POMONA >> Hank Cheng of Los Angeles was shy and reserved during his early years at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont.
Then he discovered hip-hop dancing and became an extrovert who spins on his head, uses his hands to propel himself into circles and rhythmically twists and snaps his body to intense beats of urban contemporary music.
Cheng, a 26-year-old Ph.D. candidate in molecular biology at USC, finds joy in break-dancing. He was among 120 dancers from 12 college teams from around the state at the ninth annual Schools 4 Fools Break-Dance Summit held Saturday at Pomona’s Hip Hop School of Arts.
Cal State Fullerton was there to defend its 2014 championship, a title co-event director Brandon Murillo of Los Angeles said the Orange County university students won because they “practiced, practiced, practiced their routines in an acrobatic manner and came together as dancers dedicated to something unique.”
Cheng and Aizel Agustino, a speech-language pathology master’s candidate and dancer at San Diego State, said academics had always come first in their campus lives. Cheng earned his bachelor’s in molecular biology and Agustino completed a bachelor’s in psychology, both at UC Berkeley and with honors.
Cheng didn’t realize his “few moves” were hip-hop moves until a friend, Bryant Yao, saw him dancing. Agustino, always an “A” student, was looking for new challenges when she started break-dancing four years ago.
The two exemplified the point of the event — to stress education and the arts, said Murillo and co-event director Anna Leah Ponce.
She said the “schools 4 fools” title signifies the fact participants are “fools for dance and education.”
Previously held at Loyola Marymount University, where Ponce earned a Bachelor of Science in natural science/physical and occupational therapy, the break-dancing event moved to Pomona in 2014.
Ponce said the Hip Hop School of Arts and the event were “a natural fit” because both stress education, the arts, discipline, creativity, teamwork and a passion for dance.
Ponce is completing a master’s in business administration at Cal State Fullerton. Murillo credits inspirational mentoring by Los Angeles educator and hip-hop enthusiast Jarrold Taylor and Cesar Rivas, co-founder of the hip-hop school with his wife Norma Umana, for introducing him to hip-hop and ultimately leading him to his “dream job” as House of Blues Music Forward Foundation’s marketing coordinator,
