[Applause]
[Laughter]
man I hate it when this happens she’s
just hold on guys just don’t worry it’s
okay she’s and this is like my worst
nightmare
preparing the oats I don’t even know how
to double knot okay here we go
now that kids is why you should always
tie your shoes all right so at a young
age I had a pretty standard upbringing I
would wake up eat cereal go to school
hang out with classmates when I could
you know rinse and repeat
I kind of felt like I had a void in my
life and I was bursting out of my seams
with potential energy without being in
any club or sport or activity or really
anything to keep me busy
it became far too easy for me to fall in
with the wrong crowd in an effort to
become one of the cool kids I started
giving it more and more of who I was
just to fit in with everybody else now
luckily for me my parents my mom they
they recognized that there was emptiness
in my life and they offered me the
chance to take any class of my choosing
I had recently attended this concert
where there was a dancer that could
pivot around on his head for over a
minute straight and just like that
dancer this became one of the most
pivotal moments in my life I knew
exactly what I wanted to do I wanted to
be a b-boy
[Music]
was not your average studio and
choreography type dance this is breaking
and there was a certain level of rawness
to it that was exactly what I needed I
learned that there are more lines shapes
and patterns and dance than there are in
most paintings
[Music]
I learned how to connect with the music
on a completely different level
[Music]
[Applause]
and I learned how to gain strength and
momentum in ways I never thought
possible
[Music]
[Applause]
and now it was at this moment when
something happened
our little practice group began forming
a community every single member of our
community had different backgrounds with
upbringings from places such as Ukraine
Canada the Philippines and even Japan
even though we could all recognize that
we were very different people it was
more important for us to look at what we
had in common movement we learned with
that was something as simple as a basic
drum beat in the background we could use
our movements to communicate with each
other our movements became a translation
of who we were a window into our lives
through which you could see our
personalities characteristics and
culture now breaking has its roots with
a variety of different dances but what
really made it into what it was today
was from battling in the 80s there are
always tons of parties and dances going
on in New York and it wasn’t uncommon
for rival gangs to end about these
parties together and some gangs started
using dance as a non-violent way to
solve their disputes at a party without
ruining the vibe in other words if you
got served you had to go now as time
went on people came out with crazier
moves and push themselves past their
physical limit just to gain the upper
hand on the battlefield this had
inspired me and it changed the way I
trained and for a while all I wanted to
do was be the best it felt like my duty
to have the biggest and the coolest
moves and I was constantly trying to
outdo everybody around me and it seemed
like I went from communicating to just
plain showing off and because I was
doing it for all the wrong reasons
I eventually burned myself out now a few
years into dance I was presented with
the opportunity to learn how to coach
gymnastics
I knew that gymnastics could help me
improve my dance so I was so excited and
I applied and I was hired nearly on the
spot at Spokane gymnastics yeah
it was here that I realized even
gymnastics has its own culture with a
community of athletes and coaches and
parents now a couple of years into and a
couple years into coaching I was asked
to take over for a couple parkour
classes I’d seen parkour before on the
internet and it looked simple enough you
know just a bunch of guys doing flips
and jumping off of buildings so I took
the classes and before I knew it my two
classes and turned into 40 and we had a
fully fledged parkour program parkour
ended up being completely different than
what I had originally thought there was
no competition in parkour and it seemed
like we were all on the same team any
time we would go to an event you could
see knowledge and information on
techniques being passed freely amongst
complete strangers in a non-competitive
environment like this athletes were able
to realize that it was not about being
the best but just about being better
versions of themselves and just like
that my fire was real it
I became so excited to get out there and
help spread Spokane’s community and this
is what I realized if you are involved
in some sort of physical activity
whether it be parkour or braking
gymnastics dance skateboarding
rollerblading you name it there’s always
gonna be some sort of community involved
these communities can help you learn and
grow as an individual
this can happen through various methods
such as battling and competition or even
plain old discussion and information
sharing these communities can help you
learn how to be passionate and fight for
what you believe in and you can meet
lifelong friends along the way who will
be there for you through thick and thin
movement has always been an underlying
factor in anything that I’ve done and I
now know my movements have served a
higher purpose the purpose of building
community I truly believe that movement
is a tool we can use to transcend social
barriers such as language or race and I
know I would have never met these people
on stage with me if I had never taken
that first dance class so before we
leave you all with one more tree I’d
like to say thank you to every single
one of you for being part of my
community and thank you to all of you
for helping me on stage today kai Hector
Dalton Hayden Bryan Daniel thank you so
much now what do you say we show these
people what we got
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Laughter]
man I hate it when this happens she’s
just hold on guys just don’t worry it’s
okay she’s and this is like my worst
nightmare
preparing the oats I don’t even know how
to double knot okay here we go
now that kids is why you should always
tie your shoes all right so at a young
age I had a pretty standard upbringing I
would wake up eat cereal go to school
hang out with classmates when I could
you know rinse and repeat
I kind of felt like I had a void in my
life and I was bursting out of my seams
with potential energy without being in
any club or sport or activity or really
anything to keep me busy
it became far too easy for me to fall in
with the wrong crowd in an effort to
become one of the cool kids I started
giving it more and more of who I was
just to fit in with everybody else now
luckily for me my parents my mom they
they recognized that there was emptiness
in my life and they offered me the
chance to take any class of my choosing
I had recently attended this concert
where there was a dancer that could
pivot around on his head for over a
minute straight and just like that
dancer this became one of the most
pivotal moments in my life I knew
exactly what I wanted to do I wanted to
be a b-boy
[Music]
was not your average studio and
choreography type dance this is breaking
and there was a certain level of rawness
to it that was exactly what I needed I
learned that there are more lines shapes
and patterns and dance than there are in
most paintings
[Music]
I learned how to connect with the music
on a completely different level
[Music]
[Applause]
and I learned how to gain strength and
momentum in ways I never thought
possible
[Music]
[Applause]
and now it was at this moment when
something happened
our little practice group began forming
a community every single member of our
community had different backgrounds with
upbringings from places such as Ukraine
Canada the Philippines and even Japan
even though we could all recognize that
we were very different people it was
more important for us to look at what we
had in common movement we learned with
that was something as simple as a basic
drum beat in the background we could use
our movements to communicate with each
other our movements became a translation
of who we were a window into our lives
through which you could see our
personalities characteristics and
culture now breaking has its roots with
a variety of different dances but what
really made it into what it was today
was from battling in the 80s there are
always tons of parties and dances going
on in New York and it wasn’t uncommon
for rival gangs to end about these
parties together and some gangs started
using dance as a non-violent way to
solve their disputes at a party without
ruining the vibe in other words if you
got served you had to go now as time
went on people came out with crazier
moves and push themselves past their
physical limit just to gain the upper
hand on the battlefield this had
inspired me and it changed the way I
trained and for a while all I wanted to
do was be the best it felt like my duty
to have the biggest and the coolest
moves and I was constantly trying to
outdo everybody around me and it seemed
like I went from communicating to just
plain showing off and because I was
doing it for all the wrong reasons
I eventually burned myself out now a few
years into dance I was presented with
the opportunity to learn how to coach
gymnastics
I knew that gymnastics could help me
improve my dance so I was so excited and
I applied and I was hired nearly on the
spot at Spokane gymnastics yeah
it was here that I realized even
gymnastics has its own culture with a
community of athletes and coaches and
parents now a couple of years into and a
couple years into coaching I was asked
to take over for a couple parkour
classes I’d seen parkour before on the
internet and it looked simple enough you
know just a bunch of guys doing flips
and jumping off of buildings so I took
the classes and before I knew it my two
classes and turned into 40 and we had a
fully fledged parkour program parkour
ended up being completely different than
what I had originally thought there was
no competition in parkour and it seemed
like we were all on the same team any
time we would go to an event you could
see knowledge and information on
techniques being passed freely amongst
complete strangers in a non-competitive
environment like this athletes were able
to realize that it was not about being
the best but just about being better
versions of themselves and just like
that my fire was real it
I became so excited to get out there and
help spread Spokane’s community and this
is what I realized if you are involved
in some sort of physical activity
whether it be parkour or braking
gymnastics dance skateboarding
rollerblading you name it there’s always
gonna be some sort of community involved
these communities can help you learn and
grow as an individual
this can happen through various methods
such as battling and competition or even
plain old discussion and information
sharing these communities can help you
learn how to be passionate and fight for
what you believe in and you can meet
lifelong friends along the way who will
be there for you through thick and thin
movement has always been an underlying
factor in anything that I’ve done and I
now know my movements have served a
higher purpose the purpose of building
community I truly believe that movement
is a tool we can use to transcend social
barriers such as language or race and I
know I would have never met these people
on stage with me if I had never taken
that first dance class so before we
leave you all with one more tree I’d
like to say thank you to every single
one of you for being part of my
community and thank you to all of you
for helping me on stage today kai Hector
Dalton Hayden Bryan Daniel thank you so
much now what do you say we show these
people what we got
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
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