Street dance in Japan

Street dance is danced in all over the world. There are many street dancers in Japan. In this article, I'll tell you street dance in Japan.

One of the great Japanese street dancers is KENZO. He is a Locking dancer. He has got more than 50 titles and he has won in global competition many times.  His dance technique, sense and entertaining are top level in the world so, he is invited frequently to dance events as a gueast dancer around the world. He was accepted as a family of LOCKERS which is the team of originator of Locking. He is well known as a performer of DA PUMP which is famous performance group in Japan. He is also a member of SHUFFLE!!.

This is the video of KENZO's dance. I think that his dance is powerful, technical and interesting.

KENTO is also famous Japanese dancer. He is a great hip hop dancer. He was gotten offers from Chris Brown, Cirque du Soleil, Ne-Yo, Ciara, Austin Brown around the same time. He has been danced as an exclusive dancer of Madonna, Chaka Khan and Chris Brown. He respects

Michael Jackson. He auditioned for "THIS IS IT" which was Michael Jackson's the last project and survived this audition but he was an exclusive dancer of Madonna at that time so he could not join in "THIS IS IT". As you know, Michael Jackson died before "THIS IS IT". After Michael Jackson died, Madonna gave KENTO chance to dance for Michael Jackson at her tour. This is it.
  

In Japan, many street dance competitions are held every year. "JAPAN DANCE DELIGHT", "BIG BANG", "DANCE@PIECE" and "DANCE@PIECE" are major street dance competitions and battle events.

A large number of students enjoy dancing in Japan. Many of them are university students. They belong to street dance clubs. In Tsukuba University, there is a street dance club too. Its name is Real Jam. These students enjoying dance are train hard everyday. So, their showcase are great.

By the way, how did street dance come down to Japan? There are various theories as to it. There were some fans of hip hop culture before it had not come down to Japan but it was minor boom at that time. American dance TV program "Soul Train" leaded to explosive diffusion of first street dance boom. Soul Train was popular TV program in America in 1970's. It was broadcast in Japan too. Many Japanese young are fascinated by hip hop culture and start street dance.
Second catalyst of street dance movement is the movie "Flash Dance". This was not hip hop movie but street dance was used in some scenes. It had great shock to Japanese young enough to start street dance. After this movie, "Wild Style", "Beat Street", "Breakin 1" and "Breakin 2", etc. were screened. These movies spread hip hip culture and street dance in Japan.
In 1980's, many famous street dancers in America came to Japan, for example, Poppin Pete, Skeeter Rabbit, Rock Steady Crew,  Boogaloo Shrimp etc.. They contribute to familiarize hip hop culture in Japan very much.