Street dancer Jussi Sirviö was awarded for his life’s work in New York

Finnish the most internationally successful street dance influencer Jussi Sirviö was awarded in New York on Sunday. He received a lifetime achievement award at the Breaking Hall of Fame event.

Sirviö, 41, is one of Finland’s most internationally successful street dancers, known by the stage name Focus. Having achieved more than 50 first places in street dance competitions around the world and in Finland, Sirviö has not only competed but also taught the tricks of the sport in hundreds of workshops and judged the world’s biggest street dance competitions.

Access to the respected gallery of honor of the sport warms the heart.

“After all, it is perhaps the greatest achievement of my dance career,” Sirviö says by phone from Cyprus.

He regrets that he could not receive the award himself in New York because of the overlapping trip.

“This day has passed in a bit of disbelief since I woke up and saw the pictures of the prize that my friend went to pick up for me.”

The browser has worked in street dance in a very versatile way for 30 years. The award lists many of the Finn’s achievements and thanks him for his work for the sport. Sirviö is particularly impressed by the fact that the award is not only a “recognition chosen by individual dancers”, but is awarded by the New York State Assembly.

“Somehow, it’s an incomprehensible thing. When you’ve been practicing the sport for a long time, it’s an incredibly good feeling to get praise for the work done from that side as well.”

The browser believes the secret of his success is that he has followed his heart.

“I’ve done what felt right and dedicated all my free time to it – and everything else,” he says.

“I haven’t seen an alternative or made any B-plans, but have dedicated myself to the sport as much as I have been able to give. And then it has carried very far.”

Of course, chance has also played its role.

“First of all, the fact that we went abroad at a very early stage and have tried to make a career directly in the Yankees and abroad instead of focusing so much on Finland. In Finland, however, the sport is still quite small compared to many other countries,” says Sirviö.

The browser started breakdancing at the age of 11 in Muurame, when he appeared as a teacher at an elementary school Mikko Ahlgren to give young people breaking lessons.

“It was a really funny coincidence in the sense that there were no sports enthusiasts in Finland, and not really in the whole world. “Suddenly, in the small municipality of Muurami, the breikkaus boom started,” says Sirviö.

“Little by little, people started moving to other jobs. I found new people with whom I continued the sport.”

Today, Sirviö has the street dance school Saiffa in Helsinki, which he founded with his dance group called Flow Mo in 2010.

For the last four years, he was the head coach of the Finnish national breaking team.

Sirviö hopes to be able to continue with the sport as long as possible and do it more for pleasure than work or duty.

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“Joy has been found again.”

“I toured the games for a very long time and I didn’t necessarily always enjoy it terribly. When you spend 200 days a year competing abroad, it starts to eat away at the joy of the sport,” says Sirviö.

“Now that I haven’t actually competed in five years, that’s how I’ve found joy again. Dancing has been incredibly fun.”