Lou  Barber

What does break dancing and Flash computer animation have in common? Lou Barber, and that’s about it. He’s the hub of two distinct worlds, but stay tuned for the connection. … Barber started break dancing in high school with friends, a pastime of cardboard and mix tapes that ran alongside his computer classes. After graduating, he took more computer classes (following the perennial parents’ advice of having something useful to fall back on). He also started touring with local hip-hop groups as a background dancer. Then Richmond’s own R&B star D’Angelo caught wind of Barber and hired him to choreograph live shows and music videos. Barber toured with him for a year in 1999. Four buses! Somewhere in there, away from the camera flashes, another sort of Flash came along — a kind of Internet animation that became a career focus for Barber. After the touring, he came back to Richmond and needed to pay the bills. So he became a certified instructor, teaching Flash for companies all over the world. Suddenly, he’s touring again. Suddenly, he’s writing a book on Flash. Suddenly, Beyoncé’s on the phone, or Jada Pinkett Smith; Or he’s volunteering for Art 180 or C3; Or choreographing two fat guys dancing badly for the “Y Do You Think” anti-smoking campaign. So it’s always something new for Barber, and that’s where it all comes together, because at the heart of both dancing and Flash is motion.