Classic uprock

>> Diagnosing Dr. Draw, T-dot's breakdancing violinist

by SCOTT C

Eugene Draw, aka Dr. Draw, is a virtuoso violinist who breakdances while he plays. Yes, you read correct. The 19-year-old Torontonian explains himself surprisingly well, like the two were a match made in heaven.



Mirror: How did this get started?

Dr. Draw: When I was 13, 14, I went out in the street to try to make some money busking. In the street, you have to get people's attention in order to make some cash. So I started dancing. That led me to popping and locking, and now my legs and knees are strong enough that I can do old-school tricks with my legs while I'm playing the violin.

M: Were you breakdancing before this?

Dr. D: I've been breakdancing since I was, like, seven, even when I lived in Moscow.

M: You're Russian. How long have you been playing the violin?

Dr. D: About nine years. I started in classical music and eventually moved on to my own stuff.

M: So your own stuff is more house-based?

Dr. D: I do tribal house, I play with a hip hop crew called Nefarius--

M: You play with Nefarius?!

Dr. D: That guy's crazy! So much fun to work with. I've been doing stuff with him for two years or something. I did the last show when Kwesro was still alive. But right now I have my own hip hop crew called D-Strong, and we have a Japanese MC, Jay, who raps 120 fuckin' words per minute, and Odd, who is the Edgar Allan Poe of the Toronto hip hop scene. Jay is also a dancer in the National Ballet.

M: I used to work for the National Ballet and the Canadian Opera--as an usher.

Dr. D: Yeah, my mom teaches at the National Ballet School, so that's my main connection to dancing.

M: So you're just crossing all over the place, man!

Dr. D: I live for the artform, man. The artform is poetry, music, dance all mixed in together.

M: Are you into that whole new-image-of-classical-music thing, like that group Bond that has four girls who look like Britney Spears playing classical arrangements?

Dr. D: The fuckin' violin broads? Not really, actually. I don't want to reinvent anything, I just want to do what I do. The classical world is already there, it's just that they're so fuckin' unimaginative that it comes down to stuff like that.

With Ultra Naté and Alain Vinet at le Medley on Saturday, July 28, 10pm, $22-$27