Breakdancing His Way to a Better Life
By Duncan Thorne
The Edmonton Journal
March 4, 2004
Breakdancer Matt Wood, 20, is one of 300 students selected from around the world to attend Oxfam’s International Youth Parliament in Sydney, Australia, this summer.
CREDIT: Brian Gavriloff, The Journal
EDMONTON - Without hip hop and breakdancing, Matt Wood figures he’d be dealing drugs or be in jail.
Instead, he’s heading to Australia this summer, along with 300 young people from around the world, as a delegate to Oxfam’s International Youth Parliament.
Wood has found a positive force in music and dancing, also known as “B-boying.” The 20-year-old, who grew up in a series of foster homes, says it has taught him how to develop a skill and hone it.
“I have been able to make myself a better person,” he said on Wednesday at the Boyle Street Education Centre, where he’s a dance and music student.
“I want to show people the positive side of hip hop.”
The music is not about the money, drugs and sex featured in commercial recordings and videos, Wood said. It’s about rising to the challenge of constantly getting better.
“It’s like trying to get a higher grade.”
Wood was among 2,000 who applied to the youth parliament, which takes place in Sydney in July and covers the delegates’ air and hotel costs. Oxfam describes the parliament as a worldwide network of young activists and leaders.
Wood wants to change society by working with others who, like him, come from dysfunctional and low-income families. In his case, his mother was on the streets.
“I grew up with my mom, but she had a drinking problem,” he said. “I pretty much raised myself. I can relate to kids who are in difficult situations.”
He wants to become a social worker, using hip hop as a way to encourage street kids not to give up.
Wood’s stage name is Kreazn, which he pronounces Cree-Asian after his aboriginal and Vietnamese parents. He’s part of an aboriginal dance group, Red Power Squad, that tours North America. The dance group travels frequently. It returned this week from an event in Vancouver and is in Fort McMurray today to perform at the Arctic Winter Games.
The group has performed at the Aboriginal Music Awards in Toronto and the opening of the 2001 World Championships in Athletics in Edmonton. It’s expected to be in Florida later this month.
Wood said he combines workshops with some of the shows, talking about hip hop and street life.
Cliff Whitford, the education centre counsellor who encouraged Wood to apply for the youth parliament, called him “an incredible young man who has a great future in front of him.”
Wood leads other students at the education centre in B-boying, with the help of fellow student Angela Gladue. He said music teacher Brett Lashua has taken him in new directions by showing him how to use computers to mix music for dance routines.
© The Edmonton Journal 2004
