Peace Yan. Please introduce yourself to the audience.

Hi everybody reading this interview! This is Bboy Yan the Shrimp! I am representing ALLTHEMOST band from Moscow, Russia!

Since you are the first russian B-Boy to be featured on Style2ouf, please let us know about the scene out there in Russia.
Hehe.. it is dope to be first one. I hope you will enjoy my story!
In my country, breaking started back in 1985/86 when the first videos came to Russia. It caused a huge boom here and the media attention was pretty big. But in 1988 the hype came to an end and until 1994 the movement almost stopped. In 1994, a second wave came up and Breaking gained more popularity again. After 1998, the next hype about Breaking started when the russian old school crew "DaBoogieCrew" brought out a music video which was aired on TV and inspired a lot of people to start breaking. That's when I started breaking as well.
But actually I can say that people already were breaking here 2000 - 3000 years ago! The dance is called original russian dance, some people call it Cossacks dance. In that dance, you can see a lot of breaking moves and even the gear looked similar and some of the music sound like Funk.

How did you get down with ALLTHEMOST, the most famous crew coming out of Russia the last 2-3 years. Tell us about the history of your crew and where the name ALLTHEMOST comes from.
ALLTHEMOST was founded in 2001 by me and another guy called Bboy Slava. After that we brought more guys into the crew, guys who had been chilling and practicing with us. Some guys stopped, but by the time some new guys came into the crew. Now our crew is 6 guys strong and we're in the same roster.

The name of the band means that everyone is the most he can be, that everyone is the best, everyone is dope. And ALLTHEMOST is no crew. For me, you have crews (teams) in football. A crew is something serious. Breaking can’t be serious, because it’s always about having fun. That’s why I decline ALLTHEMOST as a band. The philosophy of ALLTHEMOST is do mix the original B-Boy style with russian flavour and to always stay true no matter what.

Who are the actual members of your band?

Now we are 6 guys! ALLTHEMOST consist of ButchRock a.k.a. Blow out, Mark Beard a.k.a. Bboy Jesus, Mr. Massa a.k.a. Amoeba, FT a.k.a. Dancefloor G. and D-Roll a.k.a. No Passport yet. We all have different characters and it gives a certain style to ALLTHEMOST. We are all good friends and we also stayed friends with all the guys that stopedp breaking but are still with us.

I first saw you guys at Floorwars in Demark some years ago and you guys won the whole competition pretty unexpected with already a very unique and complete way of dancing to that time. When did you started dancing and what inspired you to dance the way you do?
I started back in 1999. I was inspired by one guy I saw dancing at a club. Plus, the music video from DaBoogieCrew really inspired me. I started to practicing with the guys from my district and we went to some jams in Moscow where we meet other B-Boys who gave us more input. At that time, I was really inspired by Crazy Legs, Ken Swift, Flo Master, Easy Rock, Style Elements and Battle Squad. All these B-Boys stayed my favourite dancers until this day. After 1-2 years, most of the guys from my are stopped breaking but fortunately i had already met B-Boys who shared the same mentality and we founded ALLTHEMOST. The certain members of ALLTHEMOST have similar stories, but to get the whole story behind the, you gotta inetrview them as well, hahaha.
Nowadays, there's a lot of fashion and show in the Bboy world as you can see, but back then, B-boys were more true to the art and i am trying to save this tradition.

Since some years now you and the crew a travelling to a lot of places and doing tons of battles and competitions. But can you remember your first battle ever? What did you experienced and how was it to battle for the first time?

Yeah, of course I do remember! My first battle was soem sort of crew battle against the neighbour district. They were much better than us and we had only 4 guys in the crew and they had about 7-8. But we battled about 40-50 minutes. It was crazy and things went pretty fast after that battle, we got more interested in the dance and started to practice even harder. And the first big event i went to was the B.peope jam. This event was a monthly happening jam organized by the B.people crew. It was a very good time: no money, no politics – just raw dancing in the ciphers! For me, these were the best jams ever!
The first time we went out of Russia was when we went to Floor Wars, Denmark in 2005. We won first place and people could see and understand our style for the very first time.

Having battled at almost every major competition within Europe, what did you enjoy the most about travelling to all these places and which events or countries would you love to go to but never had the chance so far?

Every single trip is a very good experience, because you can see a lot of new B-Boys and B-Girls plus a lot of styles you have never seen before. And I very like to see new places. I always try to see all the sights and major places of that cities and try to learn some basic words in the language of the country I go to. For me the 2 best trips I have made so far were the trip to Freestyle Session 10th years anniversary in Los Angeles and the one to HipOpsession in France. I really want to go to Japan, NewYork and Iceland one day. Hope to do it soon. I love to travel inside Russia as well, because here we have a lot of pretty places.

Since the winter is pretty long in Russia, some people say it never ends, how do you guys practice and what kind of performances do you guys do back home? Is everyone of the members working full time or do you guys make a living off from Breaking?

Hahaha, yeah right.. it is longer than it is in the rest of Europe. Usually, we have winter from the end of november till the beginning of march, in that time it is normally snowing. But for us this is normal, we have adaptation. And the summer is hot here.
As for the practice we have a youth center where we can stay all the time, whenever we want. I am also working there. I am organizing some of the youth events out there and do some other work too. Now this center is focused in HipHop only, and that is of course dope for me. So my work is what I like to do! And I get some money from Breaking shows and judging too. FT and Massa are working full time. Butch, Beard and D-roll are living from breaking and some other things they are doing.

What are you doing in your free time except dancing/practicing? What do you do when you just hang out with family and friends?

I think the same that everybody does! Chilling in the streets, parks & some other places, I read books, watch movies and lately I started to make music on my PC.

Are you interested in politics and what's going on in your country and the rest of the world or do you not care? In the media Russia is shown as a country where certain people decide things over the heads of the community. Do you experience this in your everyday life or do you think that the media transport a wrong image of your country? How do politics and rules influence your everyday life?

Of course I am interested in politics and what's going on! You can’t be outside of this system, but you can learn the way the system works and you do not have to become a kind of Zombie.
But one thing I can say: fuck the TV and fuck the media! Of course we have this russian system and a special mentality but it is different from what you see on european TV. For example, you can get the idea that everyday in Paris students are burning cars and all Americans are fat if you believe what the TV is telling you. But not all of it is true. Some things mway be right, but as always it is very increased.

Where you want to take your dancing to? Are you working on any thetra shows or performances or do you plan on doin something in that direction?

We do some shows, but it’s not so serious like theatre. Maybe we will do something like a big show soon. And we are planning to making our own DVD this year.

What is coming up for you personally and for the "AllThe Most" crew in 2008? What can people expect from you guys and where can people see you in teh near future?

Development and some new moves coming for sure. Then the DVD! As for upcomg events, I think we will be at HipOpsession, Warsaw Challenge, IBE, RSC 31 anniversary and many more.

Any last shout outs?

Yes, big shot outs to all the guys from my band, to my family, to my friends all around the world, to my masters, to my students and to everyone who is still doing what theywant to do, no matter what!
Peace!

Yan the shrimp
ALLTHEMOST