I heard you were a gymnast, how old were you when you started doing gymnastics?
Seven. My stepdad gave me a gymnastics book and I memorized all the moves in the book. One day he came to pick me up at my grandma's house and I showed him all the moves I could do. He's said “you learned that from just looking at the book?”
They started looking for a place to put me in classes and they found me a dance studio in the Bronx called Bronx Dance Theater. I didn’t go to gymnastics at first, and I was a little bit upset because it was ballet and jazz but they also had a little gymnastics, so I did both from 7 till about 13.
How did that lead you into breaking?
Senior year of high school I was going to a gymnastics club in Yonkers and the coach calls me up one day and she said, “Hey, I have an opportunity for you to be in a movie.” The movie was Mannequin on the Move Part 2.
It exposed me to a whole new world. I'm the youngest one in this whole production and while I'm doing the movie, I meet these wonderful people, and one of the dancers was Louie New Wave.
This is May or April of 1990. We were in Philly, filming, and I would watch him dance and I'd be mesmerized! His favorite song was I Got the Power and he used to do all this contortionist and bone breaking, and his hair would pop when he would pop. I'm doing my gymnastics and he was actually excited because I could flip and he would say “when we get back to New York, I'm gonna bring you to meet the homies.”
As soon as we get back from finishing the movie sure enough, he brings me to the Lower East Side. My first introduction to some of the OGs were Bam Bam, Pete Lou Li, I think Kid Freeze was there and Charlie sex kid, and they were practicing (bboying) in a boxing gym.
Louis used to come to my house all the time and he would bring over these VCR tapes of the Rhythm Technicians and their show called So What Happens Now? We would dance to them and I would memorize the choreography. After giving birth, Louis was like, "Hey, come to one of these practices, the guys are practicing and you gotta meet Wiggles, they're all there.” I just had my daughter, so I wanted to start training again anyway. I didn't know what to expect. Dick Shays on 14th street was the first place I saw them and when I walked in with Louis, my eyes just glaze over, like what did I just walk myself into? Everybody was training. They were doing choreography, they were locking, popping, breaking. There were girls in there, Wiggles’ sister Dina, Wandy, Brandy, And another girl, Rokafella. Louis was trying to show me off and he's like, “Do your flips!” You know? And I was like, “Louis, I'm not gonna do it” I was so freaked out. I was just taking it all in, and the minute I did a couple of tumbling moves, boom! they were like, "okay, she's workable, maybe we could do something with her." So right away they were like “let me see your footwork” I started doing the running man because MC hammer was popular at the time and I didn’t know what he was talking about.
I would bring my daughter with me in a carriage. I'd set her up with some coloring books and I'd practice. It might have even been every day I think, and I loved it. I loved every single minute of it.
I was around people that were the same age as me almost and they were just training. I got hooked more so because of training. I knew as a gymnast what it takes to go to that next level and train and be focused and get your head in the game. I saw them doing the routine that I memorized watching on the VCR tape with Louis. I'm a better athlete than I am at choreography so It took me a lot longer, and everything that I memorized was opposite because we were watching the TV screen, so I went one way and they went the other! I had to re-learn everything and let me tell you, they didn't just put me down right away. They were practicing three times a week. I loved being in that environment. I would bring my daughter with me in a carriage. I'd set her up with some coloring books and I'd practice. It might have even been every day I think, and I loved it. I loved every single minute of it.
Were they all teaching you a little bit ?
Yeah! Every single one was teaching me a little bit. I guess, feeling out where my style was going. So naturally it went right to breaking, although I was really interested with locking and I kind of wanted to try the other styles, I loved it all.
I started learning routines the right way and then since me and Rokafella were the bgirls and Masami who already knew the choreography, they would have us battle each other with the choreography we had learned. They ended up choosing all three of us and that's when we went to France. France was my first ever performance with the Ghetto Original dance production.
There weren't many women that wanted to do this. Nobody was making it popular at the time, this dance style, where you're on the floor. There weren’t any Bgirls that were New York based from the Bronx, it was just me and Rok.
When I got back things started really happening and then Legs put me down. When he asked me if I wanted to be down with Rock Steady, I really didn't understand what that meant at the time. I was like, "sure, cool!" The fact that they practiced, that's what I liked. I just wanted to train and be around like-minded people that were training and be trained. If it wasn't for Ghetto Original, I wouldn't have been down with Rock Steady. They really put me down as far as doing shows professionally and being able to be in this new platform to make money doing something that I love.
How old were you when you started breaking?
I started breaking at 23. There weren't many women that wanted to do this. Nobody was making it popular at the time, this dance style, where you're on the floor. There weren’t any Bgirls that were New York based from the Bronx, it was just me and Rok. We were really the ones. None of our girlfriends wanted to do it at the time and get down and dirty.
I think that whole dynamics of me and her at the time was kind of cool because we would push each other. If she would do head spins or start learning, I was like, okay, I gotta push my Headpins and then windmills. We were really, really wanting to get this move. Windmill kicked my butt, it was the hardest move. I think it took me over a year to get it. Funny story, one Rock Steady anniversary, me and Rokafella are busting our asses trying to do windmills and here comes this little 11 year old girl from Florida and she's doing flares and windmills! And we're like, what? Where did you come from? What's your name? She's like, “I'm Beta Rawks” and she was representing Street Masters. This was 1994.
Who were some of the dancers you were seeing in the breaking scene?
You had Breaks Crew, Supreme Beingz, Step Fenz. Rock Steady was doing some stuff. At the time I was Seven Grand Masters and from Seven Grand Masters, Seven Gems was formed while we were on tour with Jam on the Groove.
That was 1996. It was Wiggles me Kenny, Orko, Mauritzio and Flow Master. There was only six members and we were just always around each other and we just had a lot of fun training together. Wiggles and Kenny had the magazine going on at the time, the Seven Gems video magazine. I was like, well, you guys have something for the Bboys, I want a video too. I wanna make one for the Bgirls.
So that's When you did the Bgirl video at the Rock Steady Anniversary?
That's when I did that video, but it's Bgirls from around the world I would record while I was traveling and that's the video that circulated. Who knew right?
How did you get your name?
So my real name's Irena and I was like, how about rainbow? Because I like to do back handsprings and I'll look like a rainbow Right? So when Wiggles had to announce me, “all right, next up, we got Rrrainbowwwww!” and he would die laughing at my name. And he's like, “I'm not calling you rainbow, that's it, I'm not gonna do it.” Then one day we were going to a practice Kwik was there and Gremlin. And on the way there in the Bronx, there was a street called Rockwell street. And they both pointed to it and they're like, why don't you call yourself, Honey Rockwell? Like straight up the both of them. They put it together. I don't know exactly which one. I don't remember if it was Kwik or if it was Gremlin. Gremlin says it was all him, I think it was Kwik that really put the names together. We were trying to write it graffiti style, like Honey Rockski, Honey Rock Woner, you know, something like that and then Honey Rockwell just stuck.
I have seen some videos of you and Ms Twist performing together and I later found out that you were in a all female group together, When did you and Ms Twist meet?
We met probably in 95’. She’s one of my best friends, my sister, you know, I love her.
Twist was right there with me, Rok and Asia. Same time frame. Twist was rocking with Step Fenz at the time and she was hanging. I think we all got windmills the same week because we couldn't just let one girl get the windmill. But Twist was a battle cat, strong, You know, I'd have to say other than Beta, I'd say she was probably one of the first battle cats, hungry. We didn't battle back then. If we battled, it was personal.
We formed a crew called Bgirl Mafia. and no one can come in the crew and no one can come out. That's it, we're stuck for life! The other Bgirl crew that I was a part of was Truessencia. That was Pauline, Miri, Dina and Wandi, Twist and me. Tara, was working with us too, doing some shows. Patti Dooks who also was a NY B-Girl and one of my best friends, we use to club, train and rock it out at events together.
How did you start the studio?
We ended up moving to Georgia and I called up Vendetta and Severe and then I remember that Baby Love lives in Georgia too. I started out teaching the neighborhood kids from my basement and I wind up getting like 30 kids. Pretty soon I had to move up from the basement to the garage and we put mirrors up. I did that for another year and bust the seams out of that.
Then I decided to get into a recreation center but after a couple of years, I realized I needed more hours on the schedule to teach these kids and get them better. One day I reached the point where I started asking myself “am I gonna continue to do this here? Or just get a normal job?”
I had never worked a normal job in my life. I ended up finding a commercial real estate property, I called them up and go take a look at it. The price was unbelievable, to have my own little space. I tell Orko to just come with me. We go and he looked at it and says it looks like it can work. It had a small room, big enough where I can do privates, it had a lobby area and a big room the size of a stage. I jumped in and signed the lease.
This is my ninth year in the dance studio business. For the first few years I was the new kid on the block. I couldn't have done it hands down without the help of the dance community of Atlanta. I've never met a community like these guys out here, they came and volunteered their time. It took time to develop our reputation of who we are, "are they legit? Are they cool? Are they just out for self?" And we wanted to show them we're team players. I wanted to use my resources to help and if I can help in any way, that's how I operate. It brings me such pleasure to be able to create opportunities for the up and coming generation.
