David Bernal
David "Elsewhere" Bernal | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 2, 1979 |
| Occupation | Popping / Liquid Dancer |
David "Elsewhere" Bernal (born August 2, 1979) is a popping dancer from Santa Ana, California. He became known through a viral video clip (Often titled Kolla2001) of himself dancing to Kraftwerk's song Expo 2000 [1] recorded at the Korean-American talent show Kollaboration in 2001.
Kolla2001
The clip showcased Bernal's characteristic take on the contemporary dance styles of popping and liquiding. Performances of these dances were rare at the time, and the clip became very popular when it circulated on the internet — so popular that in November 2006 the viral marketing company, The Viral Factory, collated page-impression figures from websites such as YouTube and Google Videos. They determined that, as of November 2006, this video had been viewed over 200 million times, making it the 8th most viewed video.[2]
Bernal was later hired to participate in advertisements for Heineken, Volkswagen, iPod, 7-Eleven Slurpee, Pepsi and Doritos. He also made a cameo appearance in the movie You Got Served and TV performances including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. [3].
Computer graphics technology were used in several of the commercials Bernal took part in, superimposing others' faces (old, young, male, female) onto his body so that they appeared to dance like him. In one of the most popular, Gene Kelly's head was superimposed onto Bernal's body in a re-enactment of "Singing in the Rain."[4]
Bernal also filmed and edited a large amount of the documentary video titled Detours. The video featured experimental dance styles focused primarily on four dancers, Midus, Kujo, Rawbzilla, and Elsewhere. While focusing much of the video on the four primary dancers, dozens of others were also featured in the video. The project has since ended and videos can be bought through various websites.
On August 8, 2007, Bernal and his dancing were featured in a segment of the inaugural episode of ABC's new video-clip program, i-Caught.
Double Jointed?
Some people when viewing the video think that David has to be double jointed to do his moves but when asked in an interview with oyemag.com he stated:
I’m not double-jointed at all. The only place where I am double-jointed is my thumbs, which doesn’t even matter. I would say I’m probably a little more flexible than most people in certain areas, mainly my shoulders and my ankles, but I wasn’t born that way. Those areas became flexible because of years of practicing.
References
- ^ Elsewhere's breakthrough video from Kollaboration 2001 (David is the third dancer to appear)
- ^ Famous Pictures Magazine. "Famous Pictures Magazine - Kolla2001". Retrieved 2007-06-02.
- ^ a b Open Your Eyes mag interview
- ^ kottke.org. "Interview at kottke.org". Retrieved 2007-06-02.
- ^ Undevco.com. "Interview at Undevco.com". Retrieved 2007-06-02.
External links
- David's MySpace Profile (w/ commercials, interview, misc. video)
- Picture of David performing at Kollaboration
Video clips
- David at Kollaboration 2001 (Google Video) David is the third dancer to appear.
- David at Kollaboration 2003 (Google Video) alternate source (Flash Player)
- David in video "Kinky-Sister twisted"(Google Video)
- David Elsewhere - B-Roll
- David Elsewhere - Interview
- David Elsewhere - You Got Served
- Detours Experimental Dance Project Trailer
- Another Interview
Commercials
- 7-Eleven Slurpee (Google Video)
- iPod (Google Video)
- Heineken (Google Video)
- Pepsi Samba (Google Video)
- Volkswagen Golf GTI (production company's site), (Google video) a spoof of 1952 movie Singin' in the Rain.
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