Big Toe Gets A Leg Up

Eight B-boy crews from seven countries in the region competed in the R16 South East Asia Finals 2010 held recently at Life Centre in Kuala Lumpur. They were Soulfresh (Taiwan), Laobangfai (Laos), Big Toe (Vietnam), 99 Flava (Thailand), Rebelz In Rhythym (Indonesia), Floor Techniques (Singapore) and Wakaka Fever and Giller Battle, both representing Malaysia. The panel of judges comprised of Bboy Free of Soul Shifters Crew from the United States and South Koreans Bboy Born of Rivers Crew and Bboy The End of Gamblerz Crew. Judging was based on 1) Creativity, 2) Execution, 3) Stage Presence, 4) Difficulty and 5) Overall Performance.

The MC Jazz Ivy and DJ Dust, two cool dudes from "The Land of the Morning Calm" endeared themselves to the 2000 strong audience who turned up at the bash. While waiting for the results of the competition to be announced, the crowd were entertained by guest artistes Dust and local rappers Altimet and Dose Two. Big Toe of Vietnam (pic) who got a leg up with the boisterous support of their fans, impressed the judges with their awesome performance to emerge winners. They will go on to compete against 15 teams from all across the world at the R16 Korea World B-boy Masters Championships 2010 which will be held in Seoul on July 3 and 4.

R16 and Urban Arts Festival was created in 2007 by the Korean Tourism Organization and the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to support grassroots youth culture such as Hip Hop and B-boy. The four-day celebrations which is held in South Korea every summer attracts famous artistes, musicians, dancers and promoters from all over the earth. It is a celebration of the creative energy behind urban youth culture. 'R' stands for Respect and '16' refers to the sixteen dance crews from fifteen countries who compete for the R16 Korea World B-boy Masters Championship titles in two categories: Best Crew Performance and Best Crew Battle.