Bboy Ken Swift

Bboy Ken Swift is from Puerto Rico. Ken Swift is widely known as the “Epitome of a B-Boy”. He is a member of Rock Steady Crew, Ghettoriginal, and Monster Crew.

Bboy Ken Swift Profile:

Stage Name: Ken Swift
Birth Name: Kenneth James Gabbert
Occupation: B-Boy
Birthday: August 31st, 1966
Active Years: 1978–present
Age 58 (in Sep 2024)
Zodiac Sign: Virgo
Height: n/a
Weight: n/a
Nationality: Puerto Rican
Blood Type: n/a

Bboy Ken Swift Biography, Life Story, Breaking Journey, and Facts:

Bboy Ken Swift was born in Puerto Rico and currently lives in New York, USA. He started breaking at the age of 12 by getting inspiration from the dancers on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He was mainly inspired by Doze, Frosty Freeze, Deno Rock, Ice Ice, Kid Terrific, and Ty Fly. He developed many dance moves and terminology and he also developed the foundational part of breaking that is freeze style.

“Ken Rok” was Ken’s first stage name when he was a b-boy. Before settling on “Ken Swift,” he used a number of different aliases, including “Kid Zoom,” “Ken Ski,” and “Prince Ken Swift.” In 1978, he founded the Young City Boys, a group that featured several other individuals, including Doze Green, Dante, Deno Rock, Andy, Stevie D, and Disco C. Ty Fly, a YCB member, introduced Frosty Freeze from Rock City Crew to Ken in 1979, and the two mutually chose to join the Rock Steady Crew in 1980 as co-Vice Presidents. The first group of b-boys to be given professional acclaim by the media and their peers was the famed Rock Steady Crew (RSC).

Bboy Ken Swift founded the dance group VII Gems in 1996 with the goal of preserving the Breaking and Rocking styles that were once popular in New York City. In May 2009, the Breaking Convention, a Sadler Wells Project, financed his direction and choreography of “Rockin It,” the world’s first Rock Dance theatre production. Authentic pioneer dancers from the early days of these dances, the company is still in operation and consists of individuals with an average of over 30 years of dancing expertise. The group participates in a wide range of dance workshops, contests, panels, film screenings, talks, and performances all around the world.

In 2001, Bboy Ken Swift organised a course called “The History of Hip Hop Culture in New York: Focusing on Dance” for 7 to 11-year-olds at a nearby Manhattan elementary school, P.S. 84, with funding from the New York Historical Society. In 2008, Ken directed and wrote curriculum for BEAT BREAKERS, a non-profit that teaches Breaking Fundamentals in after-school programmes at numerous schools in The Bronx, New York. At Breaklife Studios in Brooklyn, New York, Ken established “The Ken Swift School of Hip Hop Fundamentals” in 2004 to provide a setting for others to learn about the culture and history of hip hop.

Present Day:

As of right now, Bboy Ken Swift is revered as one of the most important figures in the development of hip-hop culture and a legend among b-boys. He routinely travels to judge dancing competitions and lead workshops. He has competed in and served as a judge for dance contests all over the world, including in France, Switzerland, Sweden, China, South Africa, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Venezuela, Norway, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Russia, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the entire United States.

From 2014 to 2015, Ken served as a Scholar in Residence at the Hip Hop Education Centre at New York University. For the springs of 2016 and 2017, he was designated as an Eminent Artist in the Dance Department at the University of California, Riverside. His first book, The Art of Breaking, is now being finished, and he has been hired as a professor of dance at UCLA for the spring semesters of 2018 and 2019. He is also a contributor to The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies, which is scheduled to be released in November 2022.

Titles & Achievements :

When working with RSC as a recording artist, Bboy Ken Swift earned gold and silver records for the song “Hey You, The Rock Steady Crew.” 1984’s Virgin/Charisma Breaking was first introduced to a global public with the release of the album Ready for Battle, which also featured two dance videos and appealed out to a bigger pop audience globally.

Jam On The Groove, the first hip hop musical staged off-Broadway, was co-written, co-directed, co-choreographed, and performed by Ken in 1996. In the 1995–1996 seasons, 100 performances resulted in a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Choreography. Ken and the Ghettoriginal Productions Dance Company were honoured with a Bessie Award for choreography in recognition of their feats. Bboy Ken Swift was invited to create an installation for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s 1999 induction of hip hop culture.

Bboy Ken Swift was the first b-boy to ever appear on the cover of a significant hip hop journal when he appeared on the cover of Rap Pages in August 1996. “Past, Present, Future: Ken Swift,” a well-known piece The Quintessential B-Boy” confirmed Ken Swift’s status as a key figure in the hip hop scene by portraying him as a pioneer of b-boying. In 1999, as a part of the event honouring hip hop’s entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ken choreographed and participated in the world premiere of the dance piece “Super Disco Breaks.” Ken joined the United States’ “1st Platoon” team in 1999, which won the “Korea World Cup” dance tournament against six other nations.

Social Media Handles
Instagram: realkenswift
Youtube: kenswift2841
Facebook: ken.swift.75

NOTES:

READERS:
– If you have corrections or know more about Bboy Ken Swift, kindly submit them in the comment section.
– Which Bgirl/Bboy/Crew should we cover next?

AUTHORS:
– You can contribute and submit your request to Become An Author.

PUBLISHERS:
– Please respect our authors’ research, time and energy and provide a link to BgirlBboy.com whenever you use any info from this site.

Lilou, Ken Swift, Roxrite, Born, and Storm:

Crazy Legs & Ken Swift (1983):