In My Body
Bboyizm (Gatineau)
The bravest thing a dancer can do is grow old—for a b-boy/b-girl, the experience is approaching heroic. In keeping with hip-hop culture, street dancers present a facade of confidence and invincibility as they engage in battles, and the resulting vocabulary is one of the most physically demanding and visually impressive of the dance genres. It leaves no room for the expression of vulnerability.
For In My Body, dancer/choreographer Crazy Smooth (Yvon Soglo) brings together an intergenerational group of dancers and an international creative team for an intensely athletic investigation of the evolution of self and the effects of aging on dancers.
In My Body was awarded four Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Original Choreography, Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, and Outstanding Achievement in Design.
In My Body is dedicated to the memory of Frosty Freeze, Marjory Smarth, Flash, Don Campbellock and others gone before – their legacy lives within us.
In My Body is the second production to be developed through the Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV’s long-term residency program and was also developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.
Co-production partners: Bboyizm, The CanDance Network Creation Fund, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Brian Webb Dance Company, Yukon Arts Centre, dance Immersion and Canadian Stage, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Production Sponsors
Anndraya Luui and The McGrane-Pearson Endowment Fund
Top image: Bboyizm. In the foreground : Tash © Jerick Collantes.
March 17 & 18, 2023 | 8pm
Vancouver Playhouse
600 Hamilton Street
Running time: 65 minutes, no intermission
Pre-show Talk 7:15pm each night in the Vancouver Playhouse Upper Lobby
Moderator: Ash Cornette, local street dancer
Guest: Saxon Fraser, Bboyizm Rehearsal Director and Assistant Choreographer
“Dance to express, not to impress”
Bboyizm motto
“Fusing influences of street dance and hip-hop into a modern dance context, they are creating a new extremely physical world that is theatrical, virtuosic and urban at its very core.”
Canada Dance Festival
Crazy Smooth
Dancing since 1997, Crazy Smooth is one of Canada’s top street dancers, performers, choreographers, instructors, judges, and community leaders. He is the founder and artistic director of Bboyizm, an award-winning street-dance company that has been instrumental in the preservation and proliferation of street dance in Canada and internationally.
Crazy Smooth was named the 2020 Clifford E. Lee Award recipient by the Banff Centre for the Arts for In My Body, at that time a work-in-progress. He continued creation on the piece as the 2019–2021 Long Term Artist in Residence at the Centre de Création O Vertigo in Montreal. The project received a CanDance Creation Fund grant and significant investment from the NAC National Creation Fund.
In 2004, Smooth founded Bboyizm and the company has successfully brought authentic street dance into the professional theatre setting. Three of his full-length creations—The Evolution of B-boying, IZM, and Music Creates Opportunity—have toured throughout Canada. The company has been nominated for a Dora Award (2012) and won both the Atlantic Presenters Association Touring Performers of the Year Award (2013) and the Ontario Presenters Network Emerging Touring Artist of the Year (2012).
Crazy Smooth has performed, taught, and judged competitions in cities and events throughout North America and Europe. He continually strives to be a positive example for the community and an ambassador of the street dance culture at large.
Saxon Fraser
A third generation dancer with a B.A. in Dance Kinesiology, Saxon’s versatility has brought her together with Cirque du Soleil, Moment Factory, W&M Physical Theatre (Poland), and Dragonfly Orchestra (China). She was a prominent choreographer on Radio Canada’s series Les Dieux de la Danse, TVA’s Revolution, and the award-winning short film La Volière.
As Artistic Director of Art-Terre she brought her show Temnein to audiences in Haiti before creating Juxtapose whose production disˈtraktəd was presented at 100LUX and Toronto’s world-renowned Breakin’ Convention. Saxon and Crazy Smooth premiered Patina at NAC’s Dance Forth in 2020 and she joined him as Associate Choreographer for Bboyizm’s recent creation In My Body, which received four 2022 Dora Awards.
Her choreography for Olympic ice dancers Guillaume Cizeron and Gabriella Papadakis of France won Gold at Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Saxon has collaborated with the fashion industry choreographing for Aubainerie, Y! D.N.A. Collection, Saco International, X-presion (Madrid), L’Oréal, Filler Magazine, and Noize (London).
Travelling worldwide, her creations have been presented at Royal Albert Hall in London, the Vancouver Olympics, Le Zénith in Paris, and the Kremlin Palace in Moscow.
Jayson Collantes
Jayson Collantes is a 24-year-old professional B-boy who currently resides in Toronto, Ontario. He started dancing at the age of 14 and has been competing internationally for five years, including You Be Ill – The Vaccine (2020), Battle Of The Year (2019), The Legits Blast Prague (2018), and several other competitions worldwide.
Jayson is known for his explosive transitional moves while maintaining fluidity and continuity, a style that creates an unpredictable and sporadic feel to his dance.
Aside from breaking, Jayson has also immersed himself in different art mediums such as the culinary arts, fashion, clothing design, and other dance styles. He is part of Breadcrumbs Crew (Ottawa) and Unknown Floor Force (Toronto).
As a member of Bboyizm, Jayson has discovered mentors who have helped him continue to grow as a dancer. He hopes to pass on the valuable experience and knowledge that is helping expand his creativity and skills as an overall artist to future generations.
Mark Collantes
A graphic designer by training, Mark Collantes is a multi-disciplinary artist. Apart from his career focus on visual art and design, Mark started breaking at 15 years old, and in time breaking has grown into an obsession, falling in love with the culture of hip hop.
The dynamic between his two passions of visual art and dance creates a symbiotic environment for his creative energy. Mark’s style revolves around dynamic movements, transitions and power moves. He aims to create a style and approach to breaking uniquely his own, intending to never look or feel like someone else with his movements.
Mark is one of the members of Unknown Floor Force, a crew that started between siblings and now has grown since. Other crews that he represents are Breadcrumbs Crew (Ottawa) and Jamillz (Japan). Mark’s goal is to leave a lasting legacy in breaking and inspire future generations of breakers and artists.
DKC Freeze
Born in Montreal in 1965, DKC Freeze belonged to the original generation of the organized street dance movement in Canada. A street dancer from the get-go, he has no formal dance training and is a first-generation autodidact of the Canadian street dance scene.
From 1982–1983 DKC Freeze was a member of the Flash Trick crew. From 1983–1987 DKC belonged to the legendary crew New Energy, one of Canada’s most influential groups of the time. In 1995 he joined the Flow Rock crew and in 2004 he was a founding member of Legz Crew.
DKC has been active as a competitor and judge in events all over the world, including the renowned Just 4 Rockers breaking event in France (2016, 2017, 2019).
He has performed for James Brown (1985 live concert), DJ Grand Master Flash, and during the 1986 Les Expos de Montreal series. His festival appearances include Les Francofolies (Montreal), Jazz Festival de Montreal and the Nancy Jazz Pulsation Festival in France.
Over the past 20 years he has been a positive influence on generations as the youth coordinator at both the Côtes-des-Neiges and Laval community centers. He is the founder and organizer of one of the longest running street dance events in Montreal, Gravity Rock. Today, he continues to influence the evolution of B-boying as a member of Bboyizm Dance Company.
Miss Marie Monsta
Marie Benoit A.K.A. B-girl Miss Marie Monsta started dancing when she was 10. She started with Irish Step Dance and was introduced to street dances about two years later. That is when she discovered her passion for dance and tried every dance style she could. She now specializes in b-boying and samba but also practices other styles such as old school party dances, rocking, house dance, salsa, bachata, and hustle.
Her love for dance led her to travel, perform, compete and teach in the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, France, England, USA, Argentina and across Canada. She started teaching at the age of 14. Growing up, she really loved battling and getting down in cyphers, and it has always been a great way for her to release her energy.
Through the mentorship of Bboy Crazy Smooth, she and her sister B-girl Julie Rock had the privilege to travel to New York City to meet pioneers of the dance and train with them. At the age of 16, she was chosen to work as a facilitator for Blueprint for Life “social work through hip hop” and taught in many Indigenous communities across Canada.
As a core dancer of the Bboyizm Dance Company she has performed at venues including the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), the Harbourfront Theatre (Toronto), the Banff Arts Centre, LA’s Conga Room, The Avalon Theatre (Hollywood), and Sadler’s Wells (London). She has worked with artists such as Black Eyed Peas, Mohombie, J Balvin, Farruko, and A Tribe Called Red.
Miss Marie Monsta still works with Bboyizm, Blueprint for Life, Rhythm Works, Create Of, and co-founded Las Tchutchucas Locas with her sister.
Nubian Néné
Montreal native Nubian Néné’s muse is music. She is a well-versed dancer/choreographer who finds inspiration weaving the hip hop, house, waacking, and breaking styles of dance together to create her unique approach. Her ability to expand her creativity into choreography, performance, producing, directing, and hosting makes her an asset to any project.
Living in New York for the past twelve years has enabled Néné to work with pioneers of hip hop culture. Since 2007 she has also facilitated social work through hip hop with BluePrintForLife in Inuit communities in Northern Canada.
Néné has taught and performed at numerous international dance festivals, including Ladies of Hip Hop Festival, Illadelph, Funky Fundamentals, and Block Party. She has also served as Master of Ceremony for the “Ladies Battle,” an annual street dance competition presented by the Ladies of Hip Hop.
In 2013, she created a dance company, A Lady in the House Co., for which she has developed and presented numerous shows. More recently, she has expanded her creative outlets to drawing and multidisciplinary projects. She has also been invited on panels addressing social issues, activism, and dance community topics.
Julie Rock
As a child, Julie trained mostly in technical dances, but as a teenager she was introduced to—and fell in love with—street and Latin dances. Versatility has always been one of her strengths. Along with her strong skills as a teacher, she has used her knowledge of many dance styles as a tool to diversify her career.
For the past 15 years, she has performed nationally and internationally, including at the Alvin Ailey Theater (NYC) and Sadler’s Wells (UK). She has appeared at Toronto Fashion Week, performed in Bahrain, Taiwan, and the Bahamas, and worked with Cirque du Soleil. She also co-founded Las Tchutchucas Locas in 2011.
Julie Rock is proud to have been a Bboyizm company dancer since 2006 and continues to be active in the mission of promoting and preserving all street dances.
Tash
Natasha “Tash” Jean-Bart was born in 1971 in Montreal, and has been dancing professionally for 34 years. A member of the renowned Montreal breaking crew Flow Rock since 1998, her love and dedication to street dance led her to learn directly from the pioneers.
In 2005, Tash was nominated Head Judge of Hip Hop International, a role she held for six years. That same year she landed the lead role of Lady Madonna in Cirque Du Soleil’s LOVE at the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas. In 2006 she was invited by Greg “Campbellock Jr” Pope and Frank “Sundance” Sams to contribute to the Elite Locking Camp, which she has since organized as the Las Vegas Locking Camp.
In 2011, she co-founded the Wättssoul company with her husband and has helped produce and sponsor multiple events over the years. She now travels internationally to pass on her knowledge to new generations of dancers and recently served as judge for Juste Debout 2018. She remains a lifelong student of street dance culture.
Vibz
Professional breaker originally from Toulouse (France), now based in Montréal, Romain Gailhaguet (Bboy Vibz) discovered b-boying at 14. Influenced by martial arts, he developed a fast and precise style and soon made a name for himself in competitions across France.
He was a founding member of the FreeZtyle Impakt collective, winning numerous competitions, and trained with icons such as Swift Rock, Roxrite, Hong10, and Ken Swift. He has also performed in public events across France and Canada.
In 2015, he was recruited by Ample Man Danse and performed in shows such as KLIMA, Fragment, and Divisible, which opened doors into contemporary dance. He has since worked with Destins Croisés (Ismaël Mouaraki) and Bboyizm, and co-founded the Flow collective.
Vibz remains active in the development of breaking by teaching introductory and advanced courses in France and Canada.
As Executive Producer, the Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV brings aunique combination of experimentation and innovation to dance creation and production. Via its productions program, the CCOV collaborates with distinctive choreographers to produce ambitious, large-scale works that contribute to the healthy evolution of contemporary performing art practices. A focal point for artistic reflection, an incubator for talent, and a catalyst for ideas, the CCOV’s production model empowers the creative brilliance of a new generation of artists. Crazy Smooth is the CCOV’s 2019-2021 Artist-in-Residence.
Ash Cornette aka Complex
Starting in 1998, Complex is a long-time artist in the B-boy world and has been placing the North West on the map ever since. His detailed footwork, flow, and strong foundation in breaking have allowed him to share his craft across North America, Asia, and Europe.
He is a member of Ouro Collective, Dance Broomz and Hoodz, a decorated battler, and a strong performer. He has won titles such as Massive Monkees Footwork Champion and Vancouver Street Dance Festival Breaking Champion.
Complex has performed for events and companies including Takashi Murakami’s Birthday Bash, Lululemon, L’Oréal, and Leica Geosystems.
