If ya’ll don’t know what’s up in the breaking scene, you should definitely look bonafide B-girl Bea up. She’s a B-girl and a member of Funkroots crew, one of the most renowned breakdance crews in the community and Stellar, an all-female group founded by Philippine All star Lema Diaz. She has been a B-girl for a really long time, she used to tell me that she got into breaking when she went to the US with her cousin and saw how fresh and interesting the style was. It really opened her eyes to the possibilities of breaking and honing such a challenging skill in her. That’s how she got hooked and ever since then, she’s been dancing and doing battles like battles were for breakfast. All this done by a girl.
I trained with her last year and there I saw girl power at its finest. I couldn’t be more gung-ho about what I would be learning from her and she couldn’t be more accommodating and nice. I used to go to her house and train there and enjoyed every minute. That was last year and making 2010 the year of taking all kinds of risks for me convinced me that the year was such an epic and fulfilling one in the history of my life.
During trainings, Bea really made me sweat and the thought that I had going into breaking and the thought that I had coming out of it didn’t change — that breaking is no joke. It’s not just people you think are just shuffling their feet on the floor, the style greatly entails a huge amount of stamina, strength and actually, flexibility too. I was so thankful that I took gymnastic classes back in Babble because at least, I knew what to expect with such a conditioning. In between breaks, that’s all what I was thinking. But even having gone through gymnastics, it was still very different and a lot harder if I do say so myself. I had to think what toprock I could use to start, transition moves to get it flowing until a freeze or a hit was pulled. Breaking is in fact, multi-faceted. All this was taught to me by Bea but one thing she never missed out on teaching is foundation. She taught me more than just moves and freezes, she taught and showed me the culture, where it all started.. how it evolved over the years in different generations.. in different countries.. It was definitely something I can never replace with anything. Dance teachers should definitely aspire to be more like her. I had a deeper and greater appreciation for breaking and breakdancers, especially B-GIRLS than ever before.
You’ll understand more in this video.
Bea just became one of the top 10 finalists out of hundreds of entries in the LEVI’S YOUR JOURNEY CONTEST. Please vote for her here!! She’s done a lot to deserve to win this contest and continue her craft! Let’s help her rep good for the ladies, showing all those know-it-alls in dance that breaking hugely contributed to what hiphop is now and so did the FEMALES!
All credits go to Bea Lesaca for the photos and the video.
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