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‘Last For One’ B-boys Thrill Audiences in Zimbabwe and Angola

To commemorate the 15th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and the Republic of Zimbabwe, and top romote cultural exchange with Angola, the Korea Foundation sponsored the dispatch of one of Korea’s world-class B-boy teams to these countries in an effort to promote closer cooperation with the African region.

When Cliffton Matambo, a young and emerging artist of Zimbabwe, heard that the “Last For One” Korean B-boy team would be visiting his country for a live performance, he could hardly believe the news. He had seen the crew’s performance at the Battle of the Year B-Boy Championship, as well as other events, via the Internet, and was absolutely astounded by their incredible and seemingly impossible maneuvers. When he spotted the B-boys in the hotel lobby, he approached one of the members and blurted out how excited he was about seeing their performance, to which the member responded, with a slight smile: “Hold on tight to your seat, because we intend to exceed your expectations.”



Worldwide Reputation
For those in the audience with the good fortune to witness and experience the Last For One performance of its “One Dream” production, the ride was exhilarating. The sold-out, overflowing crowd reacted to every move, cheering and yelling out the group’s name and their country of origin continuously throughout the 70-minute performance. Powerful, dynamic, electrifying, inspirational, and amazing were repeatedly mentioned to describe the group’s awesome routines.
To commemorate the 15th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and the Republic of Zimbabwe, and to promote cultural exchange with Angola, the Korea Foundation consulted with the Korean Embassy staff of these countries about efforts to introduce local audiences to notable aspects of Korea’s popular culture. After it was decided that a performance by one of Korean’s world-renowned B-boy groups would be well suited for this purpose, it then became a matter of selecting the particular B-boy team for this touring project.
Ultimately, the “Last For One” B-boy team was selected due in large part to its worldwide reputation, after capturing first place at the 2005 Battle of the Year B-Boy Championship, a kind of “World Cup” competition for break dancing. Moreover, the group has gone to earn high acclaim at other international events, along with developing a full-length production, entitled “One Dream,” which provides highlights of their humble beginnings and the perseverance that enabled them to reach the pinnacle of global success.

‘One Dream’
For the presentation in Zimbabwe, the group staged a performance of “One Dream” at the Harare International Festival of the Arts, the largest cultural festival of its kind in Africa. As a result of active publicity efforts by the festival organizers and the Korean Embassy, tickets to the performance were sold out several weeks in advance of the event. The audience was mainly comprised of avid fans of popular culture, along with the other artists and dancers who had participated in the festival.
The “One Dream” performance tells the life story of the 10 B-boy members who share a single dream, of winning the prestigious Battle of the Year championship, and their arduous journey to realize this goal, which involved overcoming all manner of obstacles through their hard work, unrelenting passion, and an unbreakable bond as a team. Due to their endearing and inspirational story, of what can be achieved when you believe in your dreams, the audience seemed to beam in delight and appreciation. In addition to cheering and shouting encouragement at every maneuver of the performance, the audience refused to leave until the group had presented three encore numbers after the regular program. After two extremely successful performances in Zimbabwe, the crew departed for its next destination in Angola. The atmosphere in Angola was different from the care-free and lively environment of the Zimbabwe festival since the performance was mainly being staged to promote cultural relations between our two countries. Thus, the atmosphere was rather formal and somewhat rigid. In addition, rather than the general public, the audience was largely comprised of governmental officials, members of the diplomatic community, and corporate executives, together with next-generation leaders and collegeB-boy workshop event for members of Zimbabwe’s National Ballet Theater students. Still, you could detect a high level of anticipation among the audience, who was familiar with the world-class status of the B-boy group.
Af ter a formal recept ion, congratulatory remarks by Ambassador Han Jae-young, and an opening performance by a traditional Angolan performing troupe, Last For One took center stage to present their gravity-defying routines. In comparison, the audience reaction might not have been as electrifying as that of Zimbabwe, but a sense of amazement was readily evident from the continuous flashing of digital cameras and gasps of disbelief at the seemingly impossible maneuvers executed by the group members.



Cultural Diplomacy
The B-boy genre, although it did not originate in Korea, isnonetheless an area in which Korean groups have excelled at, zooming to the top of the break dancing world with groups like Last For One and others. Nowadays, when cultural diplomacy has become such a vital means to enhance a nation’s global image and foster mutual understanding, the presentation of world-class talent to international audiences is all the more important and meaningful. In this way, the positive reactions from the audiences in Zimbabwe and Angola have done much to leave local residents with a favorable impression of Korea. Of course, among the people in Africa, much more effort is necessary to improve their understanding of Korea, but this kind of cultural activity is definitely a step in the right direction. Hopefully, this memorable performance of the Last For One B-boy team will encourage the launch of cultural exchange with these African countries, which will serve as a foundation to build more cooperative and fruitful relations.

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