One of the most under-appreciated things about Whistler is you never know what talent lurks in the community.
With a steady stream of newcomers coming from all over the globe for all different reasons, that diverse skillset can sometimes get lost.
Take Robin Frindte for example.
Last May, he quit his office job in Germany and decided to explore Canada. He started with a trip up to Pemberton to purchase a van when he was hit by some unexpected bills. So instead of a road trip, he stayed put and—as an avid climber—got a job at the Whistler Core Climbing & Fitness Gym.
But before all that, he was a professional breakdancer.
"I didn't want to lose all my breakdance abilities, so I was sometimes dancing on my own [at The Core]," Frindte says over a cup of coffee in the village. "People were kind of interested because when I was dancing there were also other people around. The idea kind of popped up to give a breakdance workshop."
For the last couple of weeks on Tuesdays, Frindte has been teaching a group of around six students the basics of breakdancing—which can progress into impressive backflips, spins, and balancing. (To that end, many of those interested have a yoga or climbing background, but that's not necessary, he says.)
"There's good breaking in Toronto, in Calgary. There's a huge breaking scene in Vancouver, but in Whistler, there's no breakdancing," he says. "It's understandable because you have the mountains here. Everybody climbs, kayaks, mountain bikes, or is into winter sports."
That was part of what was nerve-wracking about trying to spread the word about the class. Frindte's initial students were people who watched his jaw-dropping moves at The Core, but he decided to post a quick, homemade promotional video on the Whistler Winter Facebook page, too.
"Everybody reacted really well on it and I got good feedback, so I thought, 'OK, this is a good thing,'" he says. "It would be nice to get more people dancing. It's super nice for your body awareness and it helps you in other things. For example, for me, becoming a more active climber, you're pulling all the time. Breakdancing is the opposite; you're pushing all the time. So it's good cross training."
Frindte's first foray into breakdancing was just over 13 years ago when he was a teen. He and a group of friends connected with a breakdance teacher through his water polo team and decided to give it a try.
"I also have a gymnastics background so I said, 'Cool, let's do it,'" he recalls. "I started to get more and more into it."
In 2007, he competed in his first regional battle competition. "I got hyped so much," he says. "I just started to take it seriously. After 2007, I was really big into breakdance."
In 2010, he and his team won the chance to represent Germany at the Battle of the World, an international competition that was held in Montpellier, France that year. "I was way too inexperienced to be on a big stage like that," he says. "It was in front of 11,000 people. It was a huge stage. I was also a bit injured. I had an ankle injury at the time—my whole dance style is quite acrobatic. I'm doing a lot of flips ... which was my part, so it was a lot of pressure on me. I did well, but the whole crew, we didn't come that far. We took 17th place."
Still, it was a big deal to compete on that scale, he adds.
By 2014, he was dancing professionally as part of a commercial dance crew. "We did a lot of shows for any event," he says. "It was always good—if it was a corporate event, a casual event, if it was just a birthday party, it always worked."
At the time, he was also studying cultural engineering at university, a field he decided to pursue because he was interested in the intersection between cultural science and logistics. When he graduated, he asked one of the companies that had hired their breakdance crew for various events if he could do a practicum. That turned into the desk job—organizing arts events—he had before moving to Whistler.
"I kind of felt that I was too young to just sit in an office," he says. "I'm also quite active. And that's why I kind of needed to have a change. I always wanted to travel or see another part of the world. That's why I decided to come here."
While the recent classes have served as a pilot project to test the community's interest, Frindte hopes to reach more people who are curious about breakdancing and host more classes—maybe even adding outdoor classes in the summer.
"Teaching was always something that I liked," he says. "As soon as I understand stuff, I can teach it. I really like seeing people progress."
The next breakdancing class—the last of a set of four—takes place on Tuesday, March 17.
If you're interested in classes, call The Core at 604-905-7625.
