Jacob Lyons

Kujo was born and raised in Los Angeles, and lives in Santa Clarita, located in the northwestern part of Los Angeles County. He was born with 100% sensorineural deafness in his right ear, and suffered several instances of conductive hearing loss in his left ear. These ranged from severe ear infections in early childhood, to concussions sustained in adolescence - some directly from accidents made while practicing or even battling! This mixed hearing loss left him profoundly deaf, though he can hear a bit from his left ear with the help of a hearing aid. He initially had great difficulties with verbal communication, and he suffered major speech impediments, including a constant stutter, throughout most of his childhood. The inability to pronounce certain simple sounds was overcome through years of speech therapy. The stutter, on the other hand, was entirely overcome through the confidence Kujo gained while learning to dance.

Kujo started dancing in 1992, at the age of 15, and had tremendous difficulties hearing the music. This forced him to (over)compensate by focusing more on strength and power moves, as opposed to the musicality of toprock and footwork. Kujo instantly became recognizable due to his wild personality (and the hair), and his incredibly dangerous and difficult moves. He and his crew, Soul Control, quickly became famous as power move innovators, first in California and soon, worldwide. They were primarily known for helping to introduce an obscure move called the “air flare” to the entire world in the late 1990s, as well as almost every conceivable air flare variation and combination. Air flares are now an integral part of almost every b-boy’s vocabulary.

Roughly 10 years into Kujo’s breaking career, as he began teaching and judging more, and competing less, he tasked himself with becoming a more complete b-boy. But this involved confronting his difficulties in hearing the music, and he found a number of ways to get around this. These included feeling vibrations through the floor, watching the other dancers clap their hands or bob their heads to the beat, and even memorizing the music in private (while playing it quite loudly), which helped tremendously with choreography. In addition to sustaining a long career as a professional b-boy, Kujo went on to become an award-winning choreographer, founding and touring with Lux Aeterna Dance Company from 2006-2016, as well as a freelance circus acrobat/aerialist, retiring in 2019. He is also a founding member of ILL-Abilities, a super-crew comprised of differently-abled b-boys from around the world. 

Now 48 years old, Kujo continues to tour, perform, teach, and judge around the world. Much of his work has been conducted in partnership with the US State Department as a cultural ambassador, participating in programs with various US Embassies throughout the world. He spends much of his time mentoring young b-boys and b-girls, helping them devise their own original moves and styles, and sometimes even passing on some of his own signature moves.