Young breakdancers have become the first Maltese to compete in one of the world’s most important break-dancing competitions – the Fluido Jam – with two of them making it to the top four in the under-14 category.

Fourteen-year-olds Kyle Cassar and Lindsey Pisani, and Clarence Pulis, 12, from breakdancing crew Street Elements Hiphop Artists, took part in the contest held in Athens, Greece, in the under-14s ‘battle’ category.

Squaring up against 20 other dance crews and more than 100 competitors from across the world, Cassar and Pisani succeeded in reaching the semi-finals while Pulis made it to the top eight stage.

This was the first time that Maltese youths were included in this competition and at this level. They got so far

Street Elements also competed in the six-person crew-versus-crew battle representing Malta, reaching the top 16 and narrowly losing out to a team from The Netherlands. Liston Bongailas, Elton Gialanze and Charlene Grange, the founder of Street Elements, competed as part of the crew.

This was the 13th edition of the championship, held just before Christmas.

“The level of the competition is very high and you see crews and breakdancers from countries like South Korea and Japan,” said Mr Bongailas, one of Street Element’s artists and teachers.

“This was the first time that Maltese youths were included in this competition and at this level. They got so far.”

Mr Bongailas said the dancers had to be “well-rounded” in a range of elements from footwork to ‘top-rocking’, a dance form involving contraction of one’s body in time to a beat.

Lindsey Pisani (14) made it to the Top 4 of the contest.

While artists could be taught different moves and music styles, the skill of the competition lay in being able to respond and outdo an opponent in a hip hop ‘battle’, he explained.

“You are answering an opponent so you don’t know what the opponent will do.

“The music is also live and you have to be ready to adapt to different types of music and different movements.”

Street Elements was formed in 2005 in the heyday of breakdancing’s popularity. In that year alone, there were 15 crews performing and training in Malta.

However, by 2010, only three remained because dancers were quitting the scene, with a resultant lack of competition.

Mr Bongailas said Street Elements survived because it pushed itself outside of the country and into the competitions taking place in the rest of the world.

From left to right: Liston Bongailas, Charlene Grange, Kyle Cassar (white t-shirt), Clarence Pulis (brown top), Lindsey Pisani (grey sweater), Elton Gialanze' and Julian Borg. Photo: Street Elements HipHop Artists

As they did for the Fluido Jam, crew members have covered the cost of taking part in contests out of their own pockets.

“We pay our own way. We pay for our flights and accommodation,” Mr Bongailas said.

“We don’t have anything like the crews we were competing against... they have sponsors and managers. We are representing Malta and we are doing this without a sponsor.

“It’s a lifestyle, that’s what it is. It is not just a sport or hobby. You have to live the culture, you have to live it every day.”

The young dancers, he added, needed the experience, “the experience to battle”.

“We lack experience in Malta. We lack support like a sponsor, a person who can put their help behind us,” he noted.

Street Elements are now preparing for two major breaking (breakdance) competitions in Milan in January, the first called ‘Floor-Wars’ and the other ‘B-boy Classics’.