Rising Stars: Meet Jason Magno

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Magno.

Hi Jason, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a dancer (Bboy Strife), founder of ProjectSOLE dance studio/school, Husband, and father of 3. I started as dancer in my hometown, Earlimart in 2002/2003. Two of my good friends and I were just chilling in my living room and I just randomly said, “You guys want to start Break Dancing?”. Our hometown had nothing going for us. No community events, no safe areas do anything unless you are with a group of people. An underdeveloped town. But after that day, we practiced after school almost every day. We had no formal training or anybody to guide us. By the time, we were coming into Sophomore year in high school, the seniors that were Breaking graduated. So, we saved every little footage we could scrounge on the internet and movies. Collected cardboard from the nearby developing houses and set up in my garage. Through hot summer days and cold winter’s at the park across our school, the only decent spot that had a stage floor that we could spin on and not get told or interrupted to stop dancing at school. We researched moves, rewatched every clip of every move we wanted to learn hundreds of times, and kept practicing even when we got bruised and injured. And at the end of high school, I was the only one left still Breaking.

I continued through college and later found and trained new people to dance with (finally had a car to travel too). We battled at whatever local jams (which was near non-existent where I lived) and did performances until we were introduced to a new dance studio (Studio 661). I was against it at first, but tried it out. I was picked up by the studio to teach Breaking and be part of the dance crew. During that time, the dance community in Delano (next town over where I went high school and college) was near non-existence in terms of real HipHop and breaking. When compare to the 90s in Delano, there was no dance community nor was any of the dance studios at the time really helping build a dance community. I wanted to give back and build that community. I threw a couple of successful jams, events, workshops, etc to spread the dance community. During that time, I was gathering DJs, dancers, graffiti artists, beatboxers, and singers. This is where I met my good friend, Alex Cantu. He killed his performance and I wanted knew he freestyled a little bit. And I wanted to pair him up with my crew member to beatbox while he rapped. That one moment in time was one of the illest I’ve witness happen in my hometown.
Fast forward to 2012, I moved to San Jose to pursuit a career in the gaming industry. Still tried hosting and developing the dance community in Delano. But it slow down heavily and the distance was already hard to cover. But I started a new movement / project, which was ProjectSOLE. At first, it was just a blog title aboutmy dance journey and how dance influenced me, then it became a multimedia name I was going to use for editing. But I realized that ProjectSOLE had more meaning than just a name. I decided that my dance studio / school would be named ProjectSOLE. I still wanted to give back to the HipHop/Breaking community as it help shaped who I am today. I started the ProjectSOLE during pandemic and it’s continuing to grow. I’m still teaching in outdoor spaces and looking to open up my own physical location and really cater it around HipHop.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve experienced so much challenges along the road as a dancer and as a person. Motivation was a big one while starting as a dancer. I’ve gone though three generations of dancers (crews) I’ve trained with. Started with high school (my two other friends), during college (I was recruited and asked to bring back dance into my current crew, BIS crew), and then the end of college. I’ve questioned myself if I should still continue especially with so many people I trained with stopped Breaking. But I persevered, because I couldn’t fit into anything other than dance. I felt like a black sheep in everything else other than dance. I realized that ever time I got down on the dance floor, nothing else mattered. I felt like I was flying without leaving the floor. That kept me going. I wanted to fly.

My crew during my college days was extremely active in dance but big drama as one of my former crew members was trying to turn everyone against me. I was ready to leave everyone at one point. I wanted to smash that negative energy. At the time, my sister was the only one that I felt had my back. So, we promised that we’d train and just go to more jams and leave the crew out of it. Word got out, and after a couple months, we had a crew meeting to squash whatever negative sayings that was made about me. I just kept moving forward. That was the biggest thing I had to remind myself.

Dancing in a crew but still felt alone. I wanted to prove that breakers are dancers.

Money was a big issue when throwing jams and events. Most of my events were out of pocket until a good friend decided to help fund and collab on two of my biggest events, Express Yo Self and Trip the Lights. I want to thank my wife for helping me move forward and build these events. Couldn’t have done without her support.

Moving to a new city and don’t have people support you was big thing.

No dance studio (except Studio 661) wanted to have a committed breaking class when I’ve mentioned during interviews I’d like to help build a program.

Pandemic was a big issue. Stopped all social interactions. That meant no practicing with other artists and no jams/events.

Looking back, it wasn’t easy or smooth coming up. The stigma of deciding if this career is right for me. Many times I’ve contemplated this thought, but my answer was always the same, DANCE IS LIFE.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have my AM job which I am a Deployment Technician where I basically set up, break down, and collect computer assets for a company.

But being a Dancer and a Dancer instructor has always been my first job. For as long as I’ve been working, I’ve always held a Dance instructor job. Basically, having 2+ jobs ever since I started working.

I teach dance (choreography, breaking, etc) to others from kids to adults. I specialize in bringing out the confidence, creativity, and individuality of a person through dance. Back in my hometown, I was known as the guy with the flares, the guy with bangs (LOL). But I’ve been told by my student’s parents that I was a great teacher/mentor even helping one my best students fight depression.
I’m most proud of my students. Especially when I see their happy faces when they know they killed it in the dance circle or when they get a new move down.

I enjoy breaking, i enjoy dancing, i enjoy teaching and passing on the what I’ve learned through dance and HipHop. I thank everyone that I’ve made a connection with through dance and HipHop. This helped me find my saying that I follow and use as a motto for my dance school/program for ProjectSOLE,

“Connect our SOULS through the dance of my SOLE”

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Find your mentor in everything. Learn from everyone. Pick what you like and weed out what doesn’t work for you. But really build your craft and research. Anybody can be your mentor, but if you don’t click with that person, then move on.

I don’t feel like I’ve ever had a solid mentor. I just learn or find inspiration from everybody and everything. Don’t be afraid to ask. And always give back to those that help you. Whether in dance or in life. Look for positive vibes only. Peace, Love, Unity, and Always having FUN.
Everybody that I’ve connected with through dance, THANK YOU!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bboystrife/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bboySTRIFE/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmagno/

Image Credits
MXJ (The one with the logo)