Alito Hernandez

From breakdancing on the streets of Coney Island with Fresh Kids to Peter Gennaro's Street Dreams

Interviewer:
Interviewee:
Alito Hernandez
Interview Date:
August 5, 2018

Languages

In August 2018, on the occasion of the 35th Anniversary Coney Island Break Dancers Reunion, Alito Hernandez shares memories of learning to breakdance as a young boy in the 1980s and the history of Fresh Kids crew in Coney Island.  "My parents moved to West 19th Street when I was seven years old. I became friends with Eddie Bandit, " he says of the president of Fresh Kids. "Eddie was the first one that really showed me how to breakdance and encouraged me. They would break till dawn when I met them.  I was a baby. I was inspired by them." Alito recalls that Coney Island's Polar Express was the crew's stomping grounds, but they practiced at Our Lady of Solace schoolyard and did shows at United Skates of America in Bay Ridge and Washington Square Park.  As a young teen, "Ali" auditioned for and won a role in choreographer Peter Gennaro's Off-Off Broadway production Street Dreams featuring dancers from the streets of New York.