No Easy Props Hip Hop 101 Expansion Program

This is video that a friend posted on Facebook. it's featuring one of my favorite B-girls, Asia One along with some fellow hip-hop teachers talking about and after school hip-hop education program they've put together.

It's a pretty dope video and is something a lot of these schools need  in California, especially with all the budget cuts. Watch and enjoy.

Maxt Out Flyers

I was just asked to do Jayvee Dance Production's Maxt Out Flyer! Here's the flyer along with the process before we finalized the decision on which one. Top is the newest and the bottom is the oldest. Enjoy!

Click for full view!

Tuesday Night Krump!

BAYUM!
Here's some footage of my Beg. Krump Class over at Jayvee Dance Center! I love this class! Whether it's 5 people or 20, I enjoy teaching these dancers.

We've been learning history and foundation moves the past two months through routines, drills, and getting them settled in freestyling. If you're down come out at join us for class!

Family Bizness Hip Hop International Mix

This is a mix I did for family business' him hip-hop international dance routine! it took about 3 to 4 versions before we were finally satisfied with the song choices. This probably one of my favorite mixes I've done so far, and I hope you like it as well! Hope you enjoy!

Caricature Sketches!

This past weekend I got to do some caricatures over at Alhambra Hot Spot. It was nice to just sit down and sketch people. Along with that, I also got to hang out with my dance crew, Family Bizness, who happened to be at the booth right next to me doing face painting.

I'll be doing the same thing this Saturday afternoon after my classes. I'll be sharing the booth with Family Bizness and I'll also be competing in both the crew competition and the b-boy battles; should be one hell of a Saturday. Anyways, here are some sketches and pictures from this past weekend!

FamBiz and Teen Groov Shirt Presentation Pieces

These 2 pieces are already up in my gallery, but I never really got a chance to talk about it.

Some of you may have already seen these shirts whether by online or seeing one of the dancers wear them. Either way, I always enjoyed the way the shirts turned out, but I HATED the template I used in putting them together. It looked too cartoony, and shirts don't really look like that. Thank God I finally found a template that does the job. Anyways, I put these together simply because I wanted a better way to present them. Just having a black background didn't do it justice. And I didn't want to just place a picture of the people wearing them right next to it either. So I made the pictures a part of the background, but enough to still feel a presences throughout. Well anyways, I hope you guys enjoy!

Teaching At Glendale High School

A little while ago one of my friends, Anthony, had asked me to come teach some of the kids at Glendale High some street styles. Now this is different from teaching Glendale High School's Dance Camp where I mainly just teach them a routine.
So I gladly said yes. I personally find exciting to teach younger dancers these kinds of dances.

I had about 3 hours to teach them, so I decided to teach them two styles. I taught them breaking and locking. But I didn't just teach them a routine I went into the history of each dance and then gave them a few drills.
One of the main obstacles I found a teaching was that there were about what looked like 60 or 80 kids in the room. So I faced the challenge of making sure the people in the back were able to pick up as well. Along with that, I had to make sure that no one stepped on each other's fingers when I taught them breaking.I taught them what I thought was a pretty simple routine, but still enough for it to be a challenge.

Here are the videos. I hope you enjoy!

Locking


Breaking

Monktree Productions Title Card

A friend of mine had asked me to do a title card for her film company, Monktree Productions! They do some great work, I've done a couple of music videos with them already and we're currently working on a documentary! Anyways, here's their title card. I made it with Adobe Flash CS5 and Adobe After Effects CS5. Hope you guys enjoy!

Other Versions of FamBiz' Coming Soon Flier

So a little while ago, to build buzz of FamBiz' up coming auditions, I designed some teaser fliers. But in the process, I cam up with more than one that I liked. And I always tend to like more than one version of a design I made. So I decided to let the team decide. 

This is what the team over all chose.

Here are the other versions that I made!

FamBiz Shirts!

Hey everyone, FamBiz is selling shirts so we can raise money to get to Hip Hop International! We're selling shirts and tanks in gray and blue! It's $20 a pop, and $35 for both just the T-Shirt and Tank Top. Here's the little apparel page I made in promotion of it!

If you're interested, comment or message me back with your shirt size. =]

FamBiz Auditions Coming Soon

Made for Family Bizness. Auditions coming up! Bayum. Stay tuned. 

Behind The Scenes - Jiggle Low Music Video

Here's some behind the scene's photos of me and Family Bizness at a recent music video shoot for an up and coming artist, Crystal Webb! This was definitely a long day for all of us. We started at about 1 PM and didn't finish until around 3 AM. Our director, Jimmy didn't get to leave until 6 PM. But overall it was a productive, yet exhausting, day.

One of the problems we ran into at the end of the night was that we were draining way too much electricity and at one point drained the energy from the building. It was a lot of fun working with everyone, stay tuned for the music video!

Powder Puff Girl!

Here's the finalized version of the Powder Puff Girl I had sketched up a few months ago! It's for a friend whose putting together a powder puff football tournament this summer. Here's the original version of the sketches before all the changes.

After a few e-mail dialogues and drafts, we finally came up with the final look up at top. Hope you guys enjoy! =]

Gallery Is Up!

I know it felt like it took forever to get this up, but finally, the 2D Gallery is up! Check it out right under the Animation section! I've posted up some of my favorite pieces I've done over the years.

Check it out over here to get started! Enjoy!

Sketchin Around

I've been down with a fever for the past week. I've been doing what I can to get better as fast as I can, but I've been getting relapses here and there.

Anyways, here's something I sketched up in 10 min. Turned out pretty decent, lemme know what you think!

Peek-A-Boo

I've been making revisions for the Powder Puff project I recently mentioned. I'm kind of glad that they asked for changes with a more specific look, because honestly I hated how the last one look.

Here's a desktop screenshot of what I've been workin on. =] Should be up soon enough!
One the left is the old one I did, the right is a hint of the new one.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!!

Click For Full View

Click For Full View

So tomorrow is me and my girlfriend's one year anniversary. Aside from the plans that we already have, I haven't had too much money lately to really get her something nice. So I resorted to one thing I know I'm good at, art.

The last time I made her something it was a shirt. It's definitely not something she can wear this time, but it sure has a lot more meaning.

In this piece, I try to recapture the moment of our first month together. It was located at the Los Angeles Water Plaza, we slow danced into midnight as I played a song from my blackberry.

This one year is definitely a momentous occasion for us, and I want to recapture the memory as are about to go into our first full year together.

I had to bust a mission just to get this printed. Stephanie had my car all day so I had to resort to skateboarding to Kinko's to get it printed.  It was definitely success, and I managed to get here before she did.

She isn't here yet, but I'm anticipating that she'll gonna be walking through that door at any minute.

We'll be going out tonight, so in the meantime I hope you guys enjoy the piece.

Attention Dancers 12-18 Years Old!

ATTENTION DANCERS AGES 11-18

With their recent success and growth this past season, Teen Groov is looking to extend the family Sunday, June 26 through their dance audition!

These young group of dancers are family to us and we would love for you guys to come out and try out!

TEEN GROOV DANCERS TRAIN IN
- Commercial Choreography
- Popping
- House
- Locking
- Krump
- Breakdance

WORKSHOPS
TBA

AUDITION
SUNDAY, JUNE 26 @ NOON

REHEARSALS
Saturdays @ 2:30pm – 5:30pm

JAYVEE DANCE CENTER
216 E. Main St
Alhambra, CA 91801
626.300.0178

CONTACT
Stephanie@jayveedance.net

Jayvee Dance Center's 5th Annual Spring Recital!

Tomorrow is Jayvee Dance Center's Spring Recital!

It's not only an opportunity for students of all ages to perform on stage, it's a showcase of the many classes the studio has to offer! 

This is an exciting day for a lot of us, especially for some of the students because some of them have never been on stage before.

Come out and enjoy the show!

Teen Groov Title Card

I was getting ready to upload Teen Groov's recent performance from Eclectic Music Festival when I realized that they didn't have a Title Card for any of their videos yet. There was a recent tutorial I saw on video copilot and figured that I would use this opportunity to not only learn something new, but create something for them as well. Enjoy!

>

New Sketches!

Just thought I'd share some sketches on something I'm currently working on. Yes, it IS a girl playing football. 

These were some sketches I quickly drew up on Photoshop. Roughly took about an hour to an hour and a half total. Enjoy! =]

Music Mixing

Need some mixes made for your dance routine? Hit me up! I'm currently available to make mixes for dance mixes for dance crews or whatever your mayt need them for.

I must first and foremost say that I am NOT a DJ, I just got into cutting music because I was fascinated in how it was done. I am not a professional.
BUT, I do offer a quick and quality service in cutting and mixing music if you need something quick in a relatively short deadline.
I do mixes for dance teams and/or dance performances. I make mixes for my dance teams Family Bizness and Teen Groov, and have had to pleasure of mixing music for Movement Project and Jayvee Dance Center.

Here are some of the mixes I've previously worked on!

If you're interested in having a mix done. Please contact me through e-mail: e3klives@gmail.com.

Revamped FamBiz Family Crest and New Title Card

New Version of the FamBiz Family Crest!

I've been wanting to work on something like this for a while. This is the new version of FamBiz's family crest when they transitioned from being E.S.U.I. (Elements of Style Under the Influence) to Family Bizness. I was meticulous as to how the design was going to turn out. I picked out what best represented us. Each part of the crest has a significant meaning, which I'll explain in a bit.

Current Version of the FamBiz Family Crest

I recently was inspired to revamp the current look of the crest to this current one after being inspired by 9 Surf Studios. It had taken my awhile to finish, but here it is!

Now let me walk you through the family crest:

Gold is the elevation of the mind through our practices in meditation, creative expression, and hard work.With a quiet and clear mind, we allow ourselves to simply focus and do what must be done.

The wings were placed to represent Los Angeles, city of angels. But it also means swiftness and protection. As a family, we must do what we can to protect each other from harms way.

Blue represents our pride for the team and for each other. Everyone giving their best individual effort that benefits everyone around them. This team is our family and we dance our hearts out for our family. It is the color of loyalty.

Red is the willingness to keep fighting on no matter how hard things may get. No matter what challenges present it self before us, we keep pressing through. It is the color of the Warrior.

Speakers simply represent our music and dance.

This new video was made with the great tutorials from Video Copilot! They're a great source of After Effects training and tutorials, and good quality like this is hard to find.

I had also grown tired of the previous title card of our videos, so soon after I finished the new version of the family crest. I went straight into working on this one. It took me a couple of days to finish, but voila! It turned out pretty sick and will be our new title card for a while. I hope you guys enjoy the work!

Revamped Title Card!

Notepad Sketches

Whenever I get an idea, most of the time I stop whatever I'm doing and I just go with it before I lose the momentum. These were sketched during work, I didn't have my sketch book anywhere near by so I just a nearby notepad. These are possible shirt designs for a couple of the teams I direct: Name Taggz and Teen Groov.  The sketch on the left was actually done a year ago and I just happened to find it recently. I actually still like how it looks and I might go ahead and finish it up with Illustrator. I actually still have a lot of these notepad sketches I wanna post up. Hope you guys enjoy!

FamBiz on Alhambra Source!

An article was just written about Family Bizness on the Alhambra Source! One of the directors, Stephanie Hagberg was recently interviewed by an editor who happens to take pilates regularly at Jayvee Dance Center.

Personally, this is pretty exciting because ever since I helped start this team, it's great to see our efforts don't go unnoticed. Huge shout out to everyone who's supported us since we started.

Check out the article right here!

Alhambra Source: Family Bizness

Tuesday Night Krump

Krump is a very spiritual dance coming from within born within the streets of Los Angeles. The moves are extremely rugged and quick, and it requires no flashy tricks and there are no formal ways of executing your dance. It's just you expressing how you feel at this very moment.

These are a few of the kids that I've taught, they've been doing it for a little over a year and they've come to find this dance as their platform of freestyle expression. Hope you guys enjoy!

Arie Dixon Is My Name

Here's a piece that I taught to FamBiz for our previous set. Most of the song is choreographed to Bebe Boohgz - Arie Dixon Is My Name, but for the intro, I decided to remix it by adding the dubstep break down from Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me. I think it turned out pretty dope! I kinda mess up for the solo video so my bad! Enjoy the video though!

World of Dance-LA 2011

This past weekend was World of Dance-Los Angeles! It was probably the hugest event I've ever performed at, over 12,000+ in attendance! Check out the footage of the from FamBiz and Teen Groov.

FamBiz

Teen Groov

Jayvee Monthly Jam with Nick Bautista

My friend Nick has been guest instructing at Jayvee Dance Center for the past month. His choreography is super ill and his musicality is off the charts dope. And I just wanted to share one of the classes he taught this month so far. Tonight's the last night he'll be instructing so make sure to come out!

Hip Hop Level 2 Classes (Video Included)

Finally got some footage of me and Stephanie's Hip Hop Level 2 class! For this class I wanted to give them a small introduction in street styles through Locking and experiment with a style of teaching I picked up from Anthony Thomas.

I've had a thing where I can explain a move as best as I could, but if the student doesn't get it, a lot of time was just wasted. So this time around I went with a the formula Demonstrate, Imitate, Explain, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.

I demonstrate the move as they imitate it in a slow pace, and gradually build up the speed. After every drill or 8 count they learn, I stop the music and I further explain the move in better detail. Soon after that we repeat it a couple more times before moving on through the routine and repeat the process again.

After experimenting with a bunch of styles of teaching, I'd have to say this is my favorite. I get to drill the students in the dance AND they get to learn a routine. Check out the video!

Change In Progress

Hey there everyone!
As you can see, the blog is currently going through some changes! I've decided to combine both my dance blog and animation blog into one. Hopefully that doesn't complicate things too much. On the one hand I had blogs that focused on my animation and the other my dance, but that was just too much where I didn't get to post as much as I wanted to. So hopefully combining the two doesn't end up watering down either one of them. We'll see as time goes on.

As you may have noticed, there's a completely new layout! Hopefully it's not too difficult to get around and I hope you guys enjoy it! Please note that not all of the links are working JUST yet, but please be patient as I will get to it as soon as possible!

Demo Reel 2011

It's been awhile since I've touched up on my demo reel. I started working on it again about a month a go when a friend of mine offered me a job that I didn't want to refuse. As much as I was enjoying the amount of free time I was getting through the short free lancing gigs I was getting (and still much prefer), I figure this opportunity would cross something off my list. And that's work on a feature film. Which movie it is I can't say until it's been released. 

But I'm excited to work there, I like the fact that I get to work in shifts so that it doesn't conflict with my dancing. The only thing can bog me down sometimes is the amount of sleep I lack sometimes. I work my 8 hours from 6AM - 2PM, which will eventually become 5AM - 3PM when crunch time comes. I feel confident that I can balance this one out some how. Anyways here's the reel that I put together that landed me the gig. I hope you guys enjoy!

On a side note, my dance crew, Family Bizness is selling shirts designed by me! Go check it out! 

If you like it, get yourself one, if you don't like it... well, get one for a friend! :)

FamBiz Witness

Shirts! Shirts! Shirts!

FamBiz shirts we're selling designed by yours! Buy one in support of Family Bizness!

Get at it!

Style

Black and Red $20.00 Teal and Purple $20.00 Purple and Yellow $20.00

Sizes

Small Medium Large