Style 43

The Notorious IBE 2009… GOD-DAMN-IT!

The Dutch IBE (International Breakdance Event) was first held in 1998 and over the past eleven years it has grown into one of the biggest events period. Spread over eight venues in the southern city of Heerlen thousands of worldwide connected bboys and fiiiine bgirls came together. Style 43 payed a visit to the legendary IBE which promissed to be the biggest ever, including the yearly All Battles All friendly continental dance wars and the already history-books-worthy Salah vs Bionic Man.

HipHop events always end up starting too late and lasting longer than scheduled, so I should have informed myself about the kickoff time, because I ended up being three and a half hours too early on a sunny saturday morning. Heerlen introduced itself to me in these hours as a small but very tourist-friendly city. At the kick-off Bram Verhallen (the legendary flatland rider) joined me to enjoy the event and help shoot some pictures. We started off with the Cirkle Kingz Qualifiers, called the Circle Prinz IBE. Hard moves, a lot of cyphers, sweaty armpits and all a bit too stuffed for me.

On our way to the UK Bboy Champs: Europe Qualifiers we accidently ended up at the 4 On 4 Bgirl Battles… WOW! These girls can dance! These girls got power! These girls are fit! And there were so many of em! The stereotype male intelligence prooved itself through a lot of guys and we all stayed till to the very last second of the final between a polish crew I honestly forgot the name of and a Japanese crew that I believe is called Queens of Queens. Asia once again represented strong with the best balance-athletes and took the title.

The music was spot on, the best breakdance DJ’s in the world came to IBE, like DJ Renegade, DJ Next One, DJ Billy Brown and even DJ Skeme Richards from the Rock Steady Crew. There were more big names of course, as the main MC, IBE got Trix from the UK. They got a lot of famous bboys including Hong 10 (Drifterz), Menno (Hustle Kidz), Alien Ness (Mighty Zulu Kings) and a very special guest: Martha Cooper from the USA. Martha is a photo journalist who is better known as the mother of all hiphop photograpers. She was the first to document the rise of hiphop in the 70’s and 80’s. The legendary woman is still behind lenses and came to share some good vibes with young photographers.

(Ken Swift and Alien Ness)

(One of the famous LA Boogie Brats, the future)

While being surrounded by all these famous people, the UK Champs qualifiers were still running. With just four more crews to go and eightytwo judged (86 crews in total) the top 16 crews could almost be selected by the professional pannel. While we managed to get the very best, nearly perfect spot all the way on the 3rd floor, front row, centered, on a balkony with highly comfortable seats I got a call that the Seven 2 Smoke gladiator battle was about to kick off on a theater podium nearby. Again comfortable seats, centered, but the room was packed so a front row spot was impossible unfortunately. Before the seven 2 smoke began a wildcard could be won by three guys, Thumba won the eigth spot in the world class competition with ease. He joined the line consisting out of Taisuke, Mijo, Prince, SoSo, Curuaja, Differ and Menno. My homeboy Menno was the first up and unbelievable as it seemed he got smoked, he had to get back in line in the carousel. But when his turn came, he spoke in a language we call revenge. Smoking one after another, in the entire history of seven 2 smoke only two bboys ever managed to smoke all seven. Thumba, the wildcard winner, was dancing amazing. At some point I actually believed he was going to win. But man! Differ was on a roll too, he also smoked the other bboys as easy as we do breathing. eventually I got my joy when the winner was announced, with five smokes, from Tilburg (the Netherlands), bboy Menno won the battle of kings. Still I would also have been satisfied if Differ smoked them all, he was off the hook.

(Bboy Menno showing his Seven 2 Smoke award)

Because there were so many venues a lot of contests were held at the same time. That’s how I missed the UK Bboy Champs Solo Popping Battles, the Footwork battles, The longest bboy move, the UK Champs crew finals, the stand up dance battle, best trick competition, and a lot of cyphers. On the marketsquare in town IBE placed a stage and got some nice acts including Kohfie Konnect, a real good hiphop group from the Netherlands. Afterwards I shot this picture of frontman Jiggy Dje in the middle of that same square.

At about elevenish the after party started in Hotel Grand Max, but my new found friend Zino and I decided to crash an illegal party. After some fuzz we came in to a spaced out place filled with people who were losing their brains faster than God planned the human body to break down. Everyone was telling us abouth the naked dancers round the poles who left just before we came in, goddamnnn hehe. Ah well, I ended up climbing buildings to reach the highest rooftop, as usual. Free drinks, too many dicks, weird chicks. Definately a party to remember. Eventually we decided to crash the official IBE afterparty just ten minutes before closure. As if I entered a Bollywood production in Holland, groupdancing stuff, dope! Simple 2steps with basic variations, all together. loved it and joined in and then it closed. Upstairs the hallways were hectic, afterpartys in rooms, climbing out of the windows, thirty centimeter joints, security knocking at your door every five minutes. My man Zino from magazino.nl got a crew together and we went outside for midnight cyphers in front of the videocamera. That shit was hardcore, we even found some foreign bboys who were sleeping on the street, supermegaultrahardcore. etc. etc. I ended up driving home around six finding myself locked out of my house and sleeping in the car after all.

SUNDAY ! THE BIG DAY ! IBE 2009 !!!!

What’s on the programm? The Boogie Brat Kids from Los Angeles showed up, the Powermove Battle, All Battles All (Europe, Japan, korea, USA). Normally Korea and Japan form one team and Mexico and Brasil the remaining fourth, but they had visum problems so they couldn’t come over. The All Battles All means: continental teams, a time limit, no judges, no winners, no losers. Pure love for breakdancing, a gift to the audience. The One we are always looking forward to is Europe vs Asia, this year that changed to Europe vs Korea, what a battle!!! I refer to youtube.

And then! The main event! Salah vs Bionic Man!

But first: a little bit of history. in 1999 IBE took place for the 2nd time, in Rotterdam. In the break between main acts cyphers were rocking all over. In one of them the young poppers Salah and Bionic Man found themselves in a hardcore personal dance conflict. This ended up in the legendary Rockforce vs The Family battle which kept going for over an hour. People have been begging for a big official battle between the two ever since. Ten years and two days later on September 13, 2009 this dream became reality.

Salah (France) brought his friends Bruce Ykanji, Kite, Mike and Djidawi and Bionic Man (USA) brought his Machine Gone Funk crew with him. Gladiators, every single one, you could smell the personal tension. It went on for about 45 minutes, normally popping tunes bore the shit out of me. But this level of dancing makes entire planets spin in different directions. On and on and on and on, the one original move after the other, real battling, damn good onbeat moves, real dancing, real good dancing. At the point the MC’s wanted to cut it off Salah insisted on one more round. After a fair rock paper scissors match Bionic had to start, and he came nice.

BUT! Salah owned with his dance skills. And where popping and animation stops is where Salah creates next levels. Bionic was predicting Salah’s moves and doing them at the same time. And then it came, in stead of acting to pull a long string out of his mouth, Salah started to pull a real life white string out of it. Not a few inches, not tens of inches, it kept on going!!!! The audience went craaazzyyyyy, the moment was so intense, and he just kept on going. He finished the battle for once and for all. Salah won! Definately!

(Salah, wonderfully performing amazing moves and 100% entertainment)

It’s funny how the sunday was filled with so much and such good dancing and I end up writing a lot more about the saturday. There truely are just no words for the sunday, expirience it, live the life. I’ve got one word for the event, espeically the sunday: Intense.

IBE 2009, much love for the dancers, the organisation, and the audience. I’m looking forward to next year already!

J.

Tags: bboy, breakdance, dance, Heerlen, IBE 2009