You recently graduated from high school! How did you balance your breaking career with your highschool life? What are your future plans now that you graduated?

I just graduated like last spring. I just graduated from high school and now I'm living with breaking like a professional dancer. So, you know, my school life was finished with high school. In the high school I was going, it was special. It was only for athletes and artists who were doing something special.

So in high school, if I was absent - like if I had some competition or a shoot or something like that, I just wrote down details and sign. And also I talked to the teachers and it was, you know, 100% okay to be absent so far. But even though I could be absent, I have to still get good points on the exams. So I was studying hard and I was trying to keep the top of the ranking in school.

So in Japan, we have like a zero to hundred for each exams and I was like keeping around ninety five to a hundred every time. Like even when I was so tired and I wanted to sleep on a plane, I had to do my homework, you know, that was student life.

And also, you know, so many people who were doing like breaking, like Phil Wizard and Lussy, told me like, “wow you're like doing really well - because it's not easy to make balance between studying and breaking.” Also I was keeping the top of ranking, so they were surprised, haha. And also in Japan - well, not only in Japan - but the schedule is really hard. I didn't have much time to sleep till I graduated, so every day, I could just have four hours for sleeping. Because my practice was at night from like 9pm to 12:00. And after that, you know, like I said, it takes like one hour to go back to my house, then I’d shower, sleep at 2am, and wake up at 6am. Then at 7:00, I’d leave home to go to school and after that I’d come back to the house but only have one to two hours before going back to practice. So when I was traveling I was like, “yes, I have time to sleep!”

You have a girlfriend in high school?

In high school I had a girlfriend. So I had to make balance not only with studying, but also my girlfriend. Girlfriend, breaking, studying, it was super tough. I didn't have much time, you know hahaha.

You also do a lot of artwork outside of breaking. Who are your influences/inspiration for your artwork?

Actually, I have done artwork even longer than my breaking. I actually don't remember when I started because it’s for as long as I can remember, like since I was a baby, maybe like around kindergarten. And my inspiration for my work is the art around me, like museums and stuff. Or even some things that were not famous, you know, like on the street or at competitions. And I was looking at art for like a couple hours per day. Ever since I was little, I would often go to some places where I can see some artworks or I can get some inspiration for artwork. And when I'm drawing I feel like I'm following my feelings, so maybe my life is my inspiration.

Let’s talk about your training. What is a regular week for you like? What kind of training do you do and do you have any specific diet?

Now that I’m a professional dancer, I'm focusing on practicing. Of course sometimes I am shooting or performing at an event, but most of my time I use for practicing. I basically do three hours or sometimes five hours, like today. Other days, I’m using that time to prepare for next days practice.

That's the one thing I realized is the difference between professionals and amateurs. For amateurs, they have like two modes, a student mode and dancer mode, or like a working mode and a dancing mode. But for me, dancing is what I have to do, what I should do, what I love to do for twenty four hours. So all the time, I'm thinking about breaking and I'm trying to use my time to prepare for practicing or kind of these things.

About my diet, I love eating. So I really want to eat everything, what I want, you know, as much as I want, but I am taking care of my body for competitions. So especially before a competition, I make a plan to make my body perfect. So basically, like, from a couple of months before or like, you know, at least one month before a competition, I start dieting and try to lose my fat. I don’t have much fat but I try to lose my fat. I can’t see but I try to do this because it’s still there, you know? I try to lose my weight - like this year, I was 62kg after quarantine. Maybe I ate too much during quarantine, haha. My weight was 62 kg, but when I was in Red Bull BC One, I was around 57kg. So I lost like 5kg. It's just five kilograms. But you know, I didn’t have much fat, so five kgs is a lot. I basically tried to lose my weight doing this diet from at least one month before. And one week before the competition, I try not to eat too much carbs, but many proteins.

I use my body for practicing, so proteins are pretty necessary. And also I really want to get carbs for energy at the practice, but I try to stay away from eating too much of it. A few days before the competitions, I start to do carbo loading and eat carbs like at least 70 percent of each meal.

Yeah I'm, I'm used to doing that from one week before. One week before the competition in Japan and Red Bull BC One, I did the same thing - and my body condition was perfect.

So do you only do this for major competitions or for like all competitions?

I can say, like... of course for major competitions, but, you know, I only started carbo loading this year and unfortunately this year there are only a few competitions. So I did every time this year, but I don't know how it’s going to be like 2021, I might die if I do this every week for a year hahaha.

You are a well rounded dancer and combine musicality with dynamics very well. Is there a method you use to train these together?

You know, when I started, I was thinking about musicality a lot. I was like around 10 ten years ago. People who are from other genres of dance sometimes said things like “bboys and bgirls can't listen to music or kind of like that.” And when I heard that, I felt like “no, I can listen - maybe this is what I have to prove to the world, that bboys can listen to the music.” I decided to keep a high level of technique, but I was thinking about musicality all the time. Like even if I tried something, really risky or really hard, I always try to think about music, because I want to prove that bboys and bgirls can listen to music, you know? So since I started, yeah, I’ve focused on musicality.

Also I think one reason is that I have been practicing outside, like on the street, and you know, all people can come for free. So every day, someone different would bring their speakers, and every day the music I listen to at the practice place would change, because it depends on the person and the kind of music they like to play. So I was kind of on a mission - every day I tried to catch the beat, and I tried to dance with the beat even if it's hard. It was training for me. I didn't think like that at first, but now I realize that experience helped to build my style, like my musicality. And now, even though I’m practicing inside, I try to use many random types of music.

You probably have visited many countries for competitions. Is there any place you really like?

That’s a really hard question to answer, because most of the countries I have been to are my favorites, but I love Italy and Mexico. In Italy, you know, when I went there, like, there were so many kids, in the younger generations, and they have so much energy for everything. Not only about breaking, either. When I went there, the kids were like “yeah!!!!”

You know, I did kinda like a training camp with them. I did like two, three workshops per day, like every day, for one week. And also I had a competition that I could win. So, you know, that was a perfect memory for me.

They used to text me like, “I want you to come back here.” I like that they support me, I really loved it. For Mexico, I love Mexican food. And that's one of the reason why I love Mexico. I also love the atmosphere of the country. They always like to have music like reggaeton playing, and even if they are not dancers, the people still like to dance with the music.

So I love the culture because it's kind of the opposite in Japan. You know, I love, of course, Japanese culture, Asian culture. There are so many good parts. But through traveling around the world, I noticed more about the good things and negative things about Japan. So I can say that in every country, I’ll think like “this country does this great thing they we don’t do in Japan.” But there are some things they don’t have, but we have in Japan.

Yeah. So I felt something special in Mexico, and it was really a good time.

What is your goal for breaking? What about outside of dance?

I want to make breaking history. I won the Red Bull Bc One World final at the youngest age, so that's kind of, part of history in breaking. So I want to make this kind of history as much as I can. And I want to be kind of like, you know, someone that people talk about forever.

Of course, like for the Red Bull BC One, I’ll try to win two times in a row. If I can, I will try to win three times, four times, five times. And also you know in 2024 we have the Olympics in Paris, so I'm working hard to take a gold medal. So I want to make history in breaking, and I want people to say like “that dancer Shigekix is dope.” Of course, I'm happy to hear people say, that I have good moves, but I’m happier if I can hear, like, people say that Shigekix is cool as a human being.
I want to be respected as a dancer, not just from my moves.

That's, you know, like one of my dreams. I always talk about this in Japan… I don’t know how to say it in English, but, you know, for example, if I have some big competition, that's which I'm working hard for. Like, people say it’s a dream to become a Red Bull BC One champion, but I don’t want to say that it’s my dream, you know? Because I want my dream to be something I know that can’t be achieved. If all your dreams come true, there’s nothing left. So I always try to say that winning BC One is not a dream, it’s just a target. The dream is to be respected as a dancer, there’s no point where I can say “oh, okay, now I’m a really respected bboy around the world,” you know?

Like I can’t see when it happens. I might already be respected or not, I don't know. But, that’s it, you never know. So that's my dream - winning big competitions is not my dream, it’s a target.

You are young but have a lot of experiences. What advice do you have for people who chasing their dreams?

Yeah I have had sad experiences and regular experiences. I’ve had a lot more than people expect. You know, some people always see my wins or my achievements, but don't know how about my hard experiences or kind of like that. Of course I have had many difficult experiences like the same as everyone else.

But I will say, just believe in yourself and work hard for yourself, you know. Of course it's amazing to work hard for someone else, but if you can't work hard for yourself, then you’ll never be able to work hard for somebody else. Some people might judge you or say something only about your results. Not all people are like that of course - many people are supportive even when I’m in tough situations. But some people will say anything and everything, so don’t think about how they talk about you, just believe in yourself and work hard for yourself. I think that will, you know, make someone happy for sure. For example, I worked hard to be a champion of Red Bull BC One for myself. But after I won the battle, I got messages from a lot of people around the world saying things like, “Your dancing at BC One gave me a lot of energy!”, and I was so, so happy to hear that. Even if it's for myself, sometimes it makes other people happy. You never know how it's going to be, so at first just be yourself and to work hard for yourself.

Follow Shigekix on Instagram @bboyshigekix