By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Diana Trifonova from Bulgaria
Photos = Diana Trifonova and Bojana Doneva

One of the lesser known secrets of Korea is that for the past 10 years the country has been a champion on the breakdancing scene. Breakdancing, unlike sports in the Olympic Games, is not organized in official federations or clubs. It's not part of gym class at school and it doesn’t receive government funding.

Yet many Korean crews are now professionals and leave a recognizable Korean trace on the international b-boying scene. To try and see how that was made possible, I sat down for an interview with one of the top Korean breakdancing teams, the Jinjo Crew. The team visited Bulgaria as part of a larger tour aimed at presenting modern Korean art forms to non-Korean audiences. The show combined the Jinjo Crew’s breakdancing act with some traditional music from the Jeong Ga Ak Hoe singing troupe.

One day before the start of Rhythm of Korea at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, I had the pleasure of meeting breakdancer Octopus, or Hwang Myungchan. We started our conversation with the most obvious question. What does the “jinjo” in the name stand for? “Jin” and “jo” are both Chinese characters and they mean “fire” and “rising”. To understand how this rising fire comes to life, we shift the conversation to the training regime of him and his dancers.

Hwang Myungchan said that he doesn’t find the things they do that difficult. On the other hand, it's completely natural for the crew to exercise, even during the night. When asked how a normal training day for the Jinjo Crew looks, breakdancer Octopus said that he used to get up at 7 a.m. to arrive at the training facility by 9 a.m. Then the training would last until 10 p.m., or in some cases people would stay up until 2 or 3 a.m.



This tireless dedication paid off by earning the team the championship in the Red Bull BC One in 2008, the R-16 Korea in 2010, the Battle of the Year in 2010, the U.K. B-boy Championships in 2011 and many, many other victories that multiplied during the following years. After 17 years of devoted work as part of this well-functioning team comes a question: is it possible to turn breakdancing into your job and make it a fulltime occupation? In the case of the Jinjo Crew, the answer was yes. All the members of the team do breakdancing fulltime. To make this possible, the interests of the crew have shifted over the years.

“We have participated in five of the largest breakdancing championships and we’ve won them all. Therefore, our interests are in two main directions. One is to participate in competitions that we have not attended before, and the second is to organize in Korea a breakdancing world championship. The competitions will be managed by us and they're called the BBIC,” he said.

Additionally, Hwang noted that the main difference in the team over the past 17 years on the breakdancing scene is that from amateurs, the members of the crew turned into professionals. On top of that, from participants in b-boy competitions, the team developed into organizers of such events.



As many other professionals, the Jinjo Crew is also involved in teaching classes to the new generation of breakdancers. Asked about his opinion of the kids that are following in his footsteps, Octopus said that the kids today are very skilled, and that they are doing very well. Unfortunately, he sees that there aren’t that many kids who want to go down this path.

We finish our conversation with a joke, as Hwang explained to me why the Korean b-boy crews are the best. "Yes, the Korean breakdancing crews are the best, but we're the best among all Koreans. Or to be exact, we are only the best in the world and the reason is that I personally participate in this group and I'm doing quite well. This is why we are so good."

After a nice laugh, however, I got his serious answer and it is as simple as you might expect. The reason for the success of the Korean breakdancing scene is because everyone works really, really hard and they put their heart into their work.

wisdom117@korea.kr

* This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.