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What I love most about dancing is, I feel like my spirit's just going to heaven.
I feel free.
This is my Michael Jackson jacket right here.
All I need to do is to be moonwalking.
I moved to San Francisco and I
actually met this other boy that was up there dancing.
An I noticed that me and him had a lot in common because we both wanted to start a dance group
or something like that. From there,
into the present, we made "Sick Wid It."
Everybody on our dance team has been through a lot of stuff. We try to put all of our problems
through our dancing, and that's how we tell stories
(talking) Shoulders,
elbows, (talking)
(Man): It's body poetry, it's really just telling a story.
You could've somebody just get shot,
and then when you're dancing, you just reenact that through your dancing. You could say I just walked up,
You feel me?
Clear up on it, bam!
If I wasn't dancing, I'd probably be robbing people,
probably kill a couple of people by now.
really nothing else to do but dance, and if you ain't dancing, you'd be selling crack somewhere on 3rd,
or doing something that's negative.
Excuse me brothers, can I give y'all one of these
for our dancing?
-Hey can we pass you one of these fliers bro?
By the third grade I was already into just,
negative stuff.
Before I knew it was even called a gang, I knew that there were these particular guys that I wanted to
hang out and do everything with. I think that's what brought me into the violence
But I can go out here and dance, and people still show me the same amount of respect
as they're gonna show somebody
that's leader of a gang.
You don't wanna go to work in your street clothes.
Your pants be sagging and all that,
everybody be looking at you different like ...
I'd rather blend in
I work with youth that's been through like, therapy, juvenile justice system,
show them that
even the littlest step can be a big change in your life
"Write down one metaphor that best describes you" (Girl): "So I don't have to writ my name?"
"Don't write your name, and at the end we're gonna guess who's is who.
But there's a purpose to it"
(Girl): " ... swimming, hanging with friends, and talking on the phone"
"Ok, anybody guess whose it is?"
"The whole purpose of this icebreaker was to tell you that you can't read somebody just by their profile.
For you Kay, they probably think that you so just bad because you got zero point whatever, and now you super smart,
So they're gonna look at you, treat you
by what's written on the paper." (Man): "It shows it's really hard to identify people based on what they're writing about. I was who I was then, not who I am now"
(On the phone): "Where you at? You coming out here today?"
"Hey you trying to go to that battle on the 13th in Veleyo."
"Well, I'm gonna go to it, and I want you to help me practice with me"
"Alright"
I was going to college and I was taking some ballet classes
because I want to get my balance and more spins,
and to be able to stay on my toes longer,
MY jazz, I was just taking that cuz jazz is like a hip-hop
and I was using the African Haitian dance to get into my warrior mode.
People that dance,
have another way for them to
leave reality.
We got our own world, just like in gangs they got secret that we don't know about.
"Oh yea I'm drinking soda!"
(Boy): "So you walking randomly, and you talking to
one of your friends and
let's say you see somebody that's cool
but they act funny like ... "
"So I try to acknowledge them and they act phony, so I brush them off and I act like I'm gonna fight'em through my dancing."
I got like, 7 friends already that passed away.
My best friend, Tunisha, she got shot in her neck,
all over some stupid stuff that me and her brother did, got into a fight,
out of all 18 times they shot the bullets flew right past me to
just hit her.
It must've been something, like it was my call to wake up
Instead of retaliating, I have the situation about her telling me to dance all the time,
sticking with that.
So now I fight my battles on the dance floor.