday after church for two years...What attracted me was how different it was. It was physical and you could see the strength in it"

With the same crew, he performed in front of thousands at Manchester Apollo but although he had done so much with his church group they still felt they only knew the basics when it came to break dancing. So they decided to enter their first competition to gain more experience: "we didn't win, but we made our mark!" After tasting a different element to break dance, B Boy Tranny told me he would practice almost everyday for five hours, and gave all his focus to competitions.

His proudest moment so far was winning the solo break dance battle in December 2005 at Fresh Jive. But Lloyd feels that there are not enough events in and around West Yorkshire for break dancing battles, and I have to agree. Fresh Jive is definitely working their hardest at solving this problem, but I feel there must be more people out there who want to promote this hip hop and B Boy culture, as it is so popular here in the north.

B Boy Tranny, over his seven years breaking has seen a definite change in Bradford: "It's getting bigger all the time and I teach now, so that's helping build it up here in Bradford and maybe we can make it one of the best places for break dance!" he said. At one point Lloyd felt that all he was interested in was getting to the top, but as time has passed he's realised that it's so much more rewarding to help as many people as possible to rise up. He has now focused on teaching and has taught in almost every school in Bradford and in many community centres.

Lloyd laughs and says: "Now I make a living off of it which is amazing...I thank Jesus for every competition won and every bone unbroken and for bringing in the paper!" B Boy Tranny now runs his own company and his own dance group, Get Funked. They provide workshops, lessons and performances in Bradford which I feel is a great thing for the community and it is something that is so beautiful to see: people working together to make a place or group of people something better than they were before.

Fresh Jive is definitely a night that is promoting support in the community. It was nice to see so many people from different backgrounds coming together because they all had some kind of interest in the break dancing and Hip Hop culture. There was no attitude in the building whatsoever and everyone was supportive of each other in the battles. So good luck to all the people involved, in making nights something we see more of in the future!