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Cover of ” Time Out” Magazine
Anthony “Antboogie” Rue
Hip Hop Star, Anthony “Antboogie” Rue who hails from the inner city streets of Brooklyn, has been dancing and choreographing professionally for over 10 years talks to Harlem2Nippon abut his beginnings as a commercial dancer with Laurie Ann Gibson, his crew, The Amount Boyz.
H2N: Where are your originally from and how did you get into dancing?
AA: I grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. I wanted to be like Mike….- Jackson, king of pop like so many children of the 1980s. He brought dance as a whole to a bigger level. We formed a dance group called The Amount Boyz around 1996 at Fiorello H. La Guardia high school, “The Fame School,” and continued to expand from there. Nicki Minaj went to the school with me and she was in my graduating class and Kelis was 3 years ahead of me, Marlon Wayans, Wesley Snipes, Al Pacino……there’s a lot of people.
H2N: How did you get started as a professional dancer?
AA: My mentor was Laurie Ann Gibson. I learned everything from her. I was about 16 or 17 and me and my group went to audition for her. At the time she was Sean “P. Diddy” Combs personal choreographer and saw the Amount Boyz as a perfect fit for his then artist, Jerome. We danced for his music video, “Dear Yvette.” That was the coolest thing ‘cause we were still in high school when that was happening. I was graduated from high school in 2000. I told myself if I don’t have a gig before I graduate then I go to college but the gig started to popping up.
H2N: Who did you work with after that?
AA: 3 Little Women, pop young cute girls, from then Mario and we did a couple movies and we did Omarion.
H2N: You have been in Japan with Omarion.
AA: Yes. When I went to Japan it was crazy. You guys have magazines dancers in it, you got all kinds of shows. It was like wow! It was so crazy how much the market is different for Japanese culture with dancing than it is for American.
H2N: You have also joined Madonna’s “Sticky and Sweet Tour” in 2008. How was working with the Queen of Pop?
AA: It was a great experience. She does a lot of different stuff. It’s called a free movement. They take a lot of influences from different styles of dance. The previous tour was that they are doing a footwork, house, B-boys, and just strictly poppers Hamutsun Serve, you guys know Hamutsun Serve, Japanese band that went on tour with Madonna’s 1st leg.
Broadway Dance Center Entrance
H2N: Anthony, tell us about your teaching career. You teach Hip Hop class at Broadway Dance Center every Sunday.
AA: Well, I’m teaching the Amount Boyz style ‘cause technically Hip Hop is a different thing. But how the studio is marketed to the public I intended to follow .It’s so funny. I used to like to teach only advanced class but after I worked with kids last year I have more patience. As long as they are having fun in a class room it’s all fun. I get a lot of international students but the most of them are Japanese. Japanese students show a lot of support and as far as Hip Hop they are strong. Japanese students are more disciplined. I have noticed that Japanese rhythm connects to Hip Hop rhythms very easily. I would put Japanese as either 1 or 2 far as a culture that catches on to the rhythm. Some people in my class don’t even speak English but you wouldn’t be able to tell by from watching them. I talk a lot during class and I know they don’t understand everything I’m saying, they just watching and they pick up off the energy.
H2N: What is your current project?
AA: I’m starting Urban Dance League, a dance program. It’s a sport league for dancers. Please check out our website.
http://urbandanceleague.com/
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