What do you get when you combine samba, capoeira, breakdance and freestyle soccer together? Pure magic! I had the fortune to be part of a performance in which Chicago’s Brazilian music band Planeta Azul and Steve Elia‘s (Eli Freeze) Freestyle Soccer players got together and combined their talents for an event happening at McCormick Place. Steve is the pioneer of Freestyle soccer, which it did not exist until he started developing tricks with a soccer ball in his backyard just for fun in the mid 80s. Steve describes Freestyle Soccer as “using a soccer ball and expressing yourself with it doing tricks”. The sport of Freestyle Soccer is growing at an exponential rate. There are currently over 250 soccer tricks that are taught around the world and now people are incorporating dancing and break moves to them. This marriage of dance and sports is exciting and very entertaining. Here is a video of a rehearsal we had previous to our performance. Enjoy!
Chicago Urbanite 