Olympic breakdancing champion Phil Kim’s (aka Phil Wizard’s ) coach Taiyo Seo has a storied history in the Yukon. 

Seo spent three years teaching breakdancing in the Yukon in the early 2010s. 

Andrea Simpson-Fowler, executive director of the Heart of Riverdale, told the story of how Seo, who is Korean, came to the Yukon. 

Simpson-Fowler had seen Seo in the Planet B Boys documentary. 

The Yukon Nominee program was coming into being at the time. Simpson-Fowler said they had hired a few people from out of the country through it. 

As luck would have it, Seo, who had done workshops in the Yukon, was on a travel visa and in Vancouver. 

“I called him and said ‘hey, I want to get a B-Boys (Break-Boys) teacher to come and move to the Yukon,'” recalled Fowler. “I was like, ‘do you know anybody?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, me. I want to do it’.”

“He came up and he lived with us. My mom was away for that year so she gave him her apartment. And he coached the guys for three years.” 

Simpson-Fowler said Seo is “super-positive.” 

“If you’re feeling bad about a round, he gets you back on track and refocused.” 

Seo was Luca Squires’s breakdance (or breaking) teacher back in 2009 at The Heart of Riverdale, which was Leaping Feats at the time, one of four organizations that merged into The Heart of Riverdale. 

Squires, now 19, was taught by Seo from about the age of five to eight years old until 2013. 

“He just inspired all of our little minds to, like, how amazing breakdancing is. He just instilled this deep passion for it that I haven’t lost all these years later. It’s still my favourite thing to do. I’m never gonna quit.” 

“He was just genuinely one of the best, like, even after it’s been so long, I haven’t met many adults who are better at working with kids than he was.” 

Squires said Seo was in a Korean crew that won the 2002 Battle of the Year, the biggest battle that breakdancing had to that point. 

“It was just this huge crew battle from countries like, breakdance crews from all over the world, and he was on the team that won it, and it’s crazy that we got him up here for so long, honestly.” 

Squires also saw Seo in Planet B-Boys, a documentary about that Battle of the Year.

“That’s just so cool. The one that he won, there’s an entire movie called Planet B Boy. And we watched that. And, yeah, it was just really inspiring.” 

Squires attended the Cypherfest in Carcross recently. 

The B-Boys and B-Girls were watching Phil Wizards’ gold-medal-winning performance at the Olympics as well.

“Every B-Boy at Cypherfest Fest was huddled around a small TV screen and we watched it live together,” recalled Squires. “It was really special.”

“We knew he was going to win after a while, especially in the finals, after we just saw both of their first rounds, we were like, ‘wow, this isn’t even close’.” 

“I think Phil Wizard really is the best in the game right now. And I think it’s so cool that the Olympics happened when it did, so that he could be at his prime for it.” 

Squires said the Olympic breaking competition took place while they were out at the property they were staying at over about six hours while their breaking sessions in Carcross were going on. 

“Every now and then we would just hear huge screams and yells from inside the house of people being super excited and stuff. And, yeah, it was just really amazing.”

Squires said when Wizard won the gold, they were all “super excited.” 

“He just represented. He was completely on his game. I think he was definitely in the pocket all that day, just in the zone.” 

Squires, of course, felt as if he had a connection with Wizard because they shared Seo as a coach years ago. Squires met up with Seo in Vancouver in June 2022, He also had a chance to breakdance with Wizard, but couldn’t be there that day. 

“It would have been great. But I have faith that I’ll be able to again in the future.” 

Squires added that he knows Wizard’s strength and conditioning coach, Nick Robinson, who is originally from Whitehorse, very well. He said Robinson’s brothers, Ben and Alex, are actively involved in The Heart of Riverdale. 

Robinson is a member of the local B-Boys crew, Groundwork Sessions. 

“It’s kind of cool that I know his breaking trainer and his fitness trainer very well.”