Bgirl Anne Nguyen aka A-Ko/cie par Terre/Graff It!

I'd like to meet:

Music:

A-Ko, like the echo... I have always been looking for a name that would define me to myself and others. One of my boyz from my original crew RedMask (Montreal) gave me that name, refering to gunshot echo in Jamaica. Whenever there has been gunshot in a neighborhood, word is spread that "there was echo". My boy said that I should take the name, because whenever I danced somewhere, word spread just the same. ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------- His name is ThunderBlast, and he's one of my strongest inspirations. His name is also related to sound, and I like to think that I am somehow an echo of his powerful thunder. In RedMask, B-boy names have strong meanings... RockIt rocks the beat, swift, powerful and light as a rocket. Dingo plays with the beat, he will kill you without pain, making it feel like a joke. OktoFoot..s multiple legs will hypnotize you as he swims through the air with animal grace. These guys are my heroes. They taught me so much by just being there and being themselves. I joined RedMask in 2001, when I..d only been dancing for a year: Back then my dance was too immature for me to find a proper name. With now almost seven years to look back upon, I chose to be A-Ko because fist of all, I represent for them. When you hear from me, it is also their voice that you will hear. ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- So this is where my name comes from. From Quebec, the western part of the world where freedom of expression is at its highest. From Haiti and Jamaica, because my boyz are Haitian and their roots reach down deep into the culture of the West Indies. And as hip-hop culture itself is closely related to Jamaica, it all comes down to it. ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Somehow, the idea of being the echo feels right. Just thinking about its deep meaning helps me find the right path. First, it reminds me to stay humble. Because wherever I might be, I have to remember that all I know is just part of a heritage. Hip-Hop was born before me, my generation is one of the echoes of the generation that created it. And if you think on it, even they are the echo of many other generations and cultures. ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------Now , why am I dancing today? Clearly, because of the music. I never watched much TV, and I come from an environment where Hip Hop did not exist. I became aware of it by listening to the radio, back in the mid-90s. I quickly became a rap addict : I would put my alarm-clock at 2 o'clock in the morning and listen to radio shows... Even though back then, I did not understand the lyrics very well, I realize I have always been drawn towards conscious lyrics. It seems even the instrumentals for that type of music had a special feeling to them. So I listened more and more carefully and learned from KRS-1, the Teacher, and from MCs like Rakim, Poor Righteous Teachers, Jeru the Damaja, Wu-Tang, Gangstarr, Nas, who are more or less into Five Percenter philosophy. Blackmoon, the Bootcamp. My own vision of things started to change, I made my own mental way into the world of hip-hop philosophy. Back then, I was studying physics and was destined to end up as a sort of researcher or engineer. But this echo that I was hearing through the radio told me that I could be something else, outside of the matrix that I was born into. So the first thing that I grabbed from hip-hop is the philosophy, through rap music. ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- At one point it became unbearable not to be involved physically in the hip-hop community, whatever and wherever it might be, for I had no access to it. The music was what moved me, so I had to move by it. I started my search for B-boys, and it was a hard one, that ended up in Canada, in Montreal... Once I started dancing, the other aspects of my life started fading more and more into the background... Now here I am, I'm dancing everyday, representing for RedMask and now Def Dogz. I also created my own dance company "par Terre", with my solo "Square Root" and a Locking piece, "Keep it Funky! live". And all of it is because I listened to the echo... ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- I think being the echo could be a perfect definition for dancing. Music comes first, you make it physical. A-Ko is echo, translated into hip-hop slang. Because it is not any kind of dance that would have felt right, only B-boying. Why do we cry for consciousness in our music, why do we use such challenging movements and energies in our dance, if not because what we experience in our everyday lives feels like a stuggle to fight something. It's like a game of war against cold buildings closing up around you. We try to build up the energy and ammunition to fight those walls. We cry at them and kick at them, and from the interaction, echo is created. When I enter a circle, I am not trying to decorate the space. I'm here to put all that I've got, soul and body, into one short moment. Like a Knock-Out. A-Ko is my definition of what I do, reflecting where I stand. ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------- It took me a long time to figure out who I truly was as an individual, and to find a name that would sound like the key to my song. I started B-boying when I was 21. I am choosing a name now at 28. But then, A-Ko also reflects my character : when I play chess, I like to play black. Watch what happens when you're not trying to influence things, go with the flow, then when you've seen enough, cry out with all your heart, and let it echo until the end of the game... ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- A-Ko stands short for Gunshot A-Ko. I cut my name just like some Rastafari would cut their dreadlocks so as to be able to infiltrate Babylon. Wear black, leave no evidence. After all, what matters is not who drops under the bullet, but what comes after... ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------- A-Ko

Movies:

"Fight Club", "Bamboozled"-Spike Lee, "Alice au Pays des Merveilles", "Le Voyage de Shihiro", "Bowling for Columbine"-M.Moore, "Being John Malkovich", "The Truman Show", David Lynch

Television:

Dieudonné!, Les Robins des Bois (à l'ancienne)

Books:

FICTION "1984"-G.Orwell, "We"-E.Zamiatine, "Guerre et Paix"-L.Tolstoï, "Les Frères Karamazov", "Les Possédés"-F.Dostoïevski, "Ishmael"-D.Quinn, "Martian Chronicles"-R.Bradbury, "Brave New World"-A.Huxley, "Plume"-H.Michaux, "Le Château"-F.Kafka, B.Vian... ............................................................ .......................................................... KNOWLEDGE "Wu-Tang Manual"-The RZA, "Yoga and Ayurveda"-D.Frawley ............................................................ .......................................................... COMICS Calvin & Hobbes "1/4 de seconde pour vivre"-L.Trondheim Snoopy & The Peanuts

Heroes:

N.A.S. meaning Niggaz Against Society ............................................................ .......................................................... ............................................................ .......................................................... KRS-1 aka the Teacher ............................................................ .......................................................... ............................................................ .......................................................... Buckshot and the Bootcamp Click aka the Underground Kings ............................................................ .......................................................... ............................................................ .......................................................... RZA and the Wu-Tang aka the Invading Army ............................................................ .......................................................... ............................................................ .......................................................... Big L (RIP) ............................................................ ..........................................................