Change of Direction

Here are some basics behind the idea:

» Hip Hop is a participating artform

» the attending crowd should be integrated in an interactive and participating way into the BOTY events (eg. through b-boy circles, discussions, added club events, etc)
 
» for the future the participating b-boy crews and the attending crowd should be focussed more on the interactive component of the event than the competitive part
 
» B-Boying is considered to be a dance and not an "extreme sport"
 
» the BOTY wants to take more responsibility for the skills & future of the b-boys/girls, showing them more/new opportunities, eg. proffessional performances in the fields of theater and contemporary dance
 

 After having decided that the "Battle of the Year" will continue it also has been decided that something has to be changed in general as it already was predicted in the year 2000.

The new "Battle of the Year" format get´s a subline which will appear as a baseline to the existing logo. The subline is: "A Change Of Direction"

The public clearly shall understand that the BOTY from now on will be taken into domains that is has not dealt with before. The importance of evolution beyond the confines of the competition will be underlined, reaching out of hip hop community towards the cultural and professional world of dance in general.

The BOTY wishes to give all participants and winners a real chance for a future in dance, which has been impossible until today, due to the fact that the BOTY is not recognised officially by dance companies and institutions outside of hip hop community. They will not make the effort to come to us, so we have to "de-ghettoise" ourselves and reach out to make them understand how far our culture has come, and its importance to the youth worldwide as a real means of expressions, communication, and of fun and entertainment.

In the years 2001 and 2002 the BOTY included major conferences on many aspects of dancing within or without our hip hop culture, which means of course having to make parallels with the other disciplines of hip hop.

In the year 2002 there also was a conference at the german national finals and our aim for the future is to expand the conferences on our international eliminations. More than 600 people attended and participated in our conferences. Internationally known speakers like Storm, Mode 2, Break-DJ-Leacy, Wicket, Crazy, Toni L and many more were integrated.

In the year 2003 again there were different activities including warm up parties, after show parties, room for discussions and international exchange and of course the BOTY 2003 "a change of direction ..." conference. One of the main topics was the introduction of the new judging system, background and reasons for it.

The public and the readers shall feel free to give personal input about changing or adding new/other topics and thoughts by making use of the "a change of direction" - forum on this website.

Dirk Corell, Thomas Hergenröther, Mode 2, Niels "Storm" Robitzky