Original Wartecs Flow Mo Flyer design
Saturday Breaking @ Saiffa 26th October 2010

Come on, it’s cool that you throw jams but stop stealing and show some respect.

Focus Flow Mo bio 2011

For Focus the year 2011 was super busy and full of ups and downs. Focus judged a lot of battles worldwide and taught a lot of workshops on his travels. During the year Focus entered 5 competitions and won 4 of them. More than competing, Focus is known for rocking and battling in circles, judging events, teaching and sharing knowledge where ever he’s at. The biggest accomplishment for him though was overcoming a serious injury that too him out the dance completely for over three months. After this he came back to the scene and traveled in four continents to dance, battle, judge and teach. He entered two contests after this and won both.

In the beginning of the year Finnish Streetdance Association gave Focus their “Pioneer Award” to honor his years of consistent work for making the Finnish scene known throughout the world. Same time he entered and won the Finnish jam Battle for Middle Earth bonnie & clyde battle with A.T. After that he came back to Hip H’opsession 1 on 1 battle in France and won, defending his tittle from last time he entered in 2006. During the autumn he came back to Circle Kingz in Switzerland and with his crew won his third first place Circle Kingz-tittle. He also came back to Finnish bboy championships in December and won the solo battle.

Focus worked in IBE as part of the artistic committee, where the IBE Focus Footwork Battle got renamed IBE Focus On Footwork Battle and gathered over 100 competitors this year. In Korea Focus was part of the official launching of the O.U.R. judging system in R16, making him one of the first official O.U.R. judges. He also participated in making the documents for different perspectives in the system.

During the year he judged events (besides local events):

World Bboy Classic, Netherlands
Born 2 Serve, Canada
Confronto Final, Brazil
Unbreakable, Belgium
Talk is Cheap, Norway
Boardstock Bboy Battle, Austria
Circle Prinz Cyprus
Welsh Open, UK
R16, Korea
Soul Sessions, Norway
UK Bboy Championships IBE and Focus on Footwork Battle IBE, Netherlands
Break Off vol 2, Rome
Juste Debout Finland Top Rock

He taught workshops during most of his travels. In Chelles Battle Pro Finals France he taught a strictly footwork workshop. In Hip Hop Huis Netherlands he taught a special “Teach the Teachers” workshop, aimed to improve local level in teaching. In Brazil after judging and teaching the event he did an exhibition battle against a local bboy star Fernandinho. In IBE in Netherlands he taught a special “Footwork Fundamentals” collaboration workshop with legendary bboy Storm.

Focus teaches weekly classes for all levels at Streetdance Center Saiffa - Flow Mo Dance School, studio that he runs with his crew in Helsinki. With the studio runners he was part of organizing 12 jams in Finland during the year 2011 including events like Circle Prinz Finland, Eurocultured Finland and UK B-Boy Championship Scandinavia. He was part of bringing out legends and stars of the game to Finland to judge and teach including Roxrite, Tuff Tim Twist, Amjad, Swift Rock, Dj Timber, Nelson, Sally Sly, Razzle Dazzle etc. Focus continues to train super hard and always continues to be a student to the culture. 2012 will be another busy year.

Over all, 60 people entered the solos on Saturday. Competition was tuff and eventually all top 4 ended up being Flow Mo: Hatsolo, A.T, Saki-1 and me. I had a really dope final against Hatsolo, a great opponent and a friend. Over all I felt really happy to be back battling on a high level after struggling with injuries earlier this year. We’ve been training the whole autumn together like crazy, this was a good closure for the season. You can see the final here:

http://youtu.be/prt46cnqDA4

Later was time for some crew business. Saki-1 has been a prospect for the crew since late summer. He did his time well so it was time for his initiation. In Flow Mo you gotta earn your shirt so he had to battle the crew by himself. Job well done and a shirt well deserved.

http://youtu.be/o7jzYgT7KxM

Congrats, welcome brother Saki-1!

The idea is not to create a million people with only footwork and nothing else, that would lead anywhere. The idea is to bring back more attention on real footwork skills, small ideas with creativity, finesse and mastering your foundation. After the short worldwide “foundation trend”, seems like the main attraction again for breakers is to blow it up and go crazy with power. Nothing wrong with that. But when people learn their airflare before backspin and airchair before babyfreeze, something is getting really twisted. Build your foundation from ground up and your future as a bboy will be stronger.

More information about the IBE Focus on Footwork Battle at the IBE website, sign up on time since already 50 spots is taken:

http://www.thenotoriousibe.com/program-focusonfootworkbattle.htm