Circles 10

Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of Circles, an annual Bboy competition held at James Madison University. Circles is a widely known event, advertised on sites such as bboy.org, and draws dancers from all over the East Coast.

For those of you that don't know, Bboying is what most people know as "break dancing." It's a dance that started in the 70s with the Hip Hop movement.

Well for a second year, my crew, the Peacemakers, decided to compete in Circles. Peacemakers is a Bboy crew centered around ministering people through our dancing. It's an organization that was started in California and has begun to spread through the supervision of current Peacemakers members.

Circles consists of several events: a graffiti expo, an Emcee battle, a Bonnie and Clyde battle, and a 4-on-4 battle. Of the four events, the Bonnie and Clyde battles and the 4-on-4 battles are the main attractions.

A Bonnie and Clyde battle is a competition between two-person crews made up of one girl and one guy. Because there aren't always enough crews that sign up to compete, there are sometimes three-way battles that decide which of the crews is eliminated and which two move on to the next battle.

The 4-on-4 battles are the highlight of Circles. This year, there were 24 crews signed up for the 4-on-4's. In the preliminary round, two crews will battle and the judges will take notes on the crews. After the round, the judges are allowed to pick the 8 best crews to move on to the Top 8.

After the preliminary round, the crews were put into brackets and put through the elimination part of the competition. The judges decide who the winning crew is and that crew advances until it comes down to the Finals.

As with every year, the Circles 10 Finals was nothing to laugh at. The two crews, Dynamic Rockers and Beat Whackz, fought long and hard for eight long rounds. When the judges, Bboy Abstrackt and Bboy Puzzlez, cast their decision it came down to Dynamic Rockers winning by one point.

The competition was a lot of fun to dance in and was definitely an experience worth remembering. I'm whole heartedly looking forward to competing in Circles 11 next year.