Two weeks before Onisha and I left Vietnam for Malaysia we had the amazing opportunity to meet Hanoi’s house and street dancers. Through our contact in Ho Chi Minh we were introduced to a dancer named LionT. LionT just so happened to be throwing an event named Floor Killer the same time we were going to be in Hanoi. He invited Onisha and I to session with him and his two proteges at his studio that was right around the corner from our hotel the Golden Moon. His family owned studio was on the second floor of a shoe store and had a logo of his crew Big Toe outside the storefront. Onisha and I had a great time meeting LionT, his wife and cyphering with his very talented students. The kids are 8 and 10 years old and they were preparing for the upcoming house 1vs1 battle.

The next weekend was the Floor killer IV event and LionT invited me to attend a press conference for the Vietnam government and local press to talk about the event and why we were there supporting. I was very honored to attend and to also have a chance to talk about our mission to document dance across the world and support the house dance culture wherever we can. The press conference was on Friday and the Floor Killer event took place from Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening. It included House, Waacking, Locking, popping and 2 vs 2 bboy categories and was held in the Savico Megamall in Hanoi. For the event only being in it’s fourth iteration, I was surprised at the amount of effort and support that the event had from it’s crew and the community. There were a lot of competitors in most of the categories.

I had not danced since we were in Japan and I felt very rusty, but I was very excited to be competing again. I mentioned in a previous post about how when we are around dancers it’s like a sense of familiarity of home that we love to find in other countries and Hanoi was no different. All of the competitors were very nice to us, and a few came up to me during the warm up to find out where we were from. For the Vietnam house dancers they don’t get to see too many house dancers from the US at their events, and they were excited to see me compete. We met two dancers Black Frog and Tabi Be from the only all house crew in Hanoi, Double Steps. They were very nice, and were excited to get down with us and learn more about the House Dance Culture and history.

Top 8:

Top 4:

I made it to the semi finals and lost against a house dancer from Singapore. Our new friend LionT made it to the finals. I had a great time just getting down and letting go. I was missing that part of me since we have been on the road so much and not in our regular routine of dancing. It was nice exchanging with the Vietnam House community and I look forward to seeing it grow. After the event some of the house dancers asked if I could teach a workshop before Onisha and I set off for Malaysia. Of course Oni and I were very happy to teach, and we were excited to share our history with them.