Catharsis NYC Blog

We’re throwing another party at the HQ. The first one was a little more on the experimental electronic side, but this one is going to be a straight up reggae-heavy jam, featuring a special set by J-Smoke of the Allies.

THE COOLDOWN
@ The Secret Theatre
4402 23rd St (bt 44th Rd & 44th Ave)
Long Island City, Queens

8 PM – 1 AM
21+ w/ID
$5 at door
BBQ

Music by:
J-SMOKE (The Allies) – hiphop/reggae
MIKEY DUBS – reggae/dubstep
KIM JONG ILL – reggae

Live Performances by:
MONSTAH BLACK & THE SONIC LEROY – live electro funk/soul

Visuals by:
WETCIRCUIT

We’re excited to present an amazing piece produced by our friend Chris Bagnall of Rockbox Films, featuring the one and only Ken Swift.

BEAT BREAKERS from Christopher Bagnall on Vimeo.

Visit the Beat Breakers site.

Our first Cooldown turned out to be a nice little shindig, despite being the hottest day of the summer and a late night flash storm. We had crazy visuals by the Forward Motion Theater crew and their VJs, set to dubbed out beats by Deepfield, Kimskii, Jools Palmer, and Dhundee. The post-Ps-1 crowd and party heads grubbed down to BBQ and chugged cheap beers.

We’ll be doing these every two weeks for the rest of the summer, with a rotating DJ lineup and special live performances. The next Cooldown is Saturday Aug 7th.

recap vid shot by the VJs:

EYEWASH – COOL DOWN July 24th from stephen dirkes on Vimeo.

Well, sort of our backyard… We’ve got a big private parking lot at our office in Long Island City with a loading dock that serves as an awesome stage for performers and DJs. Plus there’s an indoor theater in the back of the lot called The Secret Theatre. We’re just a few blocks away from PS-1 MOMA, where the Warmup series of outdoor concerts is in full swing.

Come on through! It’s gonna be a nice (and cheap) night to chill, grab some BBQ, bug out to some trippy visuals by world class VJs and shake your booty to the killer bass sounds of our favorite DJ, Dhundee, who’s gonna rock a dubsteppy set.

THE COOLDOWN
@ The Secret Theatre
4402 23rd St (bt 44th Rd & 44th Ave)
Long Island City, Queens

8 PM – 1 AM
21+ w/ID
$5 at door
BBQ

Music by:
Dhundee (Sugarcuts inc / GYDO) – Dubstep, House
Kimskii (Please & Thank You!, Sexytime Explosion) – Reggae, Dub, House
DeepField (Sexytime Explosion, 2Tuff) – Dubstep
Jools Palmer (Unisexi) – House, Electronica

Visuals by:
Eyewash
Motomichi
VJ Pixalot
Blind
Wetcircuit

Presented by:
Forward Motion Theater
The Secret Theatre
Catharsis
SugarCuts Music
Airtight Concepts

Check out some shots from the official jumpoff party for R-16. Photos by Mason Rose. The tournament finals begin on July 3rd.

Here’s a clip of the freestyle MC performances from the party, hosted by Dumbfoundead:

R-16 Warmup-extra footage (Event) from FIGHTINGHAPPY on Vimeo.

Every year for the past 4 years, we’ve been invited to participate in the Puma PT3 Tournament by our good friend Khairi, unfortunately with little success. This year we actually practiced, and didn’t do that bad! With a bit more time on the tables, the trophy is ours next year!

View the Photo Gallery

We’re back in Korea for the third annual R-16 Korea 2010 / Urban Arts Festival & World Masters B-Boy Championship. This year’s lineup looks no less spectacular than in the past, and we’re always proud to be on the ground to support Cartel Creative in producing this amazing b-boy event. More footage to follow…

Check out the official R-16 website here – http://r16korea.com/xe/?mid=index

Follow R-16 on Facebook.

Sizzle Teaser Promo:

R16 Korea Sizzler from FIGHTINGHAPPY on Vimeo.

The R-16 Korea 2010 / Urban Arts Festival & World Masters B-Boy Championship

Judges:
- Flo Master (USA)
- Easy Rock (USA)
- Kwikstep (USA)
- Brahim (France)
- Hong 10 (Korea)

Crew:
- Jinjo Crew (Korea)
- Phase T (France)
- Fusion Rockers (Spain)
- P-Noise (Philippines / USA)
- Puerto Rican All Star (Puerto Rico / USA)
- Big Toe Crew (Vietnam)
- Terror Bunch (Germany)
- China

Solo:
- El Nino (Dominican Republic)
- Just Do It (The Netherlands)
- Neguin (Brazil)
- Lil G (Venezuela)
- Bboy Wing (Korea)
- Rubber Legz (Germany)
- Lil Kev (France)
- Palmer (USA)

MC:
- Dumbfoundead (USA)
- Jaz Ivy (Korea)

Graffiti Artists:
- EWOK (USA)
- POSE (USA)
- TBA

Popping and Locking:
- TBA

Beat Breakers is an after school program that we started at the Bronx Academy of Letters in April, with support from Puma. We’re happy to announce that the first group of kids in the Beat Breakers just gave their final performance in front of the entire school, and they really killed it! All the hard effort and training led by Ken Swift and Waak (Breaks Kru) really paid off, as you could tell by watching the routine that they choreographed themselves. We’re just so proud of these guys. We’re pretty sure they’re the coolest kids in their school right now. Just wait till the next round of Beat Breakers hits the stage!

Check out the full coverage with pics taken by hiphop historian and Bronx native, Joe Conzo, on the Beat Breakers blog.

Pics were

The esteemed professor Ken Swift led the first class of the Beat Breakers on 4/20, and it was off the hook! Some of these kids can really dance, and are hungry to learn more. Our producer buddy Chris was on set shooting footage, and will be putting together a promo spot very soon.

We set up a little blog for the Beat Breakers to follow their progress. Check it out at:
http://beatbreakersnyc.wordpress.com/

Just a clip of the kids horsing around. Ken sure makes it look easy.

Beat Breakers doing the Russian with Professor Ken Swift from Catharsis NYC on Vimeo.

We just launched a new after-school b-boy / b-girl program for high school kids called BEAT BREAKERS, which will be taught by none other than the legendary Ken Swift.  The pilot program runs for seven weeks starting on April 20th and debuts at the Bronx Academy of Letters, a really progressive high school that emphasizes good writing skills as a path to success.

To kick off the program and give students a taste of what they might eventually be able to do, Ken brought some of the Breaks Kru (WaAak, Nemesis, and MykeToes) to perform a brief exhibition in front of students who were interested in learning more about the program.  Much more in updates and news on this program to come… Peep the vid and slideshow for now:

Beat Breakers Intro Showcase at Bronx Academy of Letters from Catharsis NYC on Vimeo.

View the gallery in Hi-Resolution.