Break it up and just dance

You want to do something but sports aren’t your cup of tea? You want to get involved, meet people, shake it off, but you’re at a loss on how to start? Check out PSU’s B-Boy

club. 

They meet once a week and accept novices. All you need to join is a desire to breakdance. Led by Brian Baker, the B-Boy club came out into the open when members practiced breakdancing moves in the Park Blocks.

“We practice on Monday nights, we have a good time and we perform when we can,” Baker says.

Last year the club had two major events: a performance during PSU’s Art in Spring and a show in north Portland.

“I’m trying to set up some big stuff for us this year. We are going to have a new practice space and we should have a lot more people. Everything was kind of informal before and I’m just trying to tighten it up.”

Despite its name, the B-Boy club definitely accepts women.

“Anyone who wants to come out, can,” Baker says.

Pulling from influences as diverse as yoga, 1980s rap and hip-hop, kung fu movies and gymnastics, PSU’s B-Boys throw it all together when coming up with ideas. Baker himself recently spent some time in California studying what was going on there in the breakdancing scene.

“They’re really into contortionism. Dancers are using their arms and legs to create some pretty crazy stuff,” he says.

The B-Boys currently have around 15 members and are looking to widen their appeal. Baker is in the process of setting up a new web site, which will highlight their routines, dancers and performances.

“We want to get it out there, reach as many people as we can. We don’t really put up fliers or anything,” Baker says. “We just go out and meet people, talk to people.”

The B-Boy club is undoubtedly one of PSU’s coolest attractions. They are original, inventive and inspiring.  On a campus where sports and studying can sometimes dominate everything, the B-Boy club is a remedy to boredom and the mid-quarter blues.