How Goldman Sachs led one man to breakdancing glory
B-boy Silverback.
That's the breaking name of Steve Graham – a 55-year old private equity exec who learnt his dancing skills while an analyst Goldman Sachs in the early 1980s.
Graham, who runs Philadelphia-based Graham Partners, was originally known as "Vanilla Shake", in days that preceded the advent of Vanilla Ice, reports Business Insider.
Back in the 80s, Graham used to frequent The Roxy – the popular New York nightclub, where he started asking dancers to show him moves.
After that, he started breaking late at night, in a South Bronx community centre.
Speaking to Business Insider, he said:
When you work at Goldman so late you can take a cab anywhere, so I literally took it to the South Bronx and trained at this place with guys who were sort of famous breakers back in the day. I learned some moves from them.
Then he started breakdancing during lunch at Goldman.
Once he'd got enough moves under his belt, Graham began challenging "street hitters"—people who break for money on the sidewalk—to breaking battles.
This led to him being included in their act.
He'd wear a tie, glasses and carry a calculator (as one might expect of a Goldman employee). Then one of the hitters would pull him from the crowd by his tie.
He'd rid himself of props and join in.
When he'd finished at Goldman, Graham's breaking opportunities became fewer and farther between.
But a couple of years ago he picked up his talent again after enrolling his two young sons with breaking coaches.
Now, fully immersed back in the breakdancing scene – in Philadelphia, New York and Chicago – Graham has added breaking to what he teaches his summer interns. They even enter competitions.
He's also recently started the non-profit Urban Dance & Education Foundation, which intends to support young breakers and help with teaching people. It now has over 50,000 likes on Facebook.