When did you start Breaking?
I moved to the Lower East Side from Poughkeepsie in 1990 when I was 18. I was always into hip hop and I loved breaking but I had never tried it myself. In the 80’s when I was growing up I would see
people breaking in Poughkeepsie. The first time I saw it was on T.V. I think it was called The Big Breaking Contest. It was very popular everywhere and everyone was breaking.
When I moved to New York I had this skateboarder boyfriend, his name was Luis Rodriguez. He used to break and I had always wanted to learn how to do a backspin. So he was showing me how to do it the real way, New York style, from up top. A few years later, around 1994, one of my girlfriends who used to dance for a Bar Mitzvah company, invited me to come to one of the practices. She was like “I want you to meet this girl, she does backspins and stuff” and I was like “what! another girl?” I had never met another girl who had backspins, even just for fun. She was like “you gotta meet this girl” your gonna hit it off, and it was Honey.
Honey was already way more advanced than I was, she was learning head spins and windmills, I was a total beginner. When we met we instantly bonded and she brought me into the scene.
She was the first person to teach me all my foundation moves. Our levels were so different but it was all about the fun of it. We did Mitzvahs together and we had this one routine we used to do. She started touring about 2 years later, right as I was getting heavy into it and started to really love this. She was going to Israel, Japan, etc and would come back telling me about the Bgirls in other countries. Before she left for tour she invited me to practice with the cast of GhettOriginal and Jam on the Groove. I was totally star struck because I could not believe I was practicing in the same room as my dance idols.
Who were your teachers? Who influenced you?
Definitely Honey, but I also always loved Ken Swift and Wiggles' style. I was dying when I got to see them dance in person. I learned from Bam Bam from the Lower East Side, Richie Break Easy, Ralph King Uprock, Glyde, Forrest and Miguelito. Then I was with Kid Freeze for a long time and he taught me a lot and I got to learn from Incredible Breakers and Rockers from The Bronx too. Louie New Wave was very influential to me. I could watch him just free styling all day long, he was amazing. He was a popper but he would combine foot work and stuff. He was in the Michael Jackson Bad Video.
Louis and I would practice and train all the time. He was really into running and conditioning and I got into the whole training thing 24/7. We would train at the East River Park on Ave D on the FDR. We used to go to all the clubs on the Lower East Side: Koop, Blow Pop, Spoons and Cream. Dancers and skateboarders would both be there hanging out so there was a lot of energy in the air. They were small clubs but we used to just dance the whole entire night. There was a lot of opportunities to go and dance.
Who were the Bgirls that you saw when you started and did you hear about any Bgirls from the 70’s?
The first Bgirl ever, that I saw, was Baby Love. All the older Bboys from the 70s talked about Headspin Janet. We had never seen any pictures or videos of her so Me and Honey we would always joke that Honey was Baby Love and I was Headspin Janet not because of skills just the fact that Baby Love was famous and Headspin Janet was kind of underground and there is no footage of her. Louie New Wave told me about Brenda K Starr and I had heard that Dynamic had a group called the Dynamic Dolls. They were from the 80's so they were gone by the time I got into the scene and doing other things. When I started getting into it for real myself, the first girls I saw hitting the floor were Honey and Rokafella. They totally inspired me and made me feel like I could do this. Later I met Miss Twist who was with Step Fienz. They had a few girls in their crew. Maybe 3 or 4 girls and they were really good. Wiggles’ sister Deena and her dance partner Wandy were also incredible and I am sure still are.
We used to hang with Twist, Pauline (who was from Philly, she lives in Brooklyn now) and Tara. There was also another girl from Philly I think her name was Cat. I also remember Mega, Renegade, Connie Rock and ABgirl, who I battled one time at Tomkins Sq Park in the mid to late 90’s. I wonder if she remembers? Shout out to BREAKS KRU too!
How did you get your name ?
So unoriginal! Patti Duke was a tv character on “the Patty Duke show” so any white girl you meet that was into hip hop, who is my age and was named was Patty, I'm positive their nickname would be Patty Dukes. I changed the U to double O because I like how it looked when I tagged it, but everyone still writes it with a U.
What were some of the most memorable events for you?
Well, I used to work at PAPER magazine, that was a downtown magazine. Everything was underground at this time in the 90’s. Supreme just opened, so there was this whole skate scene happening and so was Breaking. PAPER magazine was super supportive. I told them that I was going to cover this event called Bboy Summit and they let me write a full page article and photograph it. It was Asia’s event BBoy Summit III, 1996. This was the year that Style Elements and Rocksteady battled. I also covered Rocksteady Anniversary the year before in 1995. The Photographer I worked with for PAPER magazine was captured on Honey Rockwell's Bgirl video as he took fotos of the Bgirls for my article.
PAPER would have all these parties downtown and all the skateboarders and Bboys and Bgirls would come, and Stretch Armstrong and other Hip Hop DJ’s would spin. It was so fun. Everyone used to dance all night long. It was very organic and spontaneous. When I go to events now they are very organized. At the time practices were also happening at the Point. Zulu Anniversary was a big event where people would battle, also Rock Steady anniversary was a big deal. People would come from Japan and all over the world. We used to just take over the park and have music blasting.
Practice in the Bronx
I used to have this apartment on 167th and Jerome with Kid Freeze. It was this huge apartment with no furniture and that was our practice spot. I remember Jiggz used to come. I think he was a beginner at the time and I saw him get windmills.
This other kid Josh was down with them and Manny ‘Wild Child’ too.
They would come and practice everyday.
Josh from Incredible Breakers used to come all the time, he was about 15.
Sammy, Eddie, Brian and Chino from Incredible Breakers used to come too It was a like a little secret Dojo.
What as NYC like back then?
It was so much fun oh my god I always tell my daughter, I feel so bad for your generation. I don’t know how to explain it. It was so free. On the train we would drink 40s, no one bothered you and everything was so cheap. Moving from Poughkeepsie to the LES I payed four hundred dollars for an apartment on Ave B. You could make mistakes, you could get fired, you could experiment, you could dance all day and still not be homeless, I don’t think the kids have that freedom now.
What was it like breaking after having kids?
When I was around 30, I got pregnant, I was still into it staying in shape, flexible and maintaining and then I got back into it after I had Tiger my oldest one. After that me and freeze broke up and I was a single mom so things got a little difficult for me just surviving. I had different priorities. I didn’t want to struggle. I wanted to do the best I could for my daughter.
I never wanted to be solely a professional dancer, that was never my path. I later got back into it just for the fun of it, and even after I had my youngest daughter, Apache, in my 40s, I battled Honey at her studio in Georgia (she won). A few years ago I tore my rotator cuff, it’s feeling better now but I’d like to still be able to bust a move just for fun. I would like to just get my windmills, and my head spins back but we’ll see what happens.
What do you do now?
I’m an event planner, designer and I also do graphic design. I own a company called Hip Hop Team Building (hiphopteambuilding.com). I use the elements of hip hop in team building exercises, for instance in the freestyle workshop, people are challenged to freestyle rhyme which is very scary for any non MC but once they get into it is extremely fun and a bonding experience. I am blessed to be able to share the joy that hip hop brought to me in my life.
