Red Bull BC One

**Other Interests:** Silkscreen **Motto/Credo:** Enjoy every day like it’s your last! **Titles** - **2007 1st place** Batalha Amapá, Brazil - **2007 2nd place** Battle of the Year, Brazil - **2007 1st place** Dança Pará, Brazil - **2008 1st place** Batalha Amapá, Brazil - **2008 2nd place** Battle of the Year, Brazil - **2009 1st place** Batalha no Sertão, Brazil - **2009 1st place** Hip Hop no Meio do Mundo, Brazil - **2009 1st place** The Kingz of Power Moves, Brazil - **2009 1st place** Encontros de culturas urbanas, French Guyana - **2009 1st place** Battle of the Year, Brazil **Profile** Brazilian B-Boy Ronielson da Silva Araujo aka B-Boy KAPU is one of the newcomers in this year’s RED BULL BC ONE. At age 24, he has hardly left the country yet. KAPU is a great power mover, but this fresh talent impressed the RED BULL BC ONE head hunters mainly with his complexity. Coming from Capoeira, he integrates that know-how into his dance. He has an extremely acrobatic style and wow’s the audience with double somersaults and double back-flips. He’s got a strong personality, is extremely confident, and a fearless a fighter. In 2002, KAPU saw a B-Boy performance in his school and was totally impressed. He could easily relate because of his roots in capoeira and gymnastics and he absolutely loved the dance aspect. He was eager to learn and started practicing with the guys in his neighborhood. One of the B-Boys from Bélen named him KAPU one day. He was dancing without shoes and his top-rocks clearly showed the influence of capoeira, so from capoeira came KAPU. The Hip Hop scene in Brazil is growing fast and Brazilian dancers are known to have a special something, that Brazilian “ginga” that distinguishes them from other B-Boys. Ginga—an almost indefinable, mystical quality of movement and attitude possessed only by Brazilians and evident in everything they do. Ginga is what gives Brazilian football players their fluidity and rhythm on the pitch. KAPU feels, “Your roots are important. You need to remember where you’re coming from and integrate your heritage into your dance. I don’t like it at all when Brazilian B-Boys try to just dance like the next breaker. We need originality and our own Brazilian identity.” KAPU’s family didn’t back up his dance ambitions in the beginning, but when they saw him in a TV show, they changed their minds. Today, even though he has hardly ever left the country, KAPU manages to make a living on dancing. He gives workshops, judges championships and makes some money battling and performing. KAPU can’t think of any other way he wants to live his life than dancing. He dreams of becoming part of B-Boy history—of creating that one extraordinary move and being recognized worldwide. Competing in the RED BULL BC ONE is a big step on the way to fulfilling his dreams. “I never expected to get the chance to battle in the RED BULL BC ONE so fast! But as I always say in my workshops—everything is possible if you have faith in yourself and work hard.” For KAPU Hip Hop is more than just a pastime. It’s his life. “Hip Hop is a great culture. It gives you so many creative outlets. You can paint, dance, make music, rhyme, rap or beatbox. There is something for everyone. You can express your feelings, grow, learn, teach, make friends and if you’re working hard, you can even get a career out of it. It’s a culture where you get respect and recognition for being yourself, for inventing yourself, being different and taking it one step further.”