"HOMELAND" ... the early 2000s

There was a time when you heard about Homeland by word of mouth. Before Myspace. Before Facebook. Before dance went digital online. The early 2000s was a beautiful, nascent wrinkle in time. If you were new to the scene, you'd ask folks in the general public where you could learn poppin', bboyin', or lockin'. Most would say that those dances were "played out" years ago. "Come on, man, that was in the '80s!" You really had to hunt down sources to train in these styles. Classes weren't readily available in local dance studios either. Remember, this was also way before the explosion of hip hop dance in the mainstream media. It was before You Got Served hit theaters in 2003. So for the newcomer, stepping into the underground hip hop dance scene was daunting and bewildering. Where do you start? Where do you go to learn? The answer, more often than not, was Homeland.

Visitors who went to Homeland those days remember the small library that was in the same community center. Across the street, the new Mark Twain Public Library hadn't been built yet. The hot summer nights in neighboring MacArthur Park were known more for their gang-infested quarters instead of late-night soccer games. Most local kids didn't want to walk home late at night, knowing that Homeland was situated at the border of three different gang zones. Surrounded by mostly a Cambodian and Latino community, it was a rough neighborhood that had seen its fair share of shady activities. Long Beach police squad cars were frequently seen at every other intersection along Anaheim Street.

Out of this boiling pot, Homeland was born. It was first a bboy session spot under the supervision of Mike "Iceman" Rivera. Supported by public funding via the City of Long Beach, Homeland's many dance and cultural arts programs launched at a time when a place was needed for young kids to express themselves. Street styles like poppin' and lockin' had gone way underground in LA through the 1990s. It wasn't "cool" to dance anymore for most kids living in mainstream culture.

But around the late '90s to 2000-2001, a new generation of dancers was coming up in southern California. Some moved from the rave scene into poppin'. Others were drawn to the culture through tidbits of information shared through online forums like Mr. Wiggles' website. There was a small contingent of young dancers, roughly in the age range of 19-23, who were exploring styles like tutting, robot, animation, waving, and boogaloo. The Electric Boogaloos were regarded as the most visible group of OGs who were teaching in actual classes. It was only a matter of time before a session spot was needed for poppers and lockers.

That's how the Monday night sessions at Homeland were conceived. Iceman is credited with helping start the Monday night poppin' and lockin' sessions with the early support of dancers like Waveomatic, Tetris, and Pandora. Tuesday nights became bboy night. But Mondays were for the growing poppin' and lockin' community in greater LA. Many of these dancers were still too young to get into 21+ clubs, so Homeland represented a prime spot where they could get down.

Those days at Homeland were like nothing else because it felt like this was a secret world that no one else knew about. The general public didn't care about dancing or the underground culture because it hadn't exploded into the media yet. Outsiders couldn't copy your style because there was no Youtube. In fact, it almost seemed inappropriate to film any video of dancers at Homeland. The technology wasn't there yet in cellphones and digital cameras to take quick videos. So in this uninterrupted environment, what was brewing at Homeland in those years was a quiet storm that would bring a future renaissance.

For poppers, the major competitive crews in the local scene were Animated Beat Mechanics (ABM) and Motion Sickness (from San Diego). From ABM; Jrock, Popula, Bishop Don, Pringlz, PopNTod, Pandora, and Funktion had captured people's attention through their We Got Next DVD. Their members were spread out over the U.S. Motion Sickness was deep with Junior Boogaloo, Legend, Tempo, the Flash, Popzilla, French Twist and others. Funk Technicians was another crew that had strong dancers like Tetris, Animatroniks, Konfusion, Madd Chadd, with others under the influence of OGs like Tabo. This was a time before Machine Gun Funk (MGF) and Funny Bones Crew (FBC) dominated the local competitive scene.

So at Homeland, you would see many of these dancers practicing, growing, training, and taking creative risks. It was a time when boogaloo was the dominant style among poppers, influenced by the Electric Boogaloos teaching. Skeeter Rabbit and Suga Pop taught in LA while Poppin' Pete and Mr. Wiggles focused on Las Vegas with occasional visits to LA. Every Monday night, young dancers were working on their twist-o-flexes, leg rolls, Roman twists, and fresnos. Meanwhile, a smaller contingent of dancers were finding their voices in the more illusionary styles especially with tutting, waving, and botting (the term we used for robot).

None of us probably knew how this would turn out. We were just pursuing our passion and finding our creative souls in the dance. Some of us had aspirations to dance professionally. Others simply wanted to enjoy it as a private pursuit. The quiet storm that was brewing at Homeland would echo in the years to come.