[funky music]

(Describer) KQED. If Cities Could Dance: San Jose

(singer) ♪ Everywhere you go ♪

(Alex) That whole signature San Jose style, that super swagged out, like smooth, very street. It just reminded me of like what it was like to grow up here. We're Playboyz Incorporated,

(Describer) Alex Flores. Men dance in unison.

one of the oldest dance crews in the Bay Area that originated out of East San Jose, California.

(singer) ♪ Everywhere you go ♪

[funky music]

(Describer) Bryan Moreno.

(Bryan) We pop, we wave, we tick, we strut, we tut, and putting all those together, adding our flavor that's when we start calling ourselves poppers, strutters.

(Jeremy) You know, it makes me feel proud that I am from San Jose and I am able to rep a crew that started in 1981. I'm proud to keep that name going.

[funky music]

(Describer) Jerry Miramontes.

(Bryan) Playboy Rob, Robert Sabala, rest in peace. He passed away. That's who started the group. Back then we all danced in the garages, in the streets. The way we did our style of pop comes out of our Chicano culture, the La Raza, low riders, or the way we dress. And believe it or not, popping saved my life. I grew up a hard life. I had the gang option or I had the dance option. Now today I'm traveling over the world just to teach the dance, so I love to give back to these kids and hopefully they can run with it, do even more than I did.

(Freddy) I just feel the beat and it just makes me have a good mood, and I just love the crew.

[funky music]

(Describer) Freddy Madueno.

(Fabian) I first started learning popping and strutting, I was about 16. The illusion of it, it really captured my imagination. It was like magic. Later on I got lucky enough to meet the guys that I looked up to and now consider my crew mates and friends.

(Describer) Fabian Perez.

[funky music]

(Jeremy) Maze, he's the first person I've seen battle. Just the movement and every angle made me want to like be that guy. Me and him started practicing together. After school we would hop on the bus, go downtown, and we just kept building each other up.

(Fabian) We would practice all this stuff that all these OGs would show us, but then we would come up with our own moves.

(singer) ♪ Shuffle, make them dance onto the groove ♪

(Jeremy) And when we would make routines, even 'til this day, everybody knows we're from San Jose.

[funky music]

(Alex) This dance gives us a sense of purpose and I just feel like it's something that we need to carry on.

(Bryce) A lot of the OGs now are moving out to Stockton and Sacramento, like Money B, because it's too expensive to be here anymore. So a lot of the culture is disappearing.

(Jeremy) It just makes it more important for us to keep it going. When things are changing around us we're gonna be that group that keeps the essence alive.

[funky music]

Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

(Describer) Credits.

[dancer groaning]

(singer) Listen, listen. Let's go, in the camera, boy. That doesn't look right.

(Describer) Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.

Playboyz!