THE BEGINNING
DefIce and Zed belonged to the first generation of Breakers in Berne (Switzerland), both started to dance in ’83. Their first crew was called City Rockers. Between ’83 and ’86 they were the only Breakers in Berne who seriously practiced day after day. That’s why they joined a crew from another city (Biel-Bienne / Switzerland) called Jazzy Rockers.
But in ’86 DefIce finally wanted to have a crew in “his” town who could show all others that also Berne had good Breakers. He founded The Spartanic Rockers together with Zack, Action and Butch. But soon after (end of ’86) they split up again and The Spartanic Rockers consisted of DefIce and of a new member: Monty.
Some month later The Spartanic Rockers was completed by Baze. Because of professional reasons DefIce left the crew in ’89 and joined sometimes another Swiss Breaking Crew called Crazy Force Crew from Lucerne (Switzerland). Between ’89 and ’92 the members of The Spartanic Rockers were Monty, Baze and Zed (who joined the crew sometimes for shows and contests).
In ’90 DefIce took part in the “Battle Of The Year” together with Crazy Force Crew and Zed took part in the same contest together with 2 dancers from Zurich (Switzerland) called Frank & Power. In ’91, after spending several month in the UK and practicing with them, Zed became a member of the English Breaking crew Second 2 None. In the same year Zed won also the Swiss-Championship in Breaking and Monty won the European-Championship in Breaking.
In ’92 Zed stopped dancing because of a motorcycle accident and because of traveling around the world. In the same year Jamez who started to dance in ’88, who was in crews like Union Rockers, First High Society and Bern City Breakers and who took part in the “Battle Of The Year 92” with the crew Rock’t Better came to The Spartanic Rockers and after him in ’93 also Remy who started to dance in ’89 and who was in crews like Double Crush Rockers and Freeztyle Rockers.
In ’95 Baze stopped to dance totally and Jamez partly. In the same year Monty and Remy won the Swiss-Crew-Championship in Breaking. In ’97 Monty and Remy took part in the “Battle Of The Year 97” together with Crazy, Magic and Mike of the Crazy Force Crew. In the same year Zed started to dance seriously again and joined The Spartanic Rockers again.
GOING INTERNATIONAL
In 1997 The Spartanic Rockers got new members from Japan after getting known them via the World Wide Web one year before.
The first meet up was at the 20th RSC Anniversary in NYC (USA). The new members were: Takeo (owner of the dance studio “Faith” in Tokyo), Tsuyoshi (former member of the Japanese Breaking crew Freez) and Hiro (founder of the Japanese Breaking crew Imperial JBs).
In early ’98 Monty and Remy took part in a national “2-on-2” B-Boying Contest and they made it into the finals where they lost against Jimmy and Andrew of Toys ‘n’ Effect.
In spring ’98 Monty, Remy, Takeo, Tsuyoshi and Hiro took part in the “Urban Skills 98” – contest and after wining the title for the best show, unfortunately the battle for first place got lost against Extreme (France). During the same weekend Monty took part in the European One-On-One Battle of “Ultimate B-Boy Session 2” but in the first round he lost against Tuff Kid (Switzerland) who also won the whole contest.
In summer ’98 Monty and Remy took part in the “national Battle Of the Year 98” which was held for the first time and which was the official elimination for the “international Battle Of The Year 98”. But only by 2 there was no possibility to qualify for the final battles. During the same time Jamez started to practice again seriously. Some weeks later The Spartanic Rockers was completed with Jo (former member of the Japanese Breaking crew Freez) and Go (member of the Japanese Popping Crew 3D Connection and originally from Osaka).
In autumn ’98 Takeo, Hiro, Tsuyoshi, Go and Jo took part in the “UK Break-Championship 98” and they won the final battle against Style Elements (USA)! Some weeks later they also won the first place for the best show at the “international Battle Of The Year 98”!
In spring ’99 The Spartanic Rockers tragically lost one of their members: Jo (R.I.P.).
After winning the Japanese streetdance contest “Dance Delight” (together with the crew 3D Connection), Go got a contract as a singer and dancer in the Japanese Top10 pop group “PaniCrew”.
In summer ’99 Tomo – a former member of the Japanese Breaking Crew Waseda Breakers – got a member of the Spartanic Rockers family after being a friend and practicing partner of the Japanese crew members since many years.
Also in summer ’99 Hiro, Tsuyoshi, Takeo and Remy took part in an international Breaking contest in Seoul (Korea) named “1st World HipHop Festival” together with Shin and Now who are longtime friends of the crew.
In autumn ’99 the complete Spartanic Rockers except Jamez and Go (who couldn’t left his job) took part in the “international Battle Of The Year 99” contest and they won the title for the best show! One week later they also took part in the “UK Break-Championship 99” and they got the second place after “losing” the battle for first place against Bag Of Trix from Canada.
In November 2000 the Japanese members took part at “Freestyle Session 6” in L.A. (USA) where they qualified for the finals on the second day by battling Renegades (USA) and then lost against Massive Monkees (USA).
In April 2001 the Japanese members entered the “1st B-Boy World Cup” in Paris (Fance) and made it to the semifinals where they lost against the French Dream Team. In the same month Remy was judging the crew and the 2-on-2 battles at “Total Session 3” in Grenoble (France).
In May 2001 the Japanese members took part at “Battle Of The B-Boy Master” in Seoul (Korea). In July 2001 Remy was a judge at “BOTY Spain 2001” together with Soul Control (USA).
In September 2001 the Spartanic Rockers organized a party in Berne to celebrate their “15th crew anniversary” together with dancers from all over.
In October 2001 Remy was also judging at the “UK B-Boy Championships 2001” and in November 2001 Hiro was a judge at the international “Battle Of The Year 2001”.
ORGANIZING, JUDGING, BATTLING
In 2002 Remy was judging at “Battle Of The Year Scandinavia”, “Battle Of The Year Spain” and “Battle Of The Year France”.
The Spartanic Rockers also organized the “Battle Of The Year Switzerland 2002” series with 2 regional eliminations (Lucerne & Lausanne) and the final event which took place in the legendary location called “Dampfzentrale” in Berne (like “CH FRESH 90”). In October 2003 Takeo was also judging at the “UK B-Boy Championships 2002”.
Furthermore the Spartanic Rockers produced a song for the compilation of the international Battle of the Year 2002. The song is called “Why Should I Move When I Can Dance” and is a homage to all dancers around the world.
In 2003 Remy was judging at the “Belgian B-Boy Battle”, “Battle Of The Year Italy” and “Battle Of The Year South Africa”.
The Spartanic Rockers also organized for the second time the “Battle Of The Year Switzerland” series with 2 regional eliminations (Zurich & Lausanne) and the final event (Hotel National / Bern).
In 2004 the Spartanic Rockers organized for the third time the final event of the “Battle Of The Year Switzerland” (Rote Fabrik / Zurich).
In 2004 Takeo also organized for the first time the official japanese qualification event for the “UK B-Boy Championships”.
In 2005 the Spartanic Rockers took part at the first “Red Bull Beat Battle” (London / UK) and got the second place. 8 B-Boy crews from all around the world with 8 members each got their show music from 8 different DJs 8 weeks before the event. The competing crews were Flying Steps (Germany), Furious Styles (USA), Wanted (France), Supernaturalz (Canada), Gamblerz (Korea), Break The Funk (Italy), Soul Mavericks (UK) and Spartanic Rockers (Swiss & Japan).
In 2005 Takeo also organized for the second time the “UK B-Boy Championships Japan” and Remy was judging at the first edition of “Circle Kingz” (Lausanne / Switzerland).
In 2006 Takeo organized the “UK B-Boy Championships Japan”. Remy was judging at the 2nd edition of “Battle Of The Year USA” in Los Angeles.
In September 2006 the Spartanic Rockers organized a party in Tokyo to celebrate their “20th crew anniversary”. A special guest at the event was the well known photographer Charles Peterson who took some photos at the party for his B-Boy documentary book “Cypher”.
In 2007 Takeo organized “Juste Debout Japan” and Hiro judged at all international “Juste Debout” qualification events and also at the final event in Paris. Takeo also judged at the 2nd “Red Bull Beat Battle” in London (UK) and organized again the “UK B-Boy Championships Japan”.
In 2008 and 2009 Takeo organized again “Juste Debout Japan” and “UK B-Boy Championships Japan”.
To learn even more about the crew, check out Spartanic Story on Studio Faith’s blog.