Jack Of All Trades (Montreal)

Based in Montreal, Jack Of All Trades (JOAT) is a platform that celebrates the culture of Street Dance and the artistic practices associated with it. Also, recognized worldwide for its international festival, the company brings together artists from here and abroad. Jack Of All Trades, a term meaning the ability to be multidisciplinary, was created in 2014 to inspire a broader artistic articulation within the Popping community. This was done by inviting freedom of expression and by highlighting the multi-disciplinarity that this practice contains. This is how the JOAT battle took shape and the influence of the platform was felt in the local and international community. In 2016, the company sketches a festival representing Jack Of All Trade’s intrinsic identity, which is multidisciplinary. Since then, the festival includes Street Dance and related arts such as visual arts, music production, DJing and other forms of cultural events related to it.

Handy “Monstapop” Yacinthe

Handy “MonstaPop” Yacinthe is one of the pioneers who has built today’s popping dance community in Quebec and is a great influence in the street dance scene here and abroad. His artistic contribution has inspired many across Canada and internationally. A creator, innovator and experimenter in his own right, but above all an artist belonging to the Canadian street dance heritage. A dancer and experimenter for 25 years, his career has spanned from cyphers, battles, stage work, as a choreographer, with productions, short films in dance, pedagogy, mentoring and the entertainment business.

Being present on various major international stages; Handy “MonstaPop” Yacinthe toured in Canada, Europe and Asia. He is the first and only three-time winner of the acclaimed event Popping Forever based in Amsterdam (Holland) and Osaka (Japan). Handy won in 2013, twice in 2017, was the finalist in 2018 and semi-finalist in 2019. He also designed the innovative street dance festival Jack of All Trades. JOAT events have been held in Singapore, Taiwan, India, Vancouver, Los Angeles, the United Kingdom and Japan. JOAT has been a major influence in the international popping scene. He brought a different paradigm to the dance battles circuit, inviting artists to expand their expression in the Popping/Boogaloo culture. In addition, JOAT’s World Grand Finals takes place in Montreal, which is now an international outlet for Montreal street dance.

Handy Yacinthe was a co-choreographer for Bluprint Cru on the American television show America’s Best Dance Crew and the American movie Step Up 5. His choreographic skills have been used in a work of Franco Dragone and for the collective Brat Pack at Canada’s Got Talent. He was an artistic consultant for Danser Pour Gagner and is the creator of the choreographic style for the collective C4, a finalist group that was on the TV show Danser Pour Gagner on V télé and Révolution on TVA. During these professional years, he has collaborated as a creator and performer with Cirque du Soleil, RUBBERBAND, Just for Laughs Festival and others. His work has been presented on different stages such as La Cinquième Salle, Phoenix Stadium in Arizona (USA), Stade de Bercy in Paris (France) and Stadsschouwburg Theater in Amsterdam (Holland) to name a few.

What set MonstaPop apart in the international popping world was his multidisciplinary skill in the Popping/Boogaloo culture. From the very beginning, Handy has been interested in many dance styles related to Popping/Boogaloo culture. He has perfected his skills in popping, robot, animation, tutting, ticking and expresses himself at a high level in boogaloo, puppet, scarecrow, glides, waving, toyman, footwork and others. His artistic path has led him to create an approach that is personal to him, he built the Organic Mechanics system, which is now shared in his workshops.

Shash’u
DJ + Artistic Assistant

Afrofuturist B-Boy, remix alchemist, legit funk phenomenon… Montreal’s Shash’U is truly one of a kind. He’s been burning down stages from Boiler Room at SXSW to underground street dance competition “Juste Debout” with a mix of wild style remixes and audacious originals that sound at once alien and familiar, turning even the poppiest of radio hits into breakbeat battle weapons. This approach has won Shash’U a rabid following. Originally from Montreal – son of Haitian parents – Richard St- Aubin, best known as Shash’U, first saw the light of day in 1983. He was only 9 when he began to play the drums and then turned to electronic music composition in his late adolescence. He would soon thereafter develop a unique signature sound thanks to his mixture of avant-garde hip-hop, funk, r&b and electro acoustics. At the age of twenty and after a few years of practicing various forms of street dance, Shash’U adopted the turntables to become the DJ that we know today. He has since forged a solid reputation in the planet-wide realm of street dance.

His musical career began to take shape through his performances as DJ-beat producer for his fellow street dancers, for whom he composes and plays his instrumentals in international competitions. This introduction to the DJ art is what allowed him to make the leap into the world of nightclubs. As of the year 2005, Shash’U – who already possessed a solid DJ reputation – starts building his amazing track record as a composer and songwriter, collaborating with some of the biggest names in hip-hop and electro beat both in Quebec and abroad. A-Trak (CA/USA), Lunice (CA), Kaytranada (CA), Chromeo (CA/USA), James DiSalvio (Bran Van 3000), Youssoupha (FR), Kutmah (UK), Gage (Fr), Gilles Peterson (UK), are some of the artists with whom he teams up. Now, with a musical career spanning ten years and having traveled throughout the world with his music, Shash’U has become one of the great ones in the international beat world setting the stage for his signing with the New York label Fool’s Gold Records.

MC
Étienne Lou

Trained at the National Theater School of Canada, Étienne Lou is a dancer and actor. He starred in the short film Chinatown by Guillaume Cyr in 2016. Among his numerous prizes and distinctions in dance and popping, Étienne also shines in theater. In particular, you could have seen him in Jon Lachlan Stewart’s L’homme boîte in 2016, as part of the Zone Homa festival. In fall 2017, Etienne starred in Martin Faucher’s Jusqu’où te mènera Montreal during the Festival du Jamais Lu. In 2018, Étienne crossed over to the European continent to perform at the Théâtre de la Colline in the play Notre innocence by Wajdi Mouawad. He visited the parks of Montreal with the traveling theater La Roulotte with Asteroid B-612 in the summer of 2018. In 2019, Etienne was part of the distribution of La société des poètes disparus, a play staged by Sébastien David at the Theéâtre Denise-Pelletier, and also in L’Énéide at the Quat’sous theater.

Steve “Icy” Ndacyayisenga (Toronto)

Steve “Icy” Ndacyayisenga is a film maker, community leader and member of The Moon Runners. With 15 years of experience in dance, specializing in popping and tutting where the core of these styles are the creation of shapes and abstract expression. Icy’s understanding of the dance and his ability to innovate made him a pioneer within the dance community, both in competing and managing events such as Area 51. Icy’s passion for dance and story telling, led him to discover his love for the camera and quickly developed a unique and cinematic style that can captivate any audience. He continues to be a pillar within the community through the curation of events via The Moon Runners, editor at a leading industry ad company and scaling his film company SeeWhatIcy Media.

Rawss (Montreal)

As a young woman evolving in Montreal’s street dance culture, Elie-Anne Ross was introduced to popping, a style that distinguishes itself by muscle contractions and isolations as well as illusory movement, in 2006. She trained for five years with Montreal’s popping pioneers Fon DeVueno Powell, Hitmaster Fish and Handy Yacinthe. She fell in love with the art of freestyle and participates in international battles. She positions herself as one of the few women in Canada who specializes in this form of dance. In 2017, she became a crew member of Symbiotic Monsters. Elie-Anne has worked for Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Eloize and several festivals in Montreal, including the Just for Laughs, the Jazz Festival, Francofolies and 100Lux festival. She has performed for Axelle Munezero, Handy Yacinthe, Saxon Fraser, Alexandra Landé, Emmanuelle Lephan and others. Dance has brought her to Morocco, Amsterdam, Saudi Arabia and the United States. In 2017, she completed her bachelor’s degree in contemporary dance at UQAM and became a dancer at Ebnfloh Company. She continues to strive for new projects and pushes her art form in the dance community at large.

Phoenix Bright Light (Montreal)

An artist with explosive and energetic qualities, Mecdy Jean-Pierre “Phoenix Bright Light” is a street dancer and professional dance teacher, performer, soloist and choreographer. He has traveled the whole world to innovate and enrich his artistic practice. These various exchanges led him to co-create Symbiotic Monsters, a collective of 10 artists renowned for its presence in the Montreal dance community, in addition to having represented Canada in various competitions around the world, winning many titles and organized several expressive workshops.

His style incorporates a high level of conscious movement, emulation, influenced by African dance, martial arts and sacred geometry. He has worked with many dance companies such as Cirque du Soleil, Blueprint Dance Company, 100lux, Helene Simard and Tentacle Tribe. He has also appeared in several dance films including Sur le Rythme, Step up All in and Full Out.

Ignite (Montreal)

Valmont “Ignite” Harnois is a Montreal artist who specializes in popping and contemporary dance. Finishing his bachelor’s degree in dance, he is interested in interdisciplinarity, street dance and his place at the heart of the performing arts.

Bopngeek (Vancouver)

Mike BopnGeek is a technician who seeks to explore minute details in animation and bopping. After meeting Megaman from Heavy Hittaz, Geek flew to Vancouver to learn bopping from him and Bopn Andre. Geek has won several battles but primarily dances in cyphers and teaches animation to his students in Vancouver.

Grimlock (Montreal)

Do Phan Hoi is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Montreal, Canada. His main interest in dance lies in Popping, an African American Funk dance. His autodidact formation and unorthodox interests in substyles of Popping like Struttin’ and Boppin’ has led him to learn from pioneers of the dance such as Boogie Frantick and Rashaad Pearson. In 2015, he joined Funny Bones Crew, an iconic collective of the culture based in Los Angeles. Street dance has played a crucial role in his personal development since his early teenage years, and in the past years, he has decided to share his passion for the culture by being involved in the community aspect of the dance by organizing events mainly in the St-Michel district in Montreal.

J. Style (Montreal)

Mukoma-K. Nshinga, also known as “J. Style,” is a dancer from Montreal. He discovered urban dance at the age of 7 when he started b-boying with the kids in his neighbourhood. However, it’s through movies, like You Got Served, Take the Lead, and Step Up, that he developed a passion for dance. He began training in popping with the best dancers in Montreal, including MonstaPop, 7Starr, and Venom. Fascinated by this dance style’s illusory movements, his interest in popping grew to a point where he soon went on a series of trips overseas to further develop and perfect his art.

He then continued training with internationally renowned dancers like Djidawi (France), and Rashaad and Future from the Urban Artistry collective (United States) with whom he developed a knowledge of funk among other things. These trips brought new inspiration to his dance and helped him to define his own style as well as perfect his technique. They also gave him the opportunity to participate in competitions and face off against the best poppers in the world. In 2017, he was among the top dancers at the Summer Dance Forever festival in Holland. The following year, he won the competition Chaos Unleashed and went on to represent Canada at the Battle Bad competition in France. He was recognized by the Ville de Montréal as one of the city’s most promising young adults in the show “Célébrons la diversité de la jeunesse montréalaise!” in 2017.

At just 24 years old, Mukoma has already made many appearances on TV and in short films, notably with Five Knights Productions and on TV show “Révolution.” He’s also a part of the Ebnfloh dance company lead by Alexandra “Spicey” Landé, a pioneer of hip-hop i Montreal. Today, he divides his time between different creative projects and travelling to further develop his art. He has begun training in Bruk Up/Flex’n (Flexing) in New York with

“The Ghost of New York,” a pioneer of the style. This is yet another crowning achievement for this dancer who specializes in popping, but who also has strong foundations in hip-hop. A young, promising artist, Mukoma wants to continue to tell stories through his dance while pushing the limits of his art. Above all, he hopes to be a source of inspiration for the next generation by showing them that no dream is too big.

Abnormal (Montreal)

Abdel-Hanine “Abnormal” Madini is a Montreal dancer and teacher specializing in Popping, a dance of an illusory nature. With his charismatic approach where he mixes robot and mime with a comedic touch, Abdel-Hanine has influenced the national dance scene and beennoticed internationally. His talent and skills have enabled him to win many renowned localcompetitions such as La preuve and Festival Under Pressure. He has won renowned competitions outside the city of Montreal such as Parks-N-Wrecks in Toronto and outside the country at the Rochester Fringe Festival in New York. He has worked on numerousoccasions with Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and LesFrancoFolies de Montreal. Today, he continues to push his craft through his mentorship, development and his philosophy that no matter what you accomplish always stay a student of life.

Slim Boogie (USA)

Anthony D. Armstrong, known as “Slim Boogie”, is an artist/dancer from Los Angeles, California. He has been dancing for 18 years. His goal is to not online incubate growth for himself but also to inspire that same growth for his community. He has won numerous competitions around the world including Dance@Live Japan, Crazy Dancing China, Freestyle Session LA and many others.

But winning battles isn’t Slim Boogie’s only goal. Inspiring others to be creative in their dancing and building a better choreographic scene for the Los Angeles community with the tools he has been able to collect during his travels around the world is his goal. Progressing through daily mental and physical training, Slim is constantly trying to progress in his style: Popping. In this style, there are several “sub-styles”. Slim Boogie’s style is “animation”, which consists of sudden stops, speed variations, control, waving, tutting and many other features.

SonYa (France)

SonYa, whose real name is Sonia Bel Hadj Brahim, is a professional Street Dance dancer specializing in Popping and Waacking. She learned popping in the lessons of Pascal Luce dit Scalp in 2004 in the Paris suburbs of La Courneuve, the city where she is from. Very quickly passionate about it, she then took internships with the American founding group of this style of dance with Popin Pete, Suga Pop or even Mr Wiggles where she continued her development work. She acquired the vocabulary of Soul Dances, Locking and Hip Hop from Pascal Luce and Farrah Elmaskini.

In 2011 SonYa self-taught Waacking, a discipline still unknown to the general French public at this time. This apprenticeship takes shape in an internship with the American pioneer Tyrone Proctor. But also with those of Ana Sanchez (US), Archie Burnet (US), Brian Green (US), Yoshie (JP) and Ibuki (JP). Today, SonYa is part of the French Waacking collective called “Ma Dame Paris” and the popping group called “Groove Garden”. Publicly SonYa juggles between all these dances and in particular between Popping and Waacking in battl as in performance. She is the winner or finalist of several Popping and Waacking battles such as “Express Your Style” (DE), “Juste Debout” (FR), “Le Street Star” (SE), “Hot Mess” (CA), “Waacking Summer Sharing”(UK).

On stage, SonYa is an interpreter for several French companies. From 2011 she dances for the Companies: Point Zéro by Delphine Caron, Rualité by Bintou Dembélé, Chriki’z by Amin Boussa, Par Terre by Anne Nguyen. In fact, it was in 2012 that she joined Anne Nguyen’s company Par Terre, where she danced in several of these shows such as Promenade Obligatoire, AUTARCIE (….) And Bal.Exe. In 2017, SonYa performed in James Thierrée’s company Du Hanneton in La Grenouille Avait Raison. Besides that, she is a performer and choreographer in the Bandidas group in the show Bodies & Soul. In 2018 she danced for a Japanese hologram singer named IA. She Choreographs and performs a piece Yes, and you? with the Madoki company and the Ma Dame Paris collective. She is also a choreographer and performer in Sarah Lee’s new creation, set designer and videographer, called The Landlady, a performance combining plastic arts, dance and music in which SonYa dances solo.

Gucchon (Japan)

He has mastered his craft in such a way that one could call him a genius: Gucchon, from Japan, is a popper known as a reference in the popping community. A member of the acclaimed collective Co-thkoo, he began his venture in dance 22 years ago. He was completely absorbed and obsessed with the charm of the POP. In 2001, a local senior named KEI and Gucchon formed Co-thkoo. His style gravitates around dissociation, tight isolation of the body and funky grooves & rhythms. Since then, he has been active in various shows and battles around the world, and in 2008 and 2011, he won the Juste Debout World Championship twice as Co-thkoo.

Gucchon has been a strong Japanese ambassador, embracing this title with his international presence in shows, judging battles, giving workshops and more. In addition, he has been active in various aspects such as promoting and producing the Battle Event “Everybody Get Up !!” sponsored by Co-thkoo and the apparel brand “WANTED06” Gucchon established his own studio in Osaka, Sunny Hood, where he focuses on the next generation of street dancers.