Breaking
It was all out war at the 2019 Red Bull BC One Last Chance Cypher battle in Mumbai, India. The excited crowd that filled the Famous Studios were treated to lots of epic battles and memorable moments.
29 B-Boys competed in the Red Bull BC One Last Chance Cypher and 28 B-Girls battled for the final four spots in the Red Bull BC One B-Girl World Final. The audience at the Famous Studios welcomed all dancers to the floor, cheering and hyping them up from the start.
The preselection round brought the 29 national winning B-Boys down to the Top 16, who battled down to the last two.
For the B-Girls, 23 country winners did a prelim down to 11. They joined the invited five for a Top 16 bracket and battled it out until the final four. Below are our six winners who will compete on the big stage on Saturday...
Nori from Japan
The first of the two B-Boys to qualify was four-time veteran of the BC One World Finals, Japanese B-Boy Nori from Take Notice and Floorriorz crew. Relaxed and having fun the whole competition, Nori's experience showed. And after 18 years of breaking, and four BC One World finals, he still wants to be one of the best B-Boys around. He says that his motivation has changed a little, "I want to show a level of breaking to the B-Boys in Japan who have kind of quit breaking or who are not trying to get to BC One, so I challenged myself to show the next generation how to push to make it to the Red Bull BC One Stage."
Killa Kolya from Kazakhstan
Killa Kolya is another veteran of the Red Bull BC One World Finals. A member of Simple System and Dynamic Rockers crew, he competed on the world final stage in Italy, back in 2015, and since then has battled in three Last Chance Cyphers. Beating B-Boy Jackson, Moa and Thie Fox with his super intricate and technical style of breaking, the Kazakhstan B-Boy will once again get to represent his country on the World Finals stage. It's something which he knows the importance of for his home scene, saying that, "I try to be the best not only just for me. I know I have my time and if I can do my best with it I know it will help all the generations of Kazakhstan breakers to come."
Ami from Japan
The defending 2018 Red Bull BC One B-Girl Champion, B-Girl Ami, once again advanced to the semi-finals. She has set herself up to possibly become one of only three breakers who have won the BC One World Finals twice, and also to possibly become the only breaker to win the World Finals two years in a row. Cool and calm like in every battle she's ever had, her focus to simply enjoy the stage and express herself hasn't changed. And even though she will be battling against her fellow Japanese B-Girl, Ayumi, next, she said, "I don't really care about who I'm going to battle I just want to do my best. I don't want to focus on the fact that I'm going to be battling against Ayumi and maybe get nervous, I just want to focus on what I'm going to do on that stage.'
Ayumi from Japan
Returning to the semi-finals for the second year in a row, B-Boy Ayumi put on a technical display of breaking mastery all night. She took back the loss she suffered against French B-Girl, San Andrea, last year, by beating her in the quarter-finals to make it to the main stage on Saturday.
Just as focused as Ami, Ayumi said, "my goal was to pass today, and now the next goal is to perform and dance well on the main stage. I'm not thinking about winning or losing, I just want to show people good dancing and good breaking."
Kastet from Russia
The third B-Girl into the semi-finals is the two-time Russian B-Girl BC One cypher winner Kastet, from 3:16 crew. While her husband, and fellow crew member, B-Boy Jerry Metal, sat right behind her in support every battle, Kastet used her funky, musical style to beat B-Girl Logistx and Yell. Kastet said, "I love to battle against different styles as it's like different schools of breaking going against each other, and I love to show and feel that I am different."
Having lost in the first round last year Kastet said that since then, "I've breaking more seriously and trying to evolve my power and my mental approach to battles, as well as working on all my weaknesses, and I felt a very big difference between this and last year."
MiMz from Japan
B-Girls MiMz, from Japan, was the most unknown B-Girl of this year's five invites, saying, "I was sure that a lot of people don't really know about me so I wanted to just show off my look and my dancing." Which she did in a big way, coming out looking super stylish but raw at the same time, dressed in a baggy hoody, with the hood up, and baggy jeans, but also sporting perfectly painted, long nails, and half a dozen silver rings on her fingers. Ready to show everyone who she was, MiMz answered any questions or doubts about her spot as one of the invited B-Girls by beating Sarah Bee and B-Girl Jilou with a unique expression of herself, which she says comes from her years of dancing in a lot of different styles, and also from the fact that she is heavily into fashion and always keen to look fresh.
I don't want to be the same as others, I've loved being different since I was born, and I want to be one of a kind on the whole planet.
And when it came to what she wants to do with her first time stepping on the World Finals stage she still kept it stylish and raw, saying, "I want to just focus on being myself, and on killing the girl in front of me with my gun, knives and nail ripping burns."
With these six dancers, the line up for the 2019 Red Bull BC One World Finals is complete. And these are the battle pairs:
In case you missed it or want to relive all the action, watch the replays of the Last Chance Cypher and the B-Girl Battle below and make sure to tune in for the live stream of the Red Bull BC One World Final on November 9.
