A glimpse into the life of B-boy Christyles, the break-dancer

By The NewsDay | Apr. 24, 2021 | 4 Min read

BY KIMBERLY KARIATI BREAK-DANCING, an athletic style of street dance from the United States which has transcended the borders, has taken the local showbiz by storm with several talented dancers emerging on the local scene. Locally, Blessing “Bboy Christyles” Fire, who has a disability, has been one of the powerful forces behind this art. He […]

BY KIMBERLY KARIATI

BREAK-DANCING, an athletic style of street dance from the United States which has transcended the borders, has taken the local showbiz by storm with several talented dancers emerging on the local scene.

Locally, Blessing “Bboy Christyles” Fire, who has a disability, has been one of the powerful forces behind this art.

He has proved that disability is not inability, with many accomplishments, including coming out in the top three at South Africa’s Hip-Hop Indaba in Cape Town in 2016.

B-boy Christyles also had a play written based on his life story.

The play is called Broken Pavement and was showcased at the country’s premier art shows Shoko festival and the Harare International Festival of Arts in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Biography

My name is Blessing Fire popularly known as B-boy Christyles and I live in Glen View 4, Harare.

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I am a professional break-dancer, born in 1989 and the last born in a family of nine.

While I live with a disability I am just like everyone and dancing is my passion.

I have been involved in a number of local and international festivals and competitions.

Career

My career started years ago after being inspired by my brother, Francis, a gymnast and watching the movie You Got Served, an American dance drama released in 2004.

This ignited a fire in me to start break dancing. I started training with a couple of guys called the Inmates, who are pioneers of break dance and in 2007, we entered the Harare Hip Hop Night Jibilika Dance Competition which we won.

In 2010, I was part of the selected guys to represent Zimbabwe at the first ever Battle of the Year (BOTY).

I was later chosen with other guys to go and represent Zimbabwe again in Cape Town, South Africa.

Afterwards, I then attended a couple of events including the Battle Rival Skool in Paris, France, in 2019.

Interpretation of break-dance

From my view, break-dancing is quite complicated as it encompasses a lot that people do not understand.

I would say there are four elements — turn tabling, rapping, graffiti painting, also known as street art, and B-boying which is what we call breakdancing, and considered as its pillars.

Accomplishments

I was the creative director of Jibilika dance festival from 2016 to 2019 and as one of the pioneers of break-dancing in Zimbabwe, I managed to create my own break-dance company called Break Nation Movement.

I also got a dance licence from South Africa Global Dance Supreme.

I am also trying to explore the global world by connecting with other dancers in countries like Botswana and Zambia through workshops.

I was also a guest at Battle Rival Skool in France, Paris, in 2016 and a delegate at Unlimited Festival in the United Kingdom in 2018.

Awards

I won the Best Male Dancer gong at Reps Theatre in Harare in 2010. I have also won at competitions like Zimbabwe Dance, coming first in 2012, St Rickly B-boy, where I came first in South Africa (2013).

At the Africa Hip Hop Indaba, I came first again with a dance crew in 2016.

In 2017 at DreamStar Zimbabwe, I came second and at AfroJoy Dance competition in 2019, I came first.

Challenges

At the beginning of my career, I struggled, but now I have become stronger through determination and courage.

The hustle was just too much travelling with my wheelchair back then.

From 2010, I trained myself to walk by going to and from the training hall until I became stronger to do without the wheelchair in 2019.

I am now stronger than ever as I can dance and do everything on my own.

As the Inmates in the early years of our career, there are people who deceived us to perform and later refused to pay after the performance.

By then, we did not understand how these things work and after putting our blood and sweat, some took advantage of the passion.

They would milk money out of us and got all the credit for our work.

Vision

There is a need to take Zimbabwe break-dance to the next level and I would like to teach break-dancing so that Zimbabwe can take part in dance Olympics.

I also want Break Nation to be a studio that will go into different communities teaching dance so that we can equip many with this talent.

I need to make sure that dancers are respected by creating an organisation that will protect the interests of upcoming dancers.

In our generation we did not know these things, but things will be done differently in this age.