Often seen as shy and modest, bgirl Mars will throw any audience off guard with her talent and skill in dancing. Growing up with a love for the art of dance she took ballet, jazz and tap dance lessons. Mars discovered breakdancing during her years at the University of Toronto when she met a bboy on campus.

“He told me he could teach me some basics. From then, I started attending local practices and going to battles as well as going to various bboy nights around the city.”

Mars continued dancing inspired by other bboys who dedicated their lives to hip-hop and breaking and received very little financial support in return. At most battles, you can always catch Mars on the floor, however in reality she admits she is often reluctant to enter. In the end, no matter the outcome, she leaves every battle with a positive attitude.

“Even if you lose your battle you have gained so much just by doing it.”

Mars’ presence elevates the crowd with her fun-loving personality. Her source of energy comes beyond her love for breaking but her love for all types of dance.

“I love the complete freedom of dancing, how music, a certain song or beat, can just instinctively make you move your body. You can never learn everything in this dance – it is always changing and developing and that is what makes it so addictive.”

You can learn more about Mars on her myspace

Miss Finesse of the Fly Antics Crew in Vancouver is known as one of the best bgirls in Canada. She broke out into the male-dominated arena in 1999, fast developing her skills. Three years later, Fly Antics was born through her efforts with cohorts Invertabrat, Bles-sed, Smoothie and Rhythm.

“I am motivated by all of the women who surpass all notions of inequality and prove to be above and beyond the expected. I am a very competitive person, so the thought of someone being better than me, lights a fire inside!”

Finesse’s defining year was 2003, where she was featured with the Crew at a Talib Kweli show in Vancouver and competed in the Bboy Summit in Los Angeles. The year did not end there. Finesse was placed second in the Bonnie and Clyde competition at the Bboy Masters Pro Am in Miami. Soon after, the Crew was placed first at Los Angeles’ Urban Dance Festival.

When Finesse is not breaking, she can be found on TV. She is the host for Break Life, a segment of Pass Da Mic. The program showcases Vancouver’s hip-hop and urban music scene through interviews, live performance footage, and music videos on Shaw Cable’s Multicultural Channel every Sunday at 11:30 pm and Tuesdays at 12:30 am.

“I strive to preserve the art form through education. Pass Da Mic is Western Canada’s only hip-hop television show focusing strictly on the hip-hop culture. We display all elements of the hip-hop culture: DJing, breakdancing graffiti, beatboxing and emceeing.”

You can find out more about Miss Finesse or the Fly Antics Crew at www.flyantics.com or on her myspace at www.myspace.com/missfinesse. Until next week, stay motivated.

Jim-NASTIC, in my opinion, is one of the most clever bboy names I’ve come across. I know some will rag on me for featuring another member of Maximum Efficiency (MEC) in just under a month, but credit goes out to them for responding to my emails so enthusiastically and rapidly. So here I go again, this time with Nastic. Originally from the Philippines, Nastic moved to Toronto, ON in 1992 at the age of10.

“In the Philippines, I had little knowledge of MTV. The only rap we knew there was MC Hammer. When the running man came in, that’s the first time I experienced hip-hop”

While in Toronto, Nastic’s rebellious brother introduced him to the bad-ass culture of gangsta rap. He didn’t know of any positive aspects of hip-hop until he discovered bboy videos years later. After much convincing, Bigglez – a close friend of Nastic – persuaded him to try breakdancing. He was a member of the bboy crew, Catullus until he started practicing with a crew from Scarborough – Maximum Efficiency. Three years later Nastic started to realize that “bboying and breakdancing were totally different. Bboying has a whole culture to live by while breakdancing is a concept conceived by the media.”

Soon after, MEC added a couple more members, Piecez and Stylewalker. Sound familiar? Nastic’s most memorable experience with his crew was when MEC re-entered the scene in July 2005, competing in Pop, Lock and Load, hosted by Benzo of Bag of Trix.

“MEC keeps it raw on and off the floor. Keep a look out for the MEC promo!”

You can catch Nastic next in London, ON. He will be competing in one of Canada’s largest bboy battles, Rock the Spot, this Saturday, March 24th. You can hit up bboy Nastic at nastic101@hotmail.com for more inquiries.

Until Friday, keep your heads up high… or in the books.

Born Jonathan Surla, Stylewalker took Toronto, Ontario by storm between 2000-2005, originating and now currently residing in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Today, he is back in Toronto not only to celebrate his birthday but to compete against Canada’s finest breakers at the BBOY Unit Canada Championships where winners will be competing internationally in South Korea.

Stylewalker, who is often made fun of for not sticking to an alias, also goes by the Eight-bit Villian, Skip Stones and my personal favourite, Yick Yu-niversal. He started dancing in 1994 for his “love of all things creative,” however he once confessed he really started “for the girls.” Over the years he became affiliated with bboy crews from Toronto and Winnipeg including Funk Fanatics, Mischief Crew, Dangerous Goods (DGC), and Maximum Efficiency (MEC).

During his spare time, he’s a spoken word poet, once crafting a whole poem as the ultimate villain of all Nintendo games in the Canadian Festival of Spoken Words in Toronto this past October.

You can check out Stylewalker competing with Dangerous Goods this Sunday, February 11th, at the BBOY Unit Canada Championships at the MOD Club where the winners will be flown out to South Korea to compete internationally for the $10,000 grand prize. For more information on the competition go to www.backtotheunderground.com

If you want to know more about Stylewalker or his crew Dangerous Goods, well you can’t. When asked why, he answered, “We don’t care… We just break for breaking sake.” But if you really want to get a hold of him you can click here.

Hip-hop is good. Hip-hop is good! Ok fine, it can be. Mike Prosserman, founder of the York University’s Chapter of Leave Out ViolencE (LOVE) is proof you can still have faith in the good of hip-hop. This Friday, March 9th, Mike will be hosting Breakin’ the Cycle II, an event at York University’s Underground that boasts impressive performances including break dancers, rappers, graffiti writers, beat-boxers and spoken word artists. For the second year, the event has completely sold out in advance. All proceeds go to an outreach program directed to high school and university students preventing violence through the influence of hip-hop.

“There’s too many people who see hip-hop in a negative light. We want to show it in a positive way. The only way to deal with violence is to directly deal with those who are affected by it.”

In the bboy world, Mike is known as Piecez, who started breakdancing at the age of 13 from breakdancing.com‘s descriptive posts from other members of the original website.

“I started breaking when I was just turning 13 years old. I loved it right from the start and couldn’t stop practicing. Sadly, like many at the time, I had no one to practice with so I turned to the closest alternative.”

Through the breakingdancing.com, Piecez discovered Bag of Trix who offered dance lessons and workshops taught by Benzo, influencing Piecez to take his new passion further.

“After taking Benzo’s class for several years I was inspired to take this to the next level and start competing.”

Making the decision to compete, he caught the attention of many already distinguished bboys including Bigglez who recruited Piecez into the Maximum Efficiency Crew (MEC). Other than school and bboying, Piecez keeps himself busy with charity work, DJing, event planning and the management of Funk Fanatics.

If you missed out on tickets for this year’s Breakin’ the Cycle, make sure you email Piecez to add you to the list for upcoming events at leaveoutviolence@hotmail.com.

Almost a decade ago, a scrawny and terrified fourteen year old kid was physically threatened by an older peer to attempt some breakdancing moves. “I refused repeatedly to try breakdancing but that time I just didn’t want to get beaten up!” That was the birth of ThomasOragami’s passion for dancing. For the first five years, he claims he was only breakdancing and has really been bboying for the last four years as he distinguishes the difference between the two. “I started just dancing, and only the second half of my career have I been studying breakdancing as an art form by researching the history, traveling, and learning from other bboys that I have developed into a bboy and not just a breakdancer.”

ThomasOragami is one of the three original bboys of the Soul Felons Crew, established in 2001 in the Tri-Cities, Washington with fellow bboys King Reds and

href=”http://www.myspace.com/chaseeldridge” target=”_new”>Eldridge. For two years they traveled the west coast, developing a name for themselves. In 2003, they hooked up with bboys RawbFelon, Guwain, and Footloose in Vancouver, BC and completed the Soul Felons. Since, their latest additions include Roc-Reequez, Luis, Sumal, Lou-E and J-Bugz.

When asked where Thomas’ source of for his energy and passion for bboying, he responds “Jeanvie Jaylyn Chung”. A devoted father to a beautiful seven month daughter, he explains, “Every time I dance, I dance for her. She is my ultimate inspiration.”

Thomas’ next public appearance will be at the Ashes to Ashes competition in Portland Oregon. For details

and updates go to myspace.com/ashesbattle.

You can check out ThomasOragami at myspace.com/thomasoragami or for more information on the Soul Felons, go to myspace.com/soulfelons.

Until Tuesday…