The person behind Lussy Sky

He is one of the most striking b-boys of the international scene. His dance style fascinates the audience and the expression in his eyes sends cold shivers down the spine of his opponents. As Lussy Sky Oleksandr Gatyn-Lozynskyi has gained fame and reputation.

It was in 1999 during holidays on the Crimean Peninsula when Oleksandr saw Breaking for the first time in his life. While walking along the beach together with his mother the then 8-year-old caught sight of a teenager doing tricks on one hand in the sand. The view was so captivating for him that he couldn’t budge for more than twenty minutes, remembers Oleksandr today. Three years later during a school trip to Poland he met further b-boys at a children’s disco, they could even do headspin already. Oleksandr, strongly impressed by their skills, tried to imitate some tricks but it was all too difficult for him. The turning point came in 2005: Oleksandr, meanwhile fourteen and driven by the desire to learn breaking, found a dance school in his hometown Lviv. However, he didn’t stay long there but changed just two months later to another school. This was the gathering place and training center for all local b-boys. At first Oleksandr practised just for fun, without any special aims, but the more he busied himself with breaking and the hip hop culture, the deeper this art and lifestyle grew into him and kindled his endeavour to move one level higher.

Just as he increased his skills so he changed in the beginning also his b-boy names. Today Oleksandr is worldwide professionally known as Lussy Sky - a pseudonym which not only makes one smirk but also gives rise to questions. However, behind this alias is indeed a story: His parents and his friends call him `Lesik´ - in Ukrainian this is an abbreviation for the name Oleksandr. One day one guy from his team suggested to change `Lesik´ into the name `Lussy´. Oleksandr, anything but excited about the female touch, resisted this absurd idea but somehow this nickname should stick with him. The song of the Beatles’ `Lucy in the sky´ which he often listened to at that time, put the puzzle together and gave his name the essential meaning. This song is about LSD, thus Oleksandr came up with the idea to take exactly this as his subject: From now on his dance style should have the same effect on the spectators as a drug, they should become addicted to his dancing and feel the desire to see more - that’s why `Lussy Sky´.

Since his beginnings the 27-year-old Ukrainian has been seeking inspiration, because only this way, he emphasizes, you can grow as an artist. He himself received in the course of his dancing development many influences from b-boy Born from the Rivers Crew, from Casper, Cloud, as well as from Intact from Ruffneck Attack and Beatmaster from Predatorz. However, there are also a lot of other dancers, even from the younger generation, who awake Lussy’s enthusiasm and from whom he still can discover something new for himself. But inspiration is not everything for him: Lussy’s main ambition was always to stay himself, because only in this way, as he says, you can reach the originality everybody is speaking about today.

Dancing or studying? Lussy Sky as well was facing this well-known, tiresome question a couple of years ago. After graduating from school he wanted to study voice in Kiev, but as this plan failed he enrolled for music studies in Lviv in 2009. Despite a scholarship he broke the study off only a half year later. The passion for breaking was too great, Lussy couldn’t live it out only as a sideline, that’s why he decided to turn exactly this passion into a career. It’s important to mention that money had never priority for Lussy. Everything he wanted was dancing, proving himself and presenting his skills.

Success shouldn’t be long in coming for the determined dancer and vault him only two years later to the top newcomers of the scene. Nobody had foreseen it, nobody had believed in it, not even Lussy himself, he had only wished it from the bottom of his heart. The victory in the `7 to smoke´ at the Yalta Summer Jam 2011 was the starting shot for his career. From 2012, although his financial situation was not that good, he also started travelling to Europe. Breaking, as he himself admits, opened the boundaries for him. Today Lussy earns his own living from battles, judging and masterclasses.

"I can make a good living from it but I would never advise the younger generation to drop out of school and take the same path as I did", he explains.

Cause he himself knows it very well - in order to be successful as a dancer, it’s not enough only to practise hard. There are also other factors which carry weight.

In Ukraine in comparison to Europe, as Lussy says, b-boys have less opportunities to develop themselves. In Europe the borders are open, you can go wherever you want and if you do breaking professionally it’s easier to get a sponsor. But exactly these boundaries compose the key advantage for the Ukrainian b-boys: through this geographical frame the scene remains hungry, it thirsts for more and for the new. This is the reason why the Ukrainian b-boys are so strong and shine with their skills worldwide.

"Furthermore the mentality plays a decisive role. Our nation loves to win and so we go determinedly toward our goal", underlines Lussy.

He himself has even an own strategy for it. As soon as he is facing a battle he strives to bring himself into a fighting state. With this increasing wave of energy he enters every cypher. `Fighting until the end´ is the name of the game which helps Lussy to get 100 percent out of himself.

The dance- and travel-oriented life raises also some family questions. Lussy, what only few know, was married for five years, meanwhile he is divorced and currently single cause his focus rests primarily on breaking. Also with his parents he experienced in the past some difficult situations. For them it was a great disappointment when singing which Lussy had practised intensively since childhood, faded into the background and breaking became his main priority. For this reason in the beginning they gave little support for their son’s professional decision. But now, years later, they see that all effort, all barriers Lussy had to overcome on his path, his exhaustless training and his firm belief in himself and his creative work show their effect today and that for Lussy this step was doubtless the right one.