Dope.
March 2, 2011 4:15 PM   Subscribe

 
He's no B-Girl Precious Moments (and by that, I mean he's not just some cute kid).
posted by filthy light thief at 4:22 PM on March 2, 2011


HOLY CRAP!

I get easily tired by the whole "look at this adorable kid being precocious" videos, but HOLY CRAP that kid is the most awesome kid I've ever seen on YouTube, the internet, or in real life. And because I am childless and not particularly great with children (I can only ever talk to them like they're short adults), you can be assured that I am more objective about real child talent than the average.

That Taiwanese kid singing just like Whitney Houston was pretty impressive, too, but HOLY CRAP that So You Think You Can Dance video sealed it for me. HOLY CRAP!
posted by anniecat at 4:56 PM on March 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


I guess Josh Lee is called "Milky" because he's white? If so, do they have another white bboy they call "Snowman"?
posted by anniecat at 4:58 PM on March 2, 2011


I love the second battle in the "Bboy City, Hawaii" link. This Milky fellow is really quite good, but he's just plain getting owned by this eight year old kid and he just plain runs out of tricks. He pulls out his most impressive spin and the kid shrugs, does it, and adds to it. What do you do when you're outclassed by a child? What can you do?

The thing that blows me away is that not only is he technically brilliant and seems to be lightning quick with him improvisation, but he has style and graciousness, which is something that a lot of technically great breakdancers never achieve and something that almost all "child prodigies" of the arts lack.
posted by cmoj at 5:31 PM on March 2, 2011


This highlight reel is pretty great, too.

Teach that kid some martial arts and he could be a movie star. The athleticism is incredible. Is that going to be bad for his knees, etc, though, to be doing that kind of stuff that young?
posted by empath at 5:42 PM on March 2, 2011


What I like about this kid is that he gets that dancing is communication and that moves signify things -- he's not just mimicking.
posted by empath at 5:47 PM on March 2, 2011


This Milky fellow is really quite good, but he's just plain getting owned by this eight year old kid and he just plain runs out of tricks.

I disagree, he definitely holds his own. The 8 year-old has a huge advantage in that he can afford to be a lot more sloppy and not have to worry about accidentally taking some spectator's head off. Milky is a giant compared to him, and the floor space is a lot more confining for those awesome spins. The moves look better with longer legs. That, and Milky has a much cleaner flow than the kid, who doesn't pay attention to/feel the music nearly as much. He's frenetic, all over the place. There are a couple of floor moves he does that look original, but they lose their shine when you see them over and over.

That said, HOLY CRAP. That kid is fucking amazing. There's one move where Milky does a handstand-spin on two arms and the kid answers by doing it on one. The advantages of an extremely low body weight and proportionally incredible upper body strength.

He's like an ant.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:00 PM on March 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Yes, Holy Crap indeed. It does remind me, however, of "women's" Olympic figure skating where being pixie sized is an absolute must. I wonder if his dopeness will survive puberty.
posted by TheShadowKnows at 6:33 PM on March 2, 2011


Life affirming.
posted by zoinks at 6:58 PM on March 2, 2011


Does gravity mean nothing to you people?
posted by SPrintF at 8:39 PM on March 2, 2011


Yeah that kid is freakin' unbelievable.

I first heard about him from a Wired article. It had some interesting insights into how dancers are able to learn, reinvent, remix and show off new moves in almost real time exactly because they can share them as video, and then other dancers will respond within days.

Or perhaps it means kids can learn ridiculously hard things when they're five they never would've been exposed to otherwise.
posted by wilburthefrog at 9:15 PM on March 2, 2011


Whoops. This should be the Wired link.
posted by wilburthefrog at 10:11 PM on March 2, 2011


I agree with all of that, Civil_Disobedient, more so about the first battle on that video. In that one they seem to know each other well and trade moves, leave openings for the other to top them to please the crowd, etc.

It just seems to me that Milky is getting frustrated in the second one (which it seems to me I saw quite a while ago. Is it older?) for the reasons you're talking about. I mean, yeah he's quite good and much more mature, but the kid can do things that Milky physically can't and, like you say, the kid doesn't have to be nearly as clean about it when he's double reversing spins and crazy shit. So, Milky starts to push his limits, getting sloppier, having to do more footwork (and trying to compensate with fancier footwork, which, sorry, the crows doesn't care about) to prepare for his bigger moves, but it just doesn't matter to the spectators when that eight-year old can just walk out, pop a backflip and fall into some windmills.

"Like an ant" is exactly the way to describe him.
posted by cmoj at 11:18 AM on March 3, 2011


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