Spotlight on Yuichiro Mitsutomi President of GT Breakers speaks about his favorite form of artistic expression

Author: Lauren Smith and Jodie Zhang

The Middlebury Campus: How did you become interested in breakdancing?

Yuichiro Mitsutomi: I started breakdancing freshman fall after watching Morgan Alexander Jones (aka Mojo, who graduated last year) breakdancing at a party. I didn't have any prior experience with dance or gymnastics or anything, so I basically started dancing when I got to Middlebury.

The Campus: Tell us about the breakdancing club, The GT Breakers, at Middlebury.

Mitsutomi: In my opinion, GT is probably one of the most diverse and dramatic clubs on campus. It started out small, but the small community allows us to be more like a family. We're really close. We hang out together and there can be so much drama within the group. We love each other, we hate each other - there's always this dynamic struggle. But right now, GT is pretty much all about love.

The Campus: What is your role in the organization?

Mitsutomi: I started out last spring as the public relations officer for GT, and this spring I became president. One of the things I want to do for this crew is to create an atmosphere where people can develop their love for breaking and hip hop.

The Campus: What do you struggle with the most in terms of breakdancing?

Mitsutomi: I think some of the hardest things has to do with my personal limitations. There are times when you feel like your power and style seems stagnant, like you aren't getting anywhere. That's what I struggle with the most.

The Campus: Has breakdancing helped you in other aspects of your life?

Mitsutomi: Definitely. Breakdancing has given me confidence and an identity - things that go beyond borders. I grew up in a lot of different cultures, so I had trouble identifying with one specific nationality or ethnicity. But after finding breakdancing, I developed a sense of identity, because you don't have to be a specific nationality to break dance. It's global.

The Campus: What is special to you about breakdancing?

Mitsutomi: One thing about breakdancing is that it's essential to create your own style. You can learn moves from someone, but you can never take their style - that's a taboo. Also, there's a distinct vibe or style that each nationality holds. Like the Japanese style is different in the footwork, toprock and also in the movement and flow. There is more precision involved in the Japanese style than, say, the American East coast style, which has more bounce. East coast breaking reflects the streets more, it's more aggressive, less laid-back.

The Campus: What are your goals in breakdancing?

Mitsutomi: My definite goal is to develop a personal style that I can be confident in. I also want to become a power-styler, which means being comfortable with threading together style and power moves into one whole style set and making it look smooth. I want to be somebody who can represent the GT crew in and outside of Middlebury.

The Campus: Where have you performed at Middlebury and outside of school?

Mitsutomi: At Middlebury, we've performed in a variety of places, such as the McCullough stage, outside on the grass for Relay for Life, Proctor terrace and Mead Chapel. There's a whole list of places. Basically anywhere there's open space. Outside school, we've performed in talent shows at Mt. Abe High School in Vermont and at the subway stations and malls in Montreal. We've also had street shows in Burlington on Church St. and gone down to MIT to perform in their shows.

The Campus: Do you do other kinds of dancing? What about other forms of artistic expression?

Mitsutomi: Other kinds of dance? No, but I'd like to, so that I can incorporate them with my own personal style of breaking. I've been doing graffiti since middle school down in train stations in Japan, near the beach, basically wherever there's a surface. I also paint oil and acrylic. Surrealism is my main thing, big influences from surrealists like Dali.

The Campus: How often do you practice?

Mitsutomi: Every day, whenever I have time, from popping, locking in my room to practicing in CFA and McCullough, really just all the time.

The Campus: What's your favorite breakdancing move?

Mitsutomi: Right now, I love head spins. I'm still working on them, but I love them.

The Campus: Have you ever been in a "dance-off?"

Mitsutomi: Yes, I have, but to clarify, in breakdancing they're called "battles." I was basically dusted by the second-place breakdancing B-girl in Japan at the train station. She's part of the crew I'm in back in Japan, and it was sort of an initiation. It was a good experience, really motivating. It proved to me that breakdancing has no limits physically. It has nothing to do with being male, female or being a certain ethnicity - the kind of stuff that might be present in other forms of competition.

The Campus: Anything else you'd like people to know about breaking?

Mitsutomi: I think it's easy to be ignorant of the effort that guys and girls put into this form of expression everyday. Breakdancing is one of the most vibrant and aggressive forms of dancing there is. People get injured, and Middlebury has the responsibility to take notice of these things that are happening on campus. We go off to places like MIT, Tufts, Harvard and Montreal to make sure that Middlebury is represented in those various intercollegiate scenes.