TAKING THE BEAT BY THE HORNS
Jan 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Wasim Muklashy
What would happen if you brought together 30 of the best hip-hop dancers, an A-list of old-school legends — cats like Ken Swift, Asia One, Crazy Legs, Zulu Gremlin and Don “Campbellock” Campbell — and fed 'em, slept 'em, hopped 'em up on Red Bull and let them go crazy for a week? The Red Bull Beat Riders camp, that's what.
Rather than designing a traditional dance-off, the organizers purposely left competition behind in favor of an uninhibited fusion of craft and style, encouraging everyone to work together on a level playing field. “The idea was to help the most promising dancers elevate their game,” Red Bull's Chad Reed explains.
Nestled in the hills of California's sunny Central Valley at premier extreme-sports camp facility Camp Woodward West, the attendees met from Oct. 31-Nov. 7 within a magnificent setting of welcomed isolation. “I knew I was going to be around a lot of champions,” says Campbell, who helped put Soul Train on the map and invented the “lock.” “It's all about the kids, and these kids are real talented.”
Red Bull succeeded in getting the kids excited about the possibilities that their talents can bring them. “A lot of the time, we choose to think we have to go with the status quo and work a corporate job or something that doesn't feed your heart,” says camper Fluidgirl. “Fuck that! Life is now!”
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