Spotlight : Deydey vs Sou ala UK Bboy09

Hi guys! Hope the new year has been good to you so far :) .... Time to take those sneakers out for trainin, Feb is gonna be a jam packed month!

Im going to start my first article of 2010 with something different; As almost ALL the previous articles have elaborated on guys dancing, lets get to know the ladies better aye ;)

Deydey :

First off, the music makes this video so much more AWESOMENER! Love this track!!!!!!Whoooooooot! :):):)

This is a battle taken off UK BBOY 2009 Popping 1v1. Meowlissa was damn lucky to be there to catch it live! DAMN! The whole event was crazy i heard, and Deydey took the win for Poppin category! First woman to win this event!! CONGRATS DEYDEY on creating another milestone for the scene! She went back to her hometown in Vietnam shortly after UkBBoy to give a workshop with her sister. Damn we should get her down to Singapore sometime, but an air ticket from France might be costly...hahah..

If you look at this video or most female poppers, you can see that Deydey's style is quite feminine, at the same time showing off some of popping's masculine roots. Id hate to say that poppin is a more male dominated scene, i mean, look at hiphop, it looks like an all boy thing but the girls can and continue to give them guys a run for their money!! So it seems poppin girls are coming up fast in recent times.

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On to the breakdown!

For style, Deydey has a very classic clean (And nice) popping angles, with good rhythematic stops. Her movements are big enough to take in, slow and steady and quickening at the right times. Also, having many clean stops help to enhance the definition of her pops. Sou hits hard like a madman but somehow you can see their intensities equalized. If you observe alittle more, you can see that Sou has a very typical japanese style. They like to be in sort of a constant groove mode and barely stopping for a clean pop. That style, versus Deydey's style, which has many pauses or "Poses", makes for an interesting matchup.

Dance-wise, you can see that both are on point, deydey sitting very nicely in the pocket and doing the bare minimum without compromising quality. Her lines are also very well defined and done 100% to the fullest.

In comparison, Sou is more flowy and moving inbetween sounds and rhythms, but may appear to be more "messy". Many of his lines also appear less defined, as he pops midway during a movement rather than aiming to pop at the end of a movement.

Deydey's rhythm is very strong, showing just enough dance and a clear "story" with the music. Although she is just moving to very basic angles, she feels the music throughout each movement. This gives life and depth to ANY normal movements she might make. Visually, its not easy to see many of the interpretations, but if you look carefully, you can feel the parts of the music that makes her move a certain way.

Sou is almost constantly moving, showing layers of the music with different parts of the body. This might make the music more obvious but it may also be overkill, as we humans cannot absorb so much going on at one time!! :P So knowing how much to pace yourself is also good. Sometimes show basics, and sometimes go into more complicated movements, but always stay with the music!!!

So i guess when it comes to looking at who is closer to the music, while still having a greater technical and creative level, is really really hard to achieve. Simply because technique, musicality and creativity do not come hand in hand. These 3 important areas must really be approached in different ways. But once mastered, application for them will come simultaneously, and your body will make them complement each other to be a crazy dancer :) And sometimes when it is too close a fight, might just come down to preference on whose style you like!

But at the end of the day, a battle or competition is just an event. It should not make or break you as dance is a lifelong journey. So no one can win every competition everytime. That is why Art is so unpredictable :)

And if you want to know, the people who approved of Deydey's victory were(in order from left to right, sitting- on-those-chairs-behind-the-contestants-in-front-of-the-logo) Mr Wiggles, Salah and Jr Boog! Woweee an crazy lineup....hope to see Deydey in future as the judge :):)

Till then, dont look down on any girl poppers man, they might just eat you up!! haha

-Marzipan