The Kansas City dancer discovered breakdancing a decade ago and is now putting his own stamp on it.
In recent months we have basked in the triumph of Misty Copeland, 33, the Kansas City native who in 2015 became the first African-American woman promoted to principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. In April of last year Copeland was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by TIME magazine.
Who will be the next dance star from Kansas City? It might just be someone from the hip hop/breakdance scene — someone like Leo Gayden.
The talented hip hop dancer and DJ can be found at The Foundry in Westport on the first two Fridays nights of each month, and is also a regular at The Beer Kitchen nearby. Almost every First Friday in the Crossroads event in spring and summer finds Gayden and his fellow dancers performing at 18th and Wyandotte with DJ Skeme.
Last August Gayden stood out in Jane Gotch’s “Let It Fall” show, which had premiered in February 2015 in New York. Gotch, winner of a 2014 Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Artist Award, invited Gayden to join the project after seeing him perform at a private party.
Billed as a show encompassing “abstracted bodylines, break-dance styling and operatic song,” “Let It Fall” was a full two years in the making. According to Gayden, it was a very hard and challenging two years during which he learned new movements and added new style elements. Gayden gives Gotch full credit for allowing him to grow as an artist. Since then, he has been planning his next moves.
Dance had never been Gayden’s career goal. Although his father was very musically oriented, with a collection of hundreds of LPs and instruments, Gayden was not particularly drawn to music. Growing up in Chicago, he became interested in cartoon art, and for a while he attended classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
After his parents split up, Gayden moved to Kansas City with his mother, and it was at Raytown High School that he began listening to hip hop music. Around 2005, Gayden and a friend traveled to Los Angeles for the four-day B-Boys Summit, the premiere breakdancing activity and talent conference/competition. The trip was an eye opener for Gayden, and it crystallized his plans for the future.
[block pos=”right”] Gayden says the essence of his music and dance style is simply that it is “beat-driven.” [/block]
Upon his return home, he started following local hip hop dancers, like Bam and Adonis, often at The Granada in Lawrence or about town. He frequented the site called the “map,” at Broadway and Westport Road, where dancers would regularly try out their steps. Initially he followed the norm and choreographed to current hip hop music but he soon turned to older music like funk, old-school rock, soul, and to artists including James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Jimi Hendrix. Gayden says that the essence of his music and dance style is simply that it is “beat driven.”
Besides “Let It Fall,” many in the area know Gayden from his mockumentary, Ratchet Hunter, a three-episode feature depicting Westport on a weekend night in all its glory and infamy. It is available on YouTube and Facebook and has garnered tens of thousands of hits. Gayden was also featured in the video component of friend Peregrine Honig’s “Suites” project last year.
Gayden’s plans include a stage show for the KC Fringe Festival and a one-hour film, which he hopes to have finished in July. In both, he intends to tell stories through dance, highlighting the various street-dancing groups in the area – their styles, their histories, their development — and choosing unexpected music tracks, including more melodic ones.
Gayden says dance and choreography come about with trial and error, and that any dance is most successful when it incorporates other styles and movements. His own work incorporates elements from Quixotic and other contemporary dance groups, and he is happy when he sees other groups experimenting with his movements in their pieces.
Gayden admits that he had doubts about Kansas City for long periods but now sees real activity and a future here. He cites the UMKC Breakdance Society group and their First Friday “Battle of the Alley” events, as well as the “King of the Roos” breakdance competitions at the school. There’s the group’s Facebook page, “Culturally Raised,” dedicated to KC streetdance. He’s also impressed with DJ Jock Max shows at The Ship bar in the West Bottoms.
Gayden suffered a severe identity crisis at age 18 following a painful breakup with the mother of his daughter. Music and breakdance helped him through it, and now, at 36, he has built a satisfying family life with his daughter, now age 18, his partner, Becca, and their four-year-old son. And he knows where he wants to go with his career.
His advice to anyone about Kansas City dance (and life in general) is to “find your scene” — determine what draws you and then join in. It will be a learning experience and just may direct your life.
