Living for 30 Days: #12 - Taking locking back to the Streets!

My back is aching from all the over-extending & my hands are sore from hitting the concrete all day, but all I can say is

I LOVE LOCKING!

Today the weather was good so me and Energia-Elja from my dance crew (the Funky Footclan) took it to the streets with a plan to make that street money! We have danced outside with my crew, but never with a plan perform and entertain people. We were accompanied by Elja's GF Yvonne, who took all the epic photos in this blog post!

Me and Elja from FFC!

I was so full of enthusiasm and anticipation as I loaded batteries in to my Boombox. The butterflies in my stomach and the excitement from thinking alone was more intense than I had felt in any of my past challenges! I get such a good feeling from dancing I don't ever want to stop. I took the tram to the core of Helsinki and after making up a couple of eight-counts of choreography on the spot we were ready to KICK IT!

Random encounter with a couple of poppers and a B-Boy.

It was really exhausting to do a solo after a solo after a solo! We didn't get much rest during our performances as you only have the time it takes for your friend to freestyle to catch your breath, and then you have to get down again – locking requires a lot of stamina and endurance, but boy it was fun!

Here we go!

We performed in two places and met quite many dancers we know by accident! Our teacher Jenny "Silppuri" Silfver found us near Stockmann and she did a quick solo and we danced together for a while. You can see her on the video I posted below. She's kinda like Funky Footclan's sensei, since most of us danced in her locking classes when we started. Her nickname translates to "the Shredder" from the TMNT, and our crew's name came about from the thought that she was our master (The Shredder) and we were her funky minions (The Footclan) :)

OP, OP, OP-OP..

..OPPA GANGNAM STYLE! We did a couple of sets to Gangnam Style!

At Kamppi we bumped in to Skitsoflex's Funkyo & Tobyek. They're in the same crew as Jenny and their street dance discipline is Popping. They did a couple solos for us and we were having a good time! Also BBoy Ozone showed up and took over for a some epic bboying!

Let me just not-model here while you do all the work Elja!

In the end we made 62 euros in 2 hours, not bad at all! Of course we gave some of it to our lovely photographer/hype woman Yvonne. Big thanks to Elja my man and all the other people we met during our performances. I love dancing and this was my favourite experience yet! Check out the pictures and the video below!