“You see these diverse ranges of backgrounds, dance styles, ways of interpreting the same dance based off their own experiences and their own cultures,” Tiojanco says. “You see so many different ways of movement to music.”

The event will feature Ukraine-born, Canada-based DJ Rita Spirit. There will also be music between active competitions. The event will also involve open circles where people can ‘cypher’ or join into the dance circle, one at a time – building on the energy of each other and the music.

From shadow to spotlight

“Even if you just started the day before and want to try your hand at the competition, ‘great!’” Tiojanco says. “You’re allowed to come in and do your round.”

Tiojanco sees Vancouver as an important location for street dance. It has hosted international dance competitions, and Vancouver-based dancers are also well-known internationally. Dancers often bring their cultural influences into their performances.

“What you really see as an outsider is a community coming together, having fun, maybe there’s a little bit of a friendly competition, sometimes it gets really serious and heated,” says Tiojanco. “But it’s all in good spirits.”

He started breakdancing in 2003 after a friend invited him to a breakdancing class at Harbour Dance Centre. A grade 10 student at the time, he saw himself as a “C student” who was “not super athletic.”

“A lot of dancers are BIPOC; they are people of colour, people from marginalized communities,” he adds. “They bring pieces of themselves to the dance.”

Through breakdancing, he found a new sense of identity and purpose, setting him apart from his peers.

“I went a couple times with him and instantly fell in love with the movement and the music,” Tiojanco says. “When I got introduced to the dance, it was something I never really experienced before.”

“The movements were so different, invigorating, fun and challenging to learn,” he recalls. “When I brought it back to school, I was the only person who knew how to do it.”

Since then, Tiojanco has been dancing competitively across Canada and the U.S. He has been organizing street dance events since 2007.

Play Your Cards Right was first held on Tiojanco’s birthday in 2009. He adds that other street dance competitions focused on a “tournament style.” In contrast, Tiojanco designed his event in a way that “changed the dynamic of how people saw battles.”

“We invited the best dancers that we knew in the city and put them in a big pool and created two teams out of them,” he says. “You’d be competing with somebody you maybe wouldn’t have danced with in the past, or you’ll be competing against your own teammate or your own friend.”

Finding unique styles

Tiojanco remembers that for a few years, he and his friends were the only ones hosting breakdancing events in the Lower Mainland. He now sees a resurgence of this dance culture.

“With street dance, there’s different disciplines and styles: there’s breakdancing, b-boying or b-girling, [and] hip-hop is its own style,” Tiojanco explains. “[There’s also] whacking, popping, locking, [and] house dance.”

Hip-hop began in New York and funk styles such as popping and locking started on the west coast. Tiojanco adds that street dance’s history is rooted to “Black, marginalized, queer” communities’ desire to express themselves. He focuses on this spirit, creating a safe and open space for self-expression and community building.

All are welcomed at Play Your Cards Right; Tiojanco sees the event as family friendly. Costumes are also encouraged – from both dancers and spectators. The first-place winner will take home 500 dollars.

The event will be judged by fellow dancers Boris Khramtsov, Sevrin Emnacen and Katria Phothong-McKinnon (also known as Muse).

“I want them to come in and feel like they can let go a little bit of what they’ve been carrying and just release themselves into the music and the dance,” Tiojanco says.

Play Your Cards Right is part of Surrey Art Gallery’s Kinesthesia: Body as Form – an exhibit on art, dance and movement from now until Dec. 14. For more information, see www.surrey.ca/news-events/events/play-your-cards-right-street-dance-battle