|
The Canadian Floor Masters were founded by Buddha and Kid Quick in 1983. We were passed our name to us by Chino of the original New York City Breakers. NYCB was originally called the “Floor Masters” . We became friends with NYCB in the early days and we were given their blessing to carry on their original crews name after they all got together at Chinos house to watch a video of our crew performing. Rumor has it that they were not only very impressed but that Trevor’s headspins were possibly better than any in New York at the time. This forged a relationship between our crews that lasted many years.
Original CFM core members included: TrickyT (Trevor Walker), Coach (Matt Sparks), Dexter (Chris Albrey), Buddha (Steve Leafloor), KidQuick (Wayne Lacasse), BeatStreet (Rob Giroux). Other members who were part of the crew for shorter periods of time include - Steve Jensen, Sheldon Thomas (Ice-Teak) , Lil Wayne, Moose, and Wayne Barrow.
We have a long history of opening for many famous performers such as James Brown and IceT. One of the most memorable performances was when we did a private show for the Kirov Ballet of Russia. There were KGB agents all around us when we did this at the National Arts Center. (This is before the Berlin Wall fell) - The Show we did blew them away and the ballet dancers were asking us for autographs. Damm - talk about a clash of dance cultures. I think this was around 1985.
CFM was best described as a power crew based on fast floor moves and acrobatics. Pexter from NYCB used to say that our style was allot like the original Dynamic Rockers out of New York. We established an early friendship with some of the New York City Breakers, (Pexter, Wave, and Fliprock) and performed some shows with Mr Wave in Canada. We hung out with FlipRock for a great Battle at a nightclub called the World in NewYork (This was against some crew from Brooklyn around 1986). Fliprock battled with us and the club went crazy. Peeps couldn’t believe we were from Canada. They all insisted that we must be from California. Our whole crew stayed at Fliprocks apartment while in town. Kid Quick and Beatstreet used to often go to New York and stay with Powerfull Pexter in the Bronx. The highlight of our dancing in the early days was to be a joint CFM and NewYork city breakers tour of the Soviet Union but the Armenian earthquake happened and everything got canceled since the country was to busy picking up the pieces. We also became friends with Klown and Universal from New Yorks “Float Commitee” They used to come up and do street performing with us in the mid 80’s
We all still love to dance and still hit the floor when we get together for a night out clubbing , but the muscles and joints aren’t the same as they used to be.
Myself (Buddha), I was the crew leader, being the oldest I not only danced with the crew but pushed them to new levels of professionalism which was what helped get us such high profile shows. (My support and second in command was always Kid Quick -Wayne Lacasse.) I even made the crew wear these outfits I bought while travelling in Istanbul - we all looked like Sinbad the Sailor - but the audiences loved it. We also got to open twice for one of the worlds most famous modern dance companies at Canada’s National Arts Center. (La La La Human Steps)
I’m now 49 with 3 kids, but I still can throw backflips in the middle of toprock and pull some suicide flips and windmills. I started dancing in 1975 to funk. Being a tiny white kid I always had to prove that I was the best at whatever I did. I lived near Windsor Ontario which is highly influenced by the Detroit Music scene. In 1975 Roller-skating to hard funk was the thing and It was really all about dancing on roller-skates with spins , flips and splits. All the best rollerskaters used to come up from Detroit and do skate routines sometimes with lockin in it. I used to blow away all the skaters because I was a tiny kid of 95 lbs on skates, who could do multiple backhandspings into splits and come up spinning to the music. Those roller-skating days were definitely my early training ground for dance.
In the middle of dancing with CFM in 1985 I spent a year in England where I shaved my head into a black and white stripped Mohawk and hung out in Brixton with some incredible Breakers from a crew called “Live to Break” (Billy-SpiderB, Scotty, Pete etc. I was one of the organizers of a large HipHop festival called Freestyle85 which represented all aspects of HipHop performed and organized entirely by the HipHop community. Generally it was weird at first for people over there to see a guy who looked like a punk doing mills and 1990’s.
Soon after I went Backpacking around Europe, Africa and Turkey where I performed in the streets by myself, every chance I got. It turns out that dance really is an international language and just by sharing my dance with the locals I was often fed for free, put up for the night, or given gifts.
CFM was one of the single biggest influences on my life and a solid Bass Beat will always bring out the battling spirit in me. It was all about attitude and a addiction to freestyle dancing . Battling and performing for crowds. Pulling them in and working the audience with humor, skill and a flurry of power moves when least expected. Today I work full time as a Social Worker and have started a company called “Blue Print For Life Consulting” . Through this company I am engaging in a variety of international projects where HipHop is presented as a strong voice and tool for working with Youth at Risk.
Anyways, we have tons of old video footage and photo’s from our early days in HipHop. Coach and Dexter danced about 11 years ago in Toronto to help beef up the floor skills of a crew called Intrikit in a Battle against “Bag of Trix’s”. (This was hosted by Crazy Legs of Rock Steady Crew)
Coach was one of the top gymnastic coaches in Canada and many of his competitive gymnast incorporated mills and swipes into their routines. A few of them are actually Bboys at heart and could freak us out with some of the new radical moves they can do. Coach is now currently with the Cirque du Soleil at the “La Nouba “ show in Orlando. He has been with them for over 6 years and traveled the world with them as a head coach and trainer. Coach has created a number of oppertunities for Bboys to become involved with the Cirque and Myself, Crazy Smooth and Ben Jammin continue to teach yearly workshops for the “La Nouba” cast members.
Dexter ( Chris Albery) has a young son Antonio and a young daughter Mia - he works in executive sales in high Tech and still lives in Ottawa.
Trevor is currently one of Ottawa's top club DJ's and has released a number of CD’s- he also has 2 new baby girls.
Mr Quick - Wayne, works for Alcatel and has a young son who he’s teaching to dance.
Rob Girouix (Beat street) has two small children and owns his own lawn flamingo company. We think he is living in Hamilton Ontario
Anyway, as I always told our crew, its not just about the moves. You can get those if you work hard and want it enough.. Its about pulling the style from within to the surface. Do you believe in yourself and your hype to the music. Can you rock your own world!
I am truely blessed to still be involved with the crew - The new crew keeps me feeling young and teaches me sometihng new everyday I’m very proud of them. CFM has always been about “Crew as Family” and this is still our core to this day.
Peace
Buddha
Original Crew 1983
|
