Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Ninjaboi's review of ABDC's Kanye West Challenge (Part 1 of 2)

Also, this review will be a bit less thorough than in past weeks, mostly because I haven’t had a chance to really sit and pick apart the performances.  I did watch them and remember most of them, but apologies if this isn’t up to my usual standard of detail, or if I forget specific things. 
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 Grading Scale:
10 – Choreography:  There are basically two ways to dance, as I see it.  There’s freestyling, which is the root of all dance.  Then there’s performances.  Performances are further broken up into two parts.  “Wow” moments which are meant to keep your memory on that routine, and “Choreography” which is everything else.  This section looks at how good the choreography wise – this is musicality wise, how much swagger, how complicated, etc.  “Choreography” is basically any coordinated dance movement of the crew’s members outside those moments.
10 – Wow Moments:  As explained above, Wow moments are when you create a moment that sticks in people’s minds.  This can either be tricks, to crazy isolations, to some “story moment.”  However, if we see the wow moment coming, that takes away from it.  The way you build up into the moment is just as important as the moment
10 – Showmanship: This is a variety of things.  Almost a miscellaneous category if you will.  Just off the top of my head, this includes: Appropriate Energy Level, Stage Use, Blocking/Framing, Transitions, Concept, Clean, Musicality, Pacing, Any real small thing that adds to the performance as a whole.
10 – Challenge: How well did the crew A)execute their challenge B)complete it creatively, and C) incorporate it throughout the performance rather than just simply do it once and have it seem out of place.  Also, prop challenges are usually much more difficult inherently, so those give crews a +1 to their overall score.
10 - Improvement: Usually this would be to see how well crews improve each week and work on their problems because one common theme of good crews on ABDC is constant improvement.  Just for reference: 7 means no improvement.  More means improvement, less means did worse.  The rationale is that on ABDC, crews that show that they keep giving better and better performances tend to do better overall.

Just for reference: 10 is perfect.  7 is average.  5 is barely passable.  Anything below that is… very weak.  So Average would be a 35, for reference.  I guess I developed this scale from the academic scoring system where 7 is average, and getting a 9 is a pretty big deal.  It’s rare for me to give out things below 5, or perfect 10s. 

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 A word on long mixes – Due to their nature of A)being at the end, and B)being multiple songs and styles, certain things are more important.  The choreo needs to be as if you are holding nothing back.  Not necessarily that you’ve exhausted your move pool, but that you bring the very best choreography possible.  There needs to be moments that need to stick out.  After all, there is a week of voting after this, so there needs to be good reason for this to stick in your mind over the week.  The challenges don’t have to be perfectly done, and there’s less emphasis on integration.  But execution and being creative with it is always a plus.   
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ICONic Boyz
Choreo – 5  What bothers me here is that the majority of their routine was basically copying the Poreotics demo video.  Maybe the formations were a little different.  Naturally there would be some overlap.  But still, most crews do something a lil different.  It would be as if someone Season 3 had used Mike Song’s exact tutting combo in their routine.  This sort of affects challenge, but just the sheer amount of biting that went on here affects this score too.  That said, their non-challenge choreography was… underwhelming.  Simple basic choreo taught in any introduction class would be the same difficulty level or complexity.  And I noticed a lot of moments when they weren’t as clean, or in sync with each other.
Wow – 1  Wow, a 1?  This is like the lowest score I’ve given for any category all season.  The thing is, for me they didn’t really have a defining moment in this routine.  The two impressive moments were direct rips off of Supercr3w.  Yes, I get that the song was touch the sky.  But to do that moment in almost exactly the same way, and then to have the nerve to end the performance with the “Ballin” moment… makes me as mad as watching people byte Les Twins on national TV.  Biters will be tossed in the bay, or at the very least have their score docked heavily.  I will say T-swag’s solo was a good moment, which is what saved this score from getting a zero.
Showmanship – 6 Formations and Transitions were meh, Energy was barely passable.  This is a performance where you need to get hyped.  I will say there were some cute moments when they played with the lyrics, but that’s it.
Challenge – 6 Isolations weren’t together, nor were they particularly creative.  Boogaloo was more or less ripped from the Poreotics video, and only T-swag really executed them decently (as an aspiring popper who is working on Boogaloo, I’ve been watching a lot of master Boogaloo-ers).  I don’t expect them to be Poppin Sam level, but at least decent rolls are necessary.  Dougie was the only section I really liked because of the way they did it a bit uniquely on the floor.  Other than that, they “did the challenge,” but wasn’t that impressive, especially as there really was not that much difference from the Poreotix video
Improvement – 6  It wasn’t bad.  But I feel like they have not grown at all on the show.  There were hints of growth mid season, but to go back to the basic choreography that plagued them the first few episodes means they took at step back.
Total: 24/50
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Phunk Phenomenon
Choreo – 10 If only I had access to Youtube right now to go into detail.  I saw lots of old school styles in there, particularly this one nice house section.  Their new style choreography was great and really matched the music.  What’s better, is that the structure of their routines has changed.  Before I said that their choreography was very sectional.  Ie, here’s a x second long section we need to fill.  We can insert [locking/popping/housing].  Granted it was well done with the music and always matched, but the awkwardness in transitions sort of killed it.  Here, it seamlessly flowed from one to the other, so that it was hard to imagine a different set of choreography to the music.
Wow – 9 Not as many wow moments or as memorable as say a Bebo-Back or a jumping freeze.  But still, there were some really nice athletic things going on here, paced out very well.  Of note was Bebo’s gainer, and the very ending.  Man, what’s with Phunk and falling down well?  First episode had the Superman, and this last one had the back suicide.
Showmanship – 10 Story telling was here, especially lyrical world play. Even without it in front of me, I really dug the acting during the Gold Digger part when they played with their pockets.  The sexy time in the back during the last section as also good. The formations were dynamic, moving around the whole stage, and the transitions were flawless, especially like I said before, with their different styles of choreography. Energy was mad hype and really gave off the idea that they were going all out.
Challenge - 9 I have no idea what they were talking about with the isos.  They’ve done isos before.  True they haven’t been the cleanest crew all season, but they really did nicely here.  The boogaloo was pretty decent, and the dougie mixed in with the story telling was creative.
Improvement – 8 Phunk stepped it up by changing the structure of their routine and really pulling out all the stops for this routine.  Well Done
Total: 46/50
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IaMmE
Choreo – 9 – This is what I’ve been waiting for.  So so far this season we’ve seen different types of Brain Banging.  Most of the time it has been very mechanical, and didn’t flow well with other types of choreography, such as when they’d use their choreography as transitions between Brain Bang sets.  Technically pretty, but seemed a bit “let’s get through this” at times.  Peacock was pretty organic and not quite as rigid.  Here, we see what I’ve been hoping they do all season.  It’s still brain banging, but there’s so much emphasis and power behind it.  It fluidly transitions between other styles of choreography (though I will say while more varied than before, it was still limited to a few styles, as opposed to Phunk’s massive repertoire).
Wow – 10 Do I really need to explain this?  Brain Bangs were awesome.  They paced them out well.  They were creative.
Showmanship – 10 While unlike other long mixes you didn’t get the sense that IME had used up all they had, it wasn’t a bad thing.  This is because IME simply has so much to offer that if they showed it all in a mix that was 10 times as long they’d still have more to show.  In other aspects, better stage use, levels and formations and transitions.  Interesting dynamics, especially when it went from group -> couple -> wow moment.  Pacing was excellent
Challenge – 9 Naturaly they killed isos.  Boogaloo could have been done a tad better, although the whole accented hip isolation thing with the heads between the legs was pretty clever. The dougie was okay with the multiple levels, they seemed a bit precarious at times, but it was okay.
Improvement – 8 Like I said above.  This is what I hoped Brain Banging would be like all season, and they finally delivered.
Total: 46/50

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Did they get it right? No, ICONic shouldn’t have been saved automatically.  When you see the numbers tomorrow you’ll see why.  Between Phunk and IaMmE, I personally think either one could have stayed. If you judge by performance over the past few weeks, I think Phunk would have an edge, but in terms of bringing something “new” to the stage, IaMmE edges them out a little bit. Phunk had a lil more energy, but IaMnE was a lil cleaner. Overall either one going home wouldn’t have been a bad thing, if you ignore who was saved.  


Part 2 to follow tomorrow…

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Click here to return to the first page and to leave comments. Thanks again Ninjaboi -- we look forward to Part 2!

Monday, May 30, 2011

Videos: World of Dance NY winners: Rockwell Family, Wanted Ashiqz, EPIC Motion

Here's the 2nd place performance by New York's Wanted Ashiqz. Note: the performance was interrupted in the middle (during the Bad Romance section) because the sound cut out, This video splices together the two partial performances;

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This is 3rd place winner EPIC Motion from New York.
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Zekeish's Review of ABDC's Kanye West/Last Chance Challenges

Now for my grading scale, I’m not a big numbers fan, so I have decided to do this review with words serving as my ratings. My scale is as follows
OH MY TITS= A perfect performance. Their transitions were on point, their choreography was squeaky clean, and they had wow moments that made you want to disrespect the nearest replay button. Basically the performance that makes a season
FANTABULOUS= Close to a perfect performance. There was just one thing that kept them from being perfection incarnated.
FREAK A LEAK= A great performance. Definitely an eye catcher, but had some problems with some aspects of their performance
GOODISH= A good performance. Had some noticeable problems but still had an overall solid performance that has rewatchablitly
MEH= An okay performance, nothing outside the ordinary. Had some glaring problems or provided no real wow factor.
INCREDIBLY MEDIOCRE= A very average performance. Worse than okay, but good enough to where I could sit through the performance, Barely.
WELL, THAT SUCKED= A less than average performance, nothing really went right here. Had some concepts that could have been executed better, but nothing really made you like the performance. You wanted to find the nearest dark place and hide there until the performance is over. And maybe binge eat your feelings. Whatever floats your suck fest boat.
I'D RATHER WATCH A JUSTIN BIEBER CONCERT= A horrible performance. You’d rather be subjected to Bieber and thousands of 11 year old girls screaming in your ear… Like seriously, the crew might as well incorporate taking a dump on the stage into their choreo.
So let’s get right into it…

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-ICONIC BOYZ- The first saved crew is ICONic Boyz. Surprised/shocked/upset? Don’t be, it was expected, mainly because their marketability is off the charts. Yes they are nowhere near good, but they are kids, thusly, they make the show money. So let’s all hold hands and get through this rough time together. 


Each crew had three specific challenges to attend to. They had to do the boogaloo, dougie and isolations. Two of these styles require you to be talented; the other is just a vibe swag type of thing. As always, the ICONic Boyz did not do very well. It was very sloppy in each section, and they never really came together for anything. Even their supposed “best” part, which was the dougie, wasn’t together. The performance started with Thomas coming through the middle holding his hands in a circle shape by his face, he also was rocking a purple bowler cap and a blazer. This whole part didn’t make any sense to me, mainly because I couldn’t decide if they wanted make Thomas look like a Pimp or not. I didn’t get the whole hat and blazer thing. They then went into a very weak boogaloo section, all the while, stealing Super Cr3w’s jump move. I love how their “wow” moment was from stolen from someone else. Anyway, their boogaloo section was sloppy, not really boogaloo at all and consisted of some awkward moments where it looked like they were just waiting for something to happen. Case in point, watch right before they take the blazer off of T-Swag, there is a momentary pause where they just stop dancing, then go into the next section. They used taking off a blazer as a transition, are you kidding me? 


Their next section was their “Iso” section. This was very sloppy as well. Not only are they not together, but their Isos aren’t even clean. They don’t pull off the illusion of an Iso at all. After their supposed isolations, they went into some filler (basic) choreography until they got to what was their best part -- The dougie section. You knew that Iconic Boyz were going to do okay with this, mainly because being able to dougie doesn’t involve you being talented at dance in general. I liked that they did the dougie on the floor; the way they got into that though, was very sloppy. They tried to do a little push off of the ground, shimmy shake, then go right into it. Some of the kids missed their timing, Thomas didn’t even get off the ground and the rest of them did what they were supposed to do. Only half the crew was in sync with each other at this point. But, they did their dougie on the ground, got back up went into another dougie section that wasn’t clean (this time standing up) and afterwards, went into some less than basic choreography, which once again wasn’t clean. CAN someone please get me my can of ICONIC-CLEAN? They finished out with some poses and threw some money in the air. The camera panned to Thomas looking like what they just did was hard, and it was over, finally. This week was their weakest week since Black Eyed Peas week, mainly because nothing was together, and what they were doing wasn’t remotely hard. 


*Last Chance Challenge- It was awful and a half. No words can describe how much I regret seeing that. It was cocky, self-absorbed, and not even good* KANYE WEST CHALLENGE DUB THEE… WOW THAT SUCKED
LAST CHANCE CHALLENGE… ID RATHER WATCH A JUSTIN BIEBER CONCERT 7 TIMES
OVERALL I DUB THEE… ID RATHER WATCH A JUSTIN BIEBER CONCERT

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*Bottom Two*
We all knew it would come to this. Honestly, I was very excited to see them battle, because each crew knew they had to be 110% awesome to make it through. This battle was amazing, and made everyone see who the true top 2 crews are.

-PHUNK PHENOMENON- We knew that Phunk Phenomenon had to come out and rip the stage in order to stay alive tonight, and that’s exactly what they did. This performance had a crazy high energy level, and was full of some great moments although this performance was still not their best.
They started this performance with a great dougie section, where they started out in a line, exploded out from that line, flipped Kassandra on Exclusive’s back and started the dougie. This was an incredible visual that I didn’t think was possible with the dougie, but they did it, and started their routine with a bang.  They then gave Kassandra a chance to shine by some booty shaking! A booty boogie solo. They then passed it off to Bebo, who did an impressive looking freeze at first; it got a little sloppy at the end. His foot touched down and he had to pick himself back up to do the pushups from that position. That trick didn’t wow as much as it was supposed to.  Then a series of flips led them into the next section in the song (Backflip, freeze, spin flip as well as a very impressive gainer off another member’s chest). This next section was their boogaloo section, but they started off with some top rocks (Bboy Choreography) which led off with Bebo and one of the brothers doing an impressive duo section. Bebo spun on the ground, got lifted back up above the head of the other member and went straight into boogaloo choreography. The impressive part about it is that Bebo had JUST landed on his feet and in less than a second went right in with the rest of the group. 


Their boogaloo section was okay, nothing to write home about. Some of the members struggled with it a bit (especially Bebo); mainly because boogaloo is hard to do, but it wasn’t the worst boogaloo I’ve ever seen. They then did a walking transition (made me sad to see that) into their Isolation section. Their isolation section would have been more impressive if the camera QUIT ZOOMING IN! I was so angry at this camera work in this performance but this topped the cake. I thought to myself, “they are doing their most visual section, and you’re going to cut to certain people and take the illusion completely away. God you guys are great”. But what we did see as an audience was just okay. I wanted them to do a bit more with that section, mainly because the ending of it was so cool. With three of the members in the middle doing some neck iso's while the rest of the group collapsed back to the center. They weren’t the cleanest of Iso's (Rihanna week was better), but it was good enough to call them iso’s. They then went into more of their element with a nice housing section to end it off and a crazy back dive thing by Exclusive. I looked at my TV screen like what did he just do? It was a very simple move to explain, but made an incredible impact. All he did was jumped high in the air and landed flat on his back, period. Super impressive. Overall the performance was a great one, with some minor problems keeping it from being perfect. I can’t sit here and say I was blown away by it though, because I wasn’t. While parts of it were great, the whole thing didn’t strike me as much as their Black Eyed Peas week performance did. So for me, this wasn’t their best performance of the season. Thusly
I DUB THEE… FANTABULOUS
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-IAMME- If there was any challenge that was suited for IaMmE, it was this challenge. The producers basically told them “hey you. Win”. Isolations? Check. Boogaloo? Check, and the dougie is easy enough to do anyway. I couldn’t wait to see what they would hit the stage with, and they didn’t disappoint. 


They started with the Iso section. Chachi and Millie were standing on Pacman, who was standing over Jaja with 747 and Moon on either side of them. The bottom 4 did neck to shoulder isolations which gave a great visual to start the routine. Like Phunk, this routine started with a huge bang. Then Pacman did some weird arm formation and bent over in a bridge position while Jaja ran over his belly straight into some more choreography. At the end of this though, I could see that Millie got a little lost (where they wave their hands over their head, bring their head up, and then move their arms back down). You could easily see Millie get lost mainly because everyone else was on with each other. Right after this section, they went into some walking backwards popping arm waves while moon was sliding on the floor pushing the rest of the crew backwards. That was a very creative section, which was capped off by this head spin thing, which was framed by Pacman and Moon’s arms. Chachi, Millie and Jaja but their head into the frame created by the other member’s arms, and spun 360 degrees, with 747 popping up behind the whole thing, giving an added depth to it. This was an incredible visual that not many crews could pull off, let alone think of. Pacman and Moon did a duet in the middle as 747 and Millie lifted the other two members on their shoulders, and they got right into the dougie section. There was a very good flow to this routine so far and this transition furthered that flow. Their last couple have weeks have been very “start-stop’, but they fixed that this week. 


Their dougie section was awesome. It included levels (with them starting on each other’s shoulders, then going to some ground work slides afterwards), it included moments and gave off a great vibe. They ended this section with a good duet section, then added on that with Millie and 747 shoulder-cartwheeling off of the other members backs. Directly after the cartwheels they went into another partner section, this time featuring some arm tutting followed by a great visual of the three that were standing doing some neck nods downward, with the people under them doing the same thing. Another great transition and visual. This led way to their boogaloo section, with featured some more partner work to start with. They then jumped up and went into a little boogaloo groove, then when the lyric said “touch the sky baby girl” they swung and lifted Chachi up in the air, Jaja came right underneath straight into the camera’s face. 

They then went into some more boogaloo. This sectioned surprised me; it looked a tad bit sloppy at first, then straightened back up again. It was still an impressive section, and I'm love the fact that they were the only crew to really do it for a good amount of time, but I saw that little bit of sloppiness at the beginning of it. But just as they started out (with a bang) they end on an even bigger one. Everyone not named Millie got into a 3-2 pyramid formation; they waved their feet in a circle as Millie flipped right through the middle. That was and awesome stunt AND visual to end the already great routine. This performance had some problems, but overall was amazing. Although this performance was not their best, it still impressed me beyond belief, mainly because they still are doing stuff we have never seen before. This crew reminds me of the JabbawockeeZ so much. Not because of their style, or what they wear, but their creativity. Every show we have seen something we haven’t seen before, and that’s exactly the feeling that JabbawockeeZ provided me with. Don’t get me wrong, IaMmE and JabbawockeeZ are two completely different crews, but both of their creativity factors (in their own ways) are on another level. 

*Last Chance Challenge- This was impeccable. It was amazing, incredibly creative and let each member shine in their own way. I love this routine with a burning passion. Mainly because of how creative it was. Spoken word choreo, solo’s and that end section that looked like it was a moving game piece. It was super cool. While their Kanye west challenge was not OH MY TITS level, this routine was OH MY JESUS TITS level. *I'm not A fanboi, I just love creative pieces, and this was creative* Absolutely incredible.
KANYE WEST CHALLENGE DUB THEE…  FANTABULOUS
LAST CHANCE CHALLENGE DUB THEE… OH MY JESUS TITS
OVERALL I DUB THEE… OH MY TITS
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HEY YO ZEKEISH, DEY MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE?
Yes and no. No because they should have eliminated ICONic Boyz on the spot, yes because IaMmE did slightly better than Phunk tonight. JC (in his own little way) basically told everyone that these two should not have been in the bottom, and Lil Mama (After dusting the white powder off her nose) told the kids what they wanted to hear. But tonight I felt that IaMmE wowed me more, and while Phunk did incredible, I feel like we have seen everything they can give. IaMmE also has a better chance of taking the title away from Iconic Boyz than Phunk did, so in this close of a race, I would rather have IaMmE win it. Phunk is a great crew which deserves the best possible, and they definitely left their permanent (positive) mark on the ABDC stage. To put it plainly, you weren’t going to hear the majority of the crown booing Phunk if they were to have gone up against IaMmE. We all love you Phunk, good luck in your future endeavors. Oh, and MTV! YOU BETTER RELEASE FOOTAGE OF PHUNK’s LAST CHANCE CHALLENGE! Or ill do something crazy! Be like 0__o. BAM.
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*POWER RANKINGS*
(Do I even have to do this, like really?)
1)    I.aM.mE-----------------------------------Fantabulous & 1/6
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2)  ICONic Boyz------------------------------- I’d Rather Watch a Justin Beiber Concert & ½
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This marks the end of my review. I hope you enjoyed it to its fullest extent, leave me some comments and tell me what chu thought. BTW, my crew’s new video is now up on our YouTube channel . Please go check it out and give us some feedback. We performed to Katy Perry’s E.T. YAY. Happy Belated birthday to Nancy, and shout out to Ninjaboi for giving me some good advice. ADIOS

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Click here to return to the first page and to leave comments. Thanks again Zekeish!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Byeynyn's review of ABDC6's Kanye West Challenge

All three crews join forces to dance to “All of the Lights.” That’s right, ALL of the LIGHTS. All three crews begin on separate parts of the stage, just how I like it. They take turns showing off various poses. They join forces for a bit, but split up once again. IaMmE does more formations, Phunk Phenomenon does more hard-hitting choreography, and ICONic Boyz also does more simplistic moves. It’s a pretty good summary of this season in general. Once again, Bebo does tricks in the center of the stage while everybody dances around him. He’s got to be this season’s MVP. And then everyone in the audience is waving glow sticks! It’s a rave! The crews hop up and down with their hands in the air like they just don’t care. The routine ends with a bunch of pyrotechnics in the background. Geez, they weren’t kidding about “all of the lights.” Not a bad start, though I’m sure the crews are feeling way more concerned about the performances that actually matter.
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It’s ICONic Boyz that gets an automatic spot in the Final Two, leaving IaMmE and Phunk Phenomenon to duke it out in what’s sure to be a brutal Bottom Two. For this week, five-sixths of Poreotix show up in the video package to demonstrate the dance challenges. The three crews must do the Dougie to “Gold Digger” (another thing I’m sure ICONic Boyz doesn’t know), Boogaloo to “Touch the Sky”, and Isolations to “Love Lockdown.” All of these Kanye songs are several years old, but I’m not crazy about his newer stuff either.


ICONic Boyz- Crew member Vinny talks about being bullied for dancing, but is glad he’s inspiring other kids to one day outlast older and more talented dancers in a reality competition. He doesn’t say that second part though. They talk about how tricky Boogaloo is, since each crew has to pick out one of the dance styles to complain about. They define Boogaloo as moving the hips then going upwards, then talk about how they need to loosen up since they’re so used to being clean (ha!) and precise.


They’re dressed in bandannas, bright yellow shirts, and black jackets. It’s horribly loud and tacky, but it’s the only time this season they’ve worn something interesting. Also, T-Money (the only one I can pick out of a line-up) gets a bowler hat. They come out pretending to blow trumpets. T-Money takes the lead for most of the Boogaloo section. One kid gets tossed in the air Super Crew style. Normally I’d consider that a knock-off, but it’s very relevant to the song, which is “Touch the Sky.” A guy gets his jacket removed and thrown into the crowd. They all get into a row to go into Isolations. I think I’ve pointed this out before, but there is one kid who dances worse than the rest. He is frequently out of formation and not very sharp, and he’s possibly the youngest. They all do a nice leg slide into the ground. Finally, they go into the Dougie, which they wisely shake up by doing it lying on the floor. Their dance to this section also becomes quite literal to the song lyrics. They pretend to “drive a Benz”, have that “look in his eyes”, and also “mopping the floors.” They conclude by throwing money in the air. Tossing money is always a good thing; it’s amusing how most of the previous winning crews have incorporated it into one of their routines.


During the judging, D-Trix briefly compliments Poreotix for honoring Kanye West Week, which is ironic considering their first performance on the show did the exact opposite of honoring Kanye. Lil Mama defends her support of ICONic Boyz by stating they are cute, young, and talented. What does that make the other crews, chopped liver? JC says it’s not their best performance, and I agree. Outside of the floor Dougie, nothing they did impressed me dance-wise. I’m almost completely desensitized to the fact that they’ll be on this show forever, but I still won’t believe they’ve gotten this far based on merit.

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Phunk Phenomenon- They win the coin toss that we never get to see, and they will go first for the Bottom Two. They talk about how challenging Isolations will be, even though I doubt it. Isos are about isolating a part of the body, and Isos have been on this show forever, so try not to act shocked. Nikko talks about doing this for his father. And if people really cared about sob stories, this would be the most tragically cruel show ever. Half of the time, the crews mention this right as they are being sent home.


They’re sporting green basketball jerseys with BOSTON on them. Considering the Boston Celtics landed THIRD in their conference this year, I’m not sure copying the look is a good idea (also I am a huge basketball nerd). They start with the Dougie and Kassandra’s back is leaning on someone else’s back as they all groove. She goes off and plays the part of the “Gold Digger” by shaking her booty rapidly. To no one’s surprise, Bebo does a cool stunt. Their next section is Boogaloo. They whip out a few flips, and Bebo does a Gainer off someone’s chest. The whole group gets into some toprocking. Trey grabs and twirls Bebo on the ground before pulling him to fly over his shoulders. They bunch up and do Isos. It’s nice and includes a few limb movements and chest floats. Devon and Kassandra get close and touch each other, the way Usher would to his boo. X-Clusive is featured once again for the high-energy house movements. While the others sit down with their legs crossed, he finishes by jumping in the air and landing on the ground with on his back. Ow, I even felt that one. His pain threshold must be intense.


JC liked that everybody had a moment to shine in this routine, although I will personally add that the moments with Bebo and X-Clusive were a lot more obvious. All three judges are positive about the routine, and they are running out of compliments to give the crews. I’m surprised Lil Mama hasn’t invented another word to compliment people with. It’s a great all-around showing. If I had anything to criticize, it would be everything after the Isolations and before X-Clusive’s suicidal jump, because to me, it feels like they’ve done that before.

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IaMmE- IaMmE is pumped to see Poreotix. They don’t even pretend that Boogaloo and Isolations are going to be a challenge for them, so they are obligated to fret about the Dougie by default. Philip says none of them have done it professionally, as if Dougie Expert was a real profession. Moon tears up and talks about how his parents will see him perform if he makes it to the finale, which automatically makes them the most supportive Asian parents ever mentioned on this show.
They’re wearing outfits of grey and sky blue, except the two women seem to be wearing granny quilt cummerbunds. Still, their outfits have often been the best ones, which is usually the sign of a winner. They start with the Isos, done at multiple levels. Philip’s arms are twisted into a pretzel. He goes into a back bridge, and Jaja walks over him. Moon gets on the ground and pushes the group while he is sliding. They get into a formation and hands are spinning everywhere. Then heads are spinning. And I’m sure the judges’ brains are spinning too. Then they go into the Dougie, with the girls doing it on the shoulders of other guys. Two of the guys do swipes. They do more grooving with some of the guys on their knees and some on their backs. The girls then lie on the floor and two guys are over them, and for a second I thought they were going to do the horizontal tango. But the other two guys do cartwheels over their backs, so it’s fine. Finally, they go into their Boogaloo. They do some intricate stuff while three of them are on the floor mirroring it. They lift Chachi in the air and Jaja takes her spot. They do their Boogaloo just fine. They make a human pyramid, in the crab-walking position. They kick their legs a bit and Emilio does a front flip over them.


As expected, JC does his best to imply, “I wish these two crews weren’t the bottom two crews, but if I criticized ICONic Boyz, their ICONic mothers would write me angry letters.” JC is uncharacteristically hyper and praises their creativity. Lil Mama calls them inspiring, which… thank goodness. I’d like to think children can be inspired by dancers who don’t have to be the same age, race, or gender. It’s not just ICONic Boyz that can inspire young people, sometimes it’s just the really good dancers. IaMmE had a great performance from start to finish. Their Boogaloo section was the least glamorous by comparison, but they’ve set a high bar when the biggest complaint I can think of is, “Well, why didn’t they Boogaloo while upside down or in the shape of a boat or something?” Admittedly, IaMmE getting Isolations and Boogaloo as dance challenges are not really “challenges,” to the same degree that being told to add salt and pepper to a dish wouldn’t really be a cooking “challenge,” but they still had to make it memorable, which they accomplished.

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Phunk Phenomenon’s Bostonian skills are no match for the IaMmE heat, and they have to walk it out. Both crews were heavily raved by the judges, so it was a matter of past performances and Phunk Phenomenon having been in the bottom several times. If the objective was for one of these crews to hopefully garner enough votes to overtake ICONic Boyz in the end, IaMmE was the logical choice. Phunk Phenomenon gives one of the best walk-it-outs I’ve seen on this season. They act classy in their farewell speech, grab their banner before it hits the floor, dance to the music, and some of them take their shirts off. All the important bases were covered. It’s just two crews now, each with another chance to appeal for votes.

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ICONic Boyz gets to perform first for the Last Chance Challenge, which is a misnomer because it’s apparently not going to be the last chance. They talk about how they didn’t expect to make it this far, but now they want to win (sure, who doesn’t?) and sunshine and lollipops and whatever. Their piece is called “The ICONic Dream.” They’re wearing white tuxedos with blue accents, and their theme is a Hollywood red carpet entrance. It’s kind of similar to the performance ICONIC and Status Quo had in the Season One Finale (coincidentally enough to the song “Phenomenon”), so I guess these Jersey Boys can’t even come up with their own original theme.


ICONic Boyz steps out of a fake limo. They go into their choreography and… wait a second! Mario lied when he said the crews came up with the routines from top to bottom, because ICONic Boyz didn’t come up with this song. It is unmistakably Ne-Yo and Pitbull. They couldn’t even be bothered to come up with their own original music either? Anyhow, the choreography is on par with their moves in their first routine. Nothing is blowing my mind yet. Halfway in the routine, one of the kids does some tutting and the rest of the kids join in later (borrowing the sound effect the show typically uses for IaMmE’s Brain Bangs). Yep, the most memorable part of this routine is them doing something a competing crew is more famous for. Five of the kids fall forward to the ground while one kid just walks into the arms of another. He doesn’t glide or moonwalk or anything, he just… walks. Then he gets pushed aside. They end the routine with a synchronized bow, which is classy, but they also just did that same bow move earlier this episode.

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IaMmE’s Last Chance Dance is titled “ILLemental.” They’re each wearing a different colored jacket to represent a different element, and taking full advantage of their ethnic diversity that would rival even Captain Planet’s. And thank goodness for that diversity, because it makes recapping this a lot easier. If I said the Asian dude did something, you could probably figure out who I meant. They talk about having a superhero theme and finally having control of their entire performance, and I can kind of tell that this is a routine they’ve been itching to do for quite a while. Also, Moon isn’t allowed to rap anymore.


The first section part is audio of Philip doing spoken word poetry while the group does intricate movements on the ground in near darkness. Then they each get their moments, and the music kicks in, thankfully. Def Jam Poetry with Chbeeb might be a little too upscale for this show. Earth, Fire, Electricity, Wind, Machine, and Water! If you combine those elements you get… a broken machine, probably. Emilio (Earth) does some high flying kicks. Chachi (Fire) does some grooving. Jaja (Electricity) does some ticking, then some weird marching thing. Brandon (Wind) does footwork. Methinks Emilio and Brandon should swap elements. Moon (Machine) does some finger tutting. Philip (Water) waves like, uh, water (and gets vaguely Asian music for some reason). I should mention that during each of these solos, the lights correspond to the color of their jackets, and the other five are doing support and it’s a different formation each time. They join forces to Brain Bang. Their next formation looks like gumballs rolling down two gumball machines. They do another formation which looks like a diamond, and Philip asks, “Who are you?” Well, that’s an easy question. Then they finish by spelling out “I M E” on the ground. Standing ovation.

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Will ICONic Boyz, with their seemingly insurmountable fanbase, patty-cake themselves towards a win? Or will IaMmE’s Brain Banging be able to catapult them to victory after surviving the penultimate elimination, much like every winner before? This is definitely one of those seasons where I feel like there’s a huge disparity between the skill levels of the two finalists, and the results will ultimately make or break how well this season will turn out. Personally, I know who IaMvoting for.

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Click here to return to the first page and to leave comments. Thanks Byeynyn for the consistently funny reviews!

Freeze's report on the ABDC Battle Challenge

The task for tonight was to redo the judge's favorite performance from each crew and make it longer and add more to it.  

IaMmE: Judges chose their S&M performance, the beginning was changed up starting with Chachi being held up and Jaja coming from underneath, they added some different pieces in the middle and after the original ending flip of Emilio he got back up to lengthen the fight scene, it still ended with Chachi knocking all of em out tho :P

ICONic Boyz: Judges chose their Justin Bieber performance, they added a line with their heads going down on the "down down down" part of the song,they added a tutting section, the basketball section was blocked by TMoney and Madison came back to do a dunk, they ended by carrying off one of the members.

At the end the two crews battled it out to each other with Swizz Beats DJ'ing right there on stage with em. The entire battle was pretty much mocking each other, ICONic Boyz brought out a plastic brain and were passing it like it was gross and did the "headspins" from IaMmE's challenge last week. IaMmE had pacifiers in their mouth (i love this part) Emilio showed his Abs as a mock up to ICONic Boyz's week 1 performance, and Moon and Pacman did a back to back arm wave in the front of the stage. (it was hard to see IaMmE's performance since we were on the other side and ICONic Boyz kept on blocking the view) 

Both crews wore the same outfits from their last performances. Throughout the episode they showed clips of what goes on behind the scenes and whats going on back home with the crews and the fan videos that were asked to be sent in. BABDC's own JabbaJake's video was chosen as one for the package. P.S Pacman has a NICE house, makes me jealous. And ICONic Boyz's package pretty much  PROVED their fan base is a bunch of 10 year old girls.

Since it's the special episode and they're the last two crews, the judges didn't even bother to criticize anything. Also Lil Mama looked like Barney with what she was wearing tonight haha.

Also TMONEY TRIED TO STARE ME DOWN. He couldn't stand the IaMmE fans. We got put in the ICONic Boyz section but everyone was yelling "I AM ME I AM ME" except for this one girl behind me who had a really squeaky voice haha that kept on saying "Iconic boyz!" between every I AM ME. I kept shaking my head with a "you shouldn't be here" look and he kept staring at me back with a "yes we should" head nod. 2 minutes it went on and i won it! >:]

Every time someone yelled out "ICONIC BOYZ" the "I AM ME I AM ME I AM ME" chants would start and drown it out completely. The crowd was pretty much 85% IaMmE 15% ICONic Boyz -- 5% coming from their friends and family. What really got the crowed riled up was when ICONic Boyz's parents started going all cheerleader on us and chanted "Lets go ICONic Boyz lets go! -stomp stomp-" Then the IaMmE chants just got super loud. I can honestly say i lost my voice tonight yelling out "IaMmE" for 3 hours haha. 



To clear things up, IaMmE had no part in any of the crowd antics last night, they were professional and got on stage and did what they were supposed to do. They even hugged the Iconic Boyz after the battle. I think what caused so much commotion was the fact that they divided the areas into IME and IB sections yet they put the audience wherever. And consider that the majority of the audience was IME fans many got put into IB sections which caused a lot of restlessness. and as CrazedBeats said there was really no booing except for that noticeable three that he stated. The majority of the night was filled with IaMmE chants. As stated though we were at one end of the audience so we were we didnt really hear the other side. Alot of the yelling was random as well. I heard people yell out "DTRIX!! JABBAWOCKEEZ! KOALA DANCE BOTS!" and all this random stuff. But about one of the IB crying i have no information regarding that. Possibly an unruley fan stayed behind and said something but neither I or CrazedBeats saw anything of the sort.
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Click here to return to the first page and to leave comments. Thanks Freeze -- I hope they show some of the audience dynamics when they edit the episode -- it sounds hysterical.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Dance's Review of ABDC's Kanye West/Last Chance Challenges

Phunk Phenomenon and IaMmE both made this episode spectacular. Phunk Phenomenon danced with their hearts, while IaMmE used the ingenuity of their minds to create an epic performance. ICONic Boyz did well, but both Phunk and IaMmE showed them that years of training and entering competitions can mold you into a phenomenal dancer! I am not going to rank the crews this week or give them a score like I normally do, but I'll just discuss what I enjoyed most about each of their performances.
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1) Phunk Phenomenon: Their performance was epic! I loved it so much and their was nothing they could do to make it better!! Trey swung Bebo around and Bebo went from the ground and soared over Trey. That was epic!! I was in awe at that moment! Everything Phunk did in their performance was phenomenal! I saw Xclusive do a nice bboy freeze and at the end when he jumped up and landed on his back, that definitely showed how much Phunk dances with all of their hearts and souls on the dance floor. I wish they could have been in the top 2. I know they would have done so well in their Last Chance Challenge. However, Phunk's performance will be remembered forever. It was a great performance and Phunk left with their heads held high because they put their hearts and souls on the dance floor and everyone saw that.


I bet Phunk Phenomenon has inspired many people to start dancing or to become interested in dance. Every week they danced really well and this season would have been boring without them. My favorite Phunk performances were A Millie, Black Eyed Peas Week where Bebo showed everyone how great of a bboy he is!, Katy Perry Week (yes I loved how they told a story in their performance and made it funny), Please Don't Stop the Music where Bebo jumped over Trey in a handstand and everyone showed some dancehall flavor, and finally their Kanye West performance. All of their performances were inspiring and they showed everyone that the East Coast does have great dance crews! I hope many good things come Phunk Phenomenon's way and I wish them luck in all of their future endeavors!! Keep dancing forever!!
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 2) IaMmE: Their Last Chance Challenge performance was mind blowing! Their bottom two performance was pretty good and had many great moments in it, but they definitely brought everything to the stage in their Last Chance Challenge performance. Such a genius concept to have a spoken word performance. I like how each of the dancers of IaMmE represented different global elements. They portrayed each of these elements with their own individual style and the concept was genius. 


While being on the show, IaMmE has taken tutting to a new level and has made the viewers look at dance in a new and more creative way. They have definitely made their mark on the ABDC stage and has inspired dancers all over the world to be more creative! My favorite IaMmE performances were Lil Wayne week where they showed America who they are, Black Eyed Peas week where they took brain banging to new levels, Katy Perry Week where they had fun and made use of the entire stage and showed us some nice poppin' and wavin' skills, Rihanna Week blew my mind with their creativity, Bieber week had many great tutting moments, and finally their Last Chance Challenge. The spoken word was genius and it made the performance look like a performance on Broadway. Their Last Chance Challenge told a creative story of who they are and what they represent. They showed everyone that they are beyond human and that you can use the creativity of your mind to do anything that you want to do in life. IaMmE were amazing every week they performed on the ABDC stage and I hope they will win America's Best Dance Crew!! 
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 3) ICONic Boyz: They worked hard all season and never gave up. Their best performances were Justin Bieber Week and Nicki Minaj week. In both of those performances they showed their humor, which is their strong point and they added many complex levels and choreo into their dancing. This episode they looked like they were focusing too much on the different styles of dance they were given. In their Last Chance Challenge, they should have focused on being "the boy next door from Jersey" instead of being "Hollywood celebrities." It would have made a better impact and told a more touching story. 


Hollywood is not what it seems. Many people in Hollywood do bad things. They smoke weed and do various other drugs. Don't fall into the Hollywood trap ICONic Boyz. Hollywood is filled with rich kids that live off of their parents money and do not have any incentive to work hard and get a job. All they do is party. Even those that do have jobs, still fall into these Hollywood traps and do bad things. Hollywood is not what it seems, so always stay humble ICONic Boyz and remember what's important in life, which is your real family and friends. Also remain kind and help others. Aspire to be like IaMmE and Phunk Phenomenon when you get older because they work hard and they have many accomplishments in the dance world. Overall, ICONic Boyz did very well each week and have entertained many fans. They were funny on stage and in their backstage interviews. They have improved as dancers and I'm glad that they learned many new styles from the other dancers. Keep on dancing ICONic Boyz, stay good kids, and never give up!
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Click here to return to the first page and to leave comments. Thanks for your insight all season, Dance!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

JayCee's Report on ABDC's Kanye West and Last Chance Challenges

  • Group Performance: nothing exciting.  I feel like the crews were saving their energy for their actual challenge so the energy from the group performance was lacking and it was a little messy. 
  • Challenge...Do Dance Styles: Dougie, Boogaloo, and Isolations...Poreotics gave the challenge/video package...BTW my friends and i sat next to Poreotics, so we had really good seats 
  • Phunk Phenomenon were at it again with their great athletic ability and choreography.  the highlight of their performance was when Bebo did a gainer off Chris' chest...
  • ICONic Boyz stepped it up
  • IaMmE literally brainbanged and made every dance style "I am ME". They are truly unique and definitely a breath of fresh air.
  • THE LAST CHANCE CHALLENGE: one crew danced to Ne-yo and Pitbull's song and the other crew danced to their own remix...one crew pulled a Beat Freak, and by that i mean they fumbled...the other crew MURDEREDDDDDDDD...the judges gave them a STANDING O... wow this performance goes up there with Orquestrah and Ichiban!!!
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Click here to return to the first page and to leave comments. Thanks for the report JayCee! 

Monday, May 23, 2011

Ninjaboi's review of ABDC's Nicki Minaj Challenge

 Grading Scale:
10 – Choreography:  There are basically two ways to dance, as I see it.  There’s freestyling, which is the root of all dance.  Then there’s performances.  Performances are further broken up into two parts.  “Wow” moments which are meant to keep your memory on that routine, and “Choreography” which is everything else.  This section looks at how good the choreography wise – this is musicality wise, how much swagger, how complicated, etc.  “Choreography” is basically any coordinated dance movement of the crew’s members outside those moments.
10 – Wow Moments:  As explained above, Wow moments are when you create a moment that sticks in people’s minds.  This can either be tricks, to crazy isolations, to some “story moment.”  However, if we see the wow moment coming, that takes away from it.  The way you build up into the moment is just as important as the moment
10 – Showmanship: This is a variety of things.  Almost a miscellaneous category if you will.  Just off the top of my head, this includes: Appropriate Energy Level, Stage Use, Blocking/Framing, Transitions, Concept, Clean, Musicality, Pacing, Any real small thing that adds to the performance as a whole.
10 – Challenge: How well did the crew A)execute their challenge B)complete it creatively, and C) incorporate it throughout the performance rather than just simply do it once and have it seem out of place.  Also, prop challenges are usually much more difficult inherently, so those give crews a +1 to their overall score.
10 - Improvement: Usually this would be to see how well crews improve each week and work on their problems because one common theme of good crews on ABDC is constant improvement.  Just for reference: 7 means no improvement.  More means improvement, less means did worse.  The rationale is that on ABDC, crews that show that they keep giving better and better performances tend to do better overall.

Just for reference: 10 is perfect.  7 is average.  5 is barely passable.  Anything below that is… very weak.  So Average would be a 35, for reference.  I guess I developed this scale from the academic scoring system where 7 is average, and getting a 9 is a pretty big deal.  It’s rare for me to give out things below 5, or perfect 10s.
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Group Performance:
-Very difficult to tell different crews apart at a glance aside from ICONic boyz due to costumes being similar.
-Overall: chaotic.  Massive props really limit floor space.
-Props to Jaja/Kassandra/Bebo solos.
-Did the Boyz get a new choreographer for this?  Because it seems a lot hotter than their normal choreography.
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SAFE CREWS:
IaMmE
Choreo – 6: Brain Banging is awesome and definitely a step toward the evolution of tutting as a whole.  In it’s own right, it is a form of dance, and maybe some would consider it “choreography.”  However, I personally feel like it has to evolve just a little bit more before it can be the only thing done in a routine.  Maybe for one or two people it could be choreography.  But for 6 people, it just needs to grow a bit more. Right now each “image” they are creating, by the very nature of it being a single image, is only a singular moment that is awesome.  However, choreography to me should flow well and naturally.  Regarding what I would consider choreography: It was fairly generic in terms of composition.  Sure I saw some swagger in it, and some ticking which I liked.  But it was pretty generic.  Maybe not as generic as certain crew’s choreography from earlier this season, but it wasn’t anything mind blowing I hadn’t seen from other crews before.  There were moments where it looked like it could take off, but then they’d stop and go to a brain bang set again before it could really take root and grow.
Wow – 8: So until I can really see some tutting that can be considered choreography for a full six person crew, I’m considering it wow moments.  That being said, I thought that while their tutting was mindblowing as usual, and Emilio had some cool moments, it was a bit overdone.  I’ll talk about this more in the challenge section, but basically since each image was for a childhood game, and because they did so many, it was more “moments” than choreography.  Maybe this is just me, but when your “moments” which are supposed to define your performance take up the majority of your performance, they lose some of their impact.  So basically all the moments were at a 9 level, but oversaturation took it down a point.
Showmanship – 7: Formations were still sort of clumped together like in early weeks, though a bit less so.  While I know M4L is a slower song, I can’t help but feel like they could have brought more conviction to their tutting.  Sure there were moments where their emotion got through to me, like Jaja’s solo or Chachi’s playfulness.  But to me it was lacking a bit of an emotional content that’s like the crew is laying themselves out on the floor for us.  Other than that, it was pretty standard.
Challenge – 8: Like I said above, they really killed their challenges. There were 6 childhood games I counted in there at different points, so good job on that.  However, again the oversaturation was a bit much.
Improvement – 6 – Given where they could be right now if they had grown from Rhianna episode instead of reverting back to their standard episode 1 format, I’m sorely disappointed.  They haven’t really killed that many performances in the same way other great crews in the past have.  From where they should be versus where they are, and where they could have gone with this, I think they need to step it up.
Highlight: Jaja’s solo
Total: 35/50
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ICONic Boyz
Choreo – 7 – Their choreo is getting a bit better.  It’s like they’re finding a style that suits them more, something along the lines of animated, high energy and a little playful.  It’s not grimey and fierce, nor is it technical or clean.  But it was pretty fun to watch actually.  Maybe it’s cuz one of my inspirations for my animation popping has been watching how puppets move I was able to catch some things.  It wasn’t genius, but passable.  Toprocking was really weak though.
Wow – 6 – Not their forte.  Weak handhops.  Some popping and some theatre.
Showmanip – 8 – Def their forte.  Used stage well, bouncy energy.  Interesting formations, including partnerwork sections that framed things. They played their character well with humor.  Could have been cleaner a bit.
Challenge – 7 – There were some subtle things that showed some thought about their process. At the beginning, the puppeteer made the two high five.  Handhops were controlled by hands moving up and down.  Done okay, with some good moments throughout.
Improvement – Wasn’t their best, but pretty standard for where they were been
Highlight – Transviloquist Thomas
Total: 36/50
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BOTTOM TWO:
Phunk Phenomenon
Choreo – 8 – Wow.  I’m really impressed in how varied these guys are in their choreography.  This was probably one of the grimiest performances this half of the season.  But it wasn’t all grimey.  I saw some high level regular new style of differing levels of griminess.  It was high level choreography. One thing I want to point out is how their choreography doesn’t necessarily have them all facing front.  There were some spacing issues, and we all say Bebo’s slip up (which I’ll dock them .5 a point for later).  The dougie section was priceless as well.
Wow – 8 – As always they deliver.  It wasn’t as structured as in previous weeks where we have everyone circling Bebo as he does something mindblowing.  We did see some subtle tricks from them throughout though, and the ending when almost everyone is doing some power was great.
Showmanship – 7 – There were some great things here.  Kassandra being lifted up multiple times to creat levels was great.  There was Bebo playing to the lyrics “Nightmare on Elm Street and guess who’s playing Freddy.”  The Dougie coming in was paced very nice.  They had mad energy, though they sacrificed some cleanliness for this.  Formations also were nice, though some spacing issues.
Challenge – 7 – They did it.  Like a pro belly dancer? No.  But in many ways.  Bebo upside down, two of them on their sides, and the one in the center with the scarf.
Improvement – 7 – This was pretty close to classic Phunk, if a bit less clean than I woulda liked.  So clean it up a bit and again, there isn’t much for htem to work on.  They even had their choreo clearly matching the song rather than having section.
Highlight – Either the Dougie, Power fest, or Dtrix’s tutorial
Total – 38/50 - .5 for Bebo’s messup = 37.5/50
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Street Kingdom
Choreo – 8 – I will agree with anyone who says they took mad long to get into the choreography. But the choreography they did have was really good.  It was in the same vein as last week, with simultaneous krumping among all of them.  But it was a step up a bit when it wasn’t exactly the same, but some differences between everyone in order to create dope images.  If it had gone on for just ten seconds longer, I think they would have stayed.
Wow – 8 – I think this was pretty impressive for mostly some images they did.  In the beginning they had some nice hat tricks going off, but then some in in character stuff like the police squad around a body, the flying man, and the monkey bars.  Also the airplane was nice, moreso for how they went into it and framed it well rather than difficlty.
Showmanship – 7 – Some nice levels and formations in here, especially with the transitions.  I feel like this is where they’ve grown the most, so instead of seeming like a mass of unorganized dancers, they had dope transitions and formations.  However, that pacing issue with 20 seconds being that slow in the beginning was what took this score down a notch.
Challenge – 8 – They did their challenge well.  It was more than just the costume, but some of the images they created really matched their theme.  They did more than one, and they didn’t over do it.
Improvement – 7 – Wasn’t better than last week, but it was in the same vein and not that much worse.
Highlight – Right at where they start really taking off, there are three of them on the ground straddled by 3 others standing up.  Note how they roll as the whole group moves over. Small, but effective.
Total: 38/50
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Did they get it right? Raw score, it was a tie.  Maybe Bebo’s mess up should have cost Phunk, but in the end, either crew going home wouldn’t have been disastrous.

Notes for next week:
For all the crews – It’s the top three. Kill it.  Own it.  Show off everything you have. Don’t hold anything back.  If ;you don’t own this performance, you will not win.  Period.
IAMME – Moon Tuts please.  Balance out the Brain Bang with other things.
Phunk Phenomenon – Watch how clean you are.  Keep the energy up all throughout.
ICONic Boyz – Keep evolving your choreo style.  Work on creating some more technically difficult moments. Don’t take on styles you can’t really do well.
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NUMBERS:
For the night  - out of 50 (mean 40.4, SD 3.21)
1)    Street Kingdom – 38 (+1.12 SD)
2)    Phunk Phenomenon – 37.5 (38-.5 for Bebo’s fall) (+.81 SD)
3)    ICONic Boyz – 36 (-.43 SD)
4)    IaMmE – 34 (-1.37 SD)


For the season  - out of 240 (mean 216.86, SD 21.93)
1)    Street Kingdom – 229 (+.55 SD)
2)    Phunk Phenomenon – 227.5 (+.48 SD)
3)    IaMmE – 227 (+.46 SD)
4)    ICONic Boyz – 184 (-1.5 SD)


For the season weighted out of 220 (mean 165.08, SD 14.64)
1)    Street Kingdom – 174.2 (+.62 SD)
2)    Phunk Phenomenon – 171.8 (+.46 SD)
3)    IaMmE – 171.1 (+.41 SD)
4)    ICONic Boyz – 143.2 (-1.49 SD)

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Click here to return to the first page and to leave comments. Thanks again Ninjaboi!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Byeynyn's review of ABDC6's Nicki Minaj Challenge

To be perfectly honest, I feel it’s been a rocky season so far. The music’s been pretty painful at times, and so were the voting results. There were moments where I watched and thought, “I waited a whole year for THIS?!” I’m not even convinced all the crews are living up to their full potential here. In general, the dancers this season are just as talented as the ones before, even though some of them didn’t get much of an opportunity to showcase it. I want to say this season has been a letdown, but it’s not over yet. There’s still a good chance that any of the remaining crews will whip out a performance of a lifetime and earn the crown. Will any of the four crews bust out a showstopper this week?

All four crews dance together to “Massive Attack.” There’s a whole savage theme to it, but as far as Top Four group performances go, it was okay but wasn’t particularly memorable. In a weird way, it felt like an off-Broadway performance that takes place in the jungle. It’s not as high energy as a good show opener should be. A lot of that was smoke and mirrors, and I’m not in the mood to describe it at all. I liked the opening performances in the first two weeks better, which is frustrating since, if anything, the Top Four performance should be much better.
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SAFE CREWS: 

IaMmE- Saved once again, IaMmE’s song is the slow-paced "Moment 4 Life." They have to create childhood games, in reference to Nicki’s alter ego, Cookie. They go to the playground for inspiration. They bring up the fact that their diverse backgrounds means they have different childhood memories (apparently one of Moon’s childhood games involved a chicken’s mom). They also attempt recreating Whack-A-Mole, which is a senselessly cruel game against moles. I don’t blame Jaja for not understanding that one.

So they’re dressed in red outfits, with shirts with random numbers on them. I have no idea what the numbers have to do with childhood. There’s plenty of numbers in adulthood, too! Emilio starts out in a headstand while the others are bent in different poses. Whoever figures out what childhood game they were trying to replicate there deserves a cookie. Two of them do half flares, while the others make a formation and wrap hands in the middle. Okay, whoever figures out that childhood game deserves two cookies. They use Jaja is a limbo stick and two of them go under while one does a backflip over her. They do some quick choreo. Moon pantomimes slitting Brandon’s throat (and once again I have to correct Lil Mama. She has no idea what a sling is, but it definitely WASN’T used to cut Goliath’s throat). Chachi does hopscotch while the others tut. They get into their Brain Banging moment by moving into two rows of three, and then warping their arms about, almost like a tic-tac-toe grid. Philip pretends to Whack-A-Mole to the drum roll. Jaja gets her first moment to shine, when she does isolations and ticking while the others sway along with just one hand and one foot on the ground. They finish with Chachi being pushed on a human swing.
 

There are a lot of great formations here, but half of what they tried to convey just went over my head the first time. They thought of many different ways to demonstrate childhood memories, though not all of them translated well to the stage. I do like how Jaja finally gets a solo to impress the crowd, because her skill set had been the most mysterious up to this point. There was a moment or two where they got kind of sloppy with their choreo, but the overall thoughtfulness of their performances always impress me. Or as Lil Mama would say, “cease to impress me.”
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ICONic Boyz- They have to dance to "Check It Out,” straight from the album “Songs that will.i.am Stole from the 80’s.” The song unmistakably samples from “Video Killed the Radio Star” and I am slightly disgusted. Their job is to create a marionette, like Nicki’s alter ego, Harajuku Barbie. They talk about missing their families, which is the only sob story they can contribute right now. They have no idea what a marionette is. To be frank, I don’t think they even know anything about Nicki Minaj either. Or even Harajuku. Or even Barbie.


They’re dressed in bright pink outfits. Every week their outfit is essentially their typical jacket-and-pants combo, but in a different color. They start out doing puppetry. Some kids do assisted aerials. They bunch up in the middle and do some, well, simple choreo. They never really hit their moves that hard or sharply, so it looks like they’re doing popping-lite or waving-lite or isolation-lite. It’s the “diet cola” of dancing, because while it looks similar, if people pay enough attention, they can easily spot a difference. A kid does a handstand and kicks his legs up and down for a few seconds. Later, two of them do handstands in the background while two others hold up and fiddle with their legs. The rest are in the front performing a ventriloquism scene, which is probably ANOTHER word they didn’t know (them and Lil Mama). They throw in a little b-boy toprock. Well, diet toprock. In the end, five of them sit on the edge of the stage and act like puppets while one person acts like a puppetmaster.


And, uh, I thought this was their best performance. I never really held this crew in high regard, and I still don’t, but I admit that I was wrong when I expected them to start slowing down as the weeks progressed. Their whole performance was a solid attempt in using the marionette theme throughout, their staging was better, and they didn’t lose whatever “mystery factor” they have that gets their fans to vote for them in the first place. They have a childish sense of humor that they can get away with because, well, they’re children. It remains to be seen whether they or IaMmE will be in the bottom two next week, if not both.

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BOTTOM TWO:
Phunk Phenomenon- They are first to perform out of the Bottom Two, which means this week all the crews performed in alphabetical order. They get "My Chick Bad" and they have to incorporate Indian bellydancing like Nicki’s alter ego, Nicki Teresa. This is the second week in a row the crew’s challenge is to incorporate another dance style. Chris talks about the challenges of belly dancing and outs Bebo as a poor belly dancer. To be fair, this is the first time a mostly male crew was given the task to belly dance, so is Kassandra going to end up bailing them out once again?


They are dressed with green jackets and blue pants, while Kassandra is donning funky striped pants and a pink wig, reminiscent of Nicki Minaj. By default, Kassandra has to be the Chick Bad. She is hoisted in the air, doing her best Nicki impersonation. She controls one of the guys like he was a leashed dog. Or perhaps a lawnmower. They pretend to kill a guy during “Jason,” and when the song gets to the lyric about “Freddy,” Bebo screams like a girl. When the belly dancing music kicks in, they use a purple flag to make a butterfly shape. Bebo is doing a headstand and shaking his legs while Trey is doing the actual belly work. Bebo spins from his headstand into a freeze, because he thinks plain old headstands are for suckas. They perform some choreography facing the right side of the stage. Also, this group got the best song of the night by far, and they take advantage of it. Bebo trips up at one point in the back, and I do appreciate JC for pointing it out. They go all out in the end, as Bebo is in the center going nuts with tricks and air flares which the others are doing worms and windmills in the surroundings.  Ever since 787 and Instant Noodles were booted in a one-two punch, it’s been up to Phunk Phenomenon to shoulder the athletic load.
 

Phunk Phenomenon definitely hit the stage hard, and although it wasn’t quite as crisp as last week, it also compensated with a lot more energy and Phunk. Street Kingdom needs a performance twice as amazing to overthrow Phunk Phenomenon. As a note, I don’t believe the judges when they say they always save the crew who performs better that night. I think the judges had their scales tipped slightly in favor of Phunk before either crew performed, based on the crews’ previous performances. If I were using numerical scores (and I usually don’t because numbers are dangerous and require proper handling), if Phunk had an 8, SK wouldn’t cut it with a 9, they’d need a perfect 10. But since D-Trix practically orgasmed in front of PP, it’s probably not an 8. As for Street Kingdom…
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Street Kingdom- They have the song "Did It On'em," and they have to flex military drills like soldiers, much like Nicki’s alter ego, Roman Zolanski (pronounced Zol-lan-SKY). Not to be confused with director Roman Polanski. And for some reason, the show keeps emphasizing that this is Street Kingdom’s third time in the Bottom Two, despite it not being that unique of an occasion (it has happened to a crew every season so far). They talk about being performing as a unit, and Tight Eyez brings up his Christian faith and how Nicki’s racy lyrics might conflict with that. I never really imagined he’d think Nicki Minaj’s music was a bigger challenge to dance to than Justin Bieber’s.


They are dressed like police officers, with bright blue berets with stars on them. Actually, scratch that. Most police officers don’t wear blue berets. They’re dressed more like… that one female police officer from the Resident Evil game. If only they were given the task to kill zombies. Some of the dancers are holding red handkerchiefs with hats attached, which I guess conveys blood or maybe Phunk Phenomenon’s hats or something. I can’t tell if it’s another diss. They play around for a bit with those hats before tossing them. They focus on a guy and kick him around for a bit. Another guy does a monkey roll. They form monkey bars with their arms while others pretend to climb them. There’s a point in the routine where three of them are on their bellies while the other seven are swaying and then doing intricate choreography, and this is the closest they get to unified choreo for the week. They swing their elbows for a while. They form an airplane. They’ve already formed a spaceship and a helicopter earlier on this show, so they sure enjoy forming vehicles. That and punching through people. Two of them are back to back and start leaning forward, but the camera cuts off before I can see what happens (turns out they just take a huge step forward. Thanks, Instant Replay!) They finish with a united salute.
 

They really took the military persona well, but they wound up sacrificing a lot of dancing in sake of story-telling in the beginning. All three judges can’t help but admit the beginning was slow. D-Trix does bring up a good point on how quick and jerky their movements are, and it’s not really an aspect of krump that most people notice. I’d say a good percentage of the audience sees a bunch of out-of-control flailing, but it’s more complicated than that. It is interesting to see how this crew has adapted since their first performance, and they’ve probably grown the most out of all the crews this season. It’s been a very growth-heavy season, I might add.
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So the judges send home Street Kingdom, resulting in the longest hugging ceremony with the judges ever on this show. Now it’s down to IaMmE, ICONic Boyz, and Phunk Phenomenon. For the first time ever, the winner will either represent the East or the South. And with Phunk Phenomenon being the only crew of the three to reach the Bottom Two (and, let’s face it, they will probably see it again next week), next week’s results could get ugly.

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Click here to return to the first page and to leave comments. Thanks again Byeynyn for the insight all season!

JustAnABDCFan's review of ABDC's Nicki Minaj Challenge

Here’s what I look for in crews (everything is based on a 1 to 10 scale):
Stage Presence- The biggest part to me for a dancer, and for a crew, is your stage presence.  I really firmly believe that.  Do you command the stage?  A chief focus as a dancer is to project yourself—your emotion and subsequently the song’s emotion onto the viewer/audience.  Are you doing that?  And just as important, are you “lighting the stage on fire” so to speak?  Are you really captivating me as a viewer into buying what you’re presenting?
Technique- Secondary to me is how technical a dancer/crew is.  Is what you’re doing difficult, or is it just super simple?  If it IS simple, are you making it as CLEAN as possible, while still incorporating stage presence?  Can I tell you’ve been doing this a while, or is your technique just kind of “there”, and not speaking out in terms of engaging an audience?  Is your choreography technical, or “one, two, three, four” predictable?
G-Factor- A corny phrase I’m making for my writing, which is also probably better known as the “IT factor”.  It stands for “Greatness Factor”, and  I consider this part of a performance different than stage presence.  This is that quality in a dancer/crew where you just can’t put your finger on it, but something about them is just DIFFERENT.  Something about them is just captivating you, and it might be a subtlety such as a smile or the way they carry themselves, or something as dynamic as the way they do a signature move.  In essence, what makes them individually different and sets them apart from the pack.
The Obstacle- Also known as, “the Challenge”, this category speaks for if they were able to meet the challenge of that week.  Was the challenge met?  Furthermore, was the challenge met at an average level, or was it fantastic or amazing?  Was it creative?  And was it difficult to do?

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SAFE CREWS:

IaMmE – Challenge: Recreate a Childhood Game Within Routine
Song: Moment 4 Life ft. Drake
This week IaMmE you are Thomas the Train Engine! Although you are clearly extremely popular, and you know that you have a large fan base, you are a very confident and cheeky train. Often when people don’t give you any respect, like the judges, you strive to earn it and get a little (or more than) irritated at the judgment put upon you. Percy the Small Engine is one of the few trains that can really stand up to you in your popularity, and you work just as hard as everyone else.
Stage Presence: 7  Definitely not a bad performance in terms of stage presence for IaMmE, but man, it felt lower than usual. I felt some cuteness—I mean, the song is about a child alter-ego, so at some point you’re going to have to put on the cute to really enhance the emotion of the song. It felt a bit off for me, and I liked them, but their personality on stage really didn’t have me saying “this is amazing” this week, which is why I dropped them lower than usual. Furthermore, I think they kind of “sparked” the stage this week—I feel like other weeks (such as “Peacock”) were more able to light the stage a blaze in terms of stage presence, and this week kind of fell short. Not bad though, for sure.
Technique: 7  Another drop for IaMmE this week. I mean, certainly in this category they were not bad at all, but the dynamics of the choreography to me weren’t nearly as creative, or as eye-popping as some of their previous performances. The beginning was a good set-up, and the picture looked neat I suppose, but it didn’t really set up a solid opening to me (although the popping was very good). I really liked the tutting section they did in the middle afterwards, although I couldn’t get a clear view from the front because MTV’s camera angles suck, but I could tell from a conceptual standpoint where they were going, and I liked the creativity and the visual aspect (had I been looking from the front). Using Jaja as a bar for limbo to some more dubstep wave sounds was neat, and I admit the backflip from Emilio was tight and very crisp. That part was creative, and difficult, if only for timing’s sake. I liked their choreography afterwards—I’m certain Brandon Harrell had input, because it felt very swag and smooth, and I appreciate the level changes that they executed in their choreography instead of just staying at a standing “high” or “middle” level. Using a “neck cut” move for the lyric about the slain was great musicality wise. Hopscotch tutting was creative and cute, I just find it unfortunate that it takes an overhead view for the audience to really appreciate the choreo there. Again, all of their filler choreo is very smooth and crisp and clean, and I really like it—although it would be fantastic if they had some more dynamic stuff in there to create a big moment. Brain banging was good—we saw this on YouTube, and the effect is still the same for me, that being clean, precise and amazing. I’ll finish with the Jaja solo—clearly to me the best section of the piece. Jaja sells her emotion, pops well, and what really got me was the level changing visual around her, where the swayed down with her swaying. Aesthetically it was awesome to watch, and creative as well. OK, Chachi did a a good job at the end with the swing set too, with her signature Chachi cuteness too.
G-Factor: 7  Their G-Factor was definitely pretty solid this week, as they really know at this point how to sell their individual talents while still showcasing their overall crew. Today it was all about Jaja and Chachi—Jaja can definitely bring out the “it”, and Chachi as well. Not particularly super-amazing, but good enough to draw me in and keep me really engaged to the performance.
The Challenge: 7  Creative and cute, and they do a great job of taking a challenge and making it unique and their own. Nothing was overly dynamic, however, and I think if they would have found ways to make it more in my face amazing, I would certainly have bumped them up. Not bad at all, and definitely above average if not only for their unique imagination and creativity.
Total: 28/40

"Toot, toot! I’m so happy that you’re getting the respect you deserve, but you can definitely do more to prove yourself next week!”
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ICONic Boyz – Challenge: Become Living Dolls and Move Like Marionettes
Song: Check It Out
ICONic Boyz, this week you are Percy the Small Engine! You kind of got brought in because of a shortage of shunting engines, but that didn’t deter you from trying to find your place among the big boys. And although the big boys tried bullying you around and having their way with you, you showed that you were perfectly capable of standing up for yourself. Yes, you are the youngest and smallest of all the engines, and yes you can be a little naïve and overconfident, but you strive to prove that you belong on the island.
Stage Presence: 6  Well Justin Bieber week is over now so we’re kind of moving backwards here a little bit. I feel like ICONic Boyz had an awkward emotion—I mean, this song to me represents more cute and funny, and having done plenty of choreography to this song that entails cute and fun, I kind of came out confused in this category. It was above average, yes, I can see that—but is ICONic Boyz being serious, weird, or trying to keep their signature cute? To me, you should stick to one emotion for a song unless the emotion of the song changes. “Check It Out” does not do that, so sticking to the vibe of the song is imperative. No big dynamic results for me here either, they just kind of did their thing, I guess.
Technique: 6  Moving up one spot this week in the technique category, which is definitely a good growth spot. First, I would like to point this out after watching this routine a bunch—I always feel like ICONic Boyz always hits things really loose and not completely sharp. And I can see they try to, I really do. Maybe it’s the fact that they’re small, or they are still growing and developing physically and trying to really settle into their bodies, who knows. But it always feels that way, and the opening gave me the same feeling. The section where they grouped and did some “Stomp the Yard” very straight armed choreography, that was very legit, and some of the cleanest movement I’ve seen from them ever! If their whole routine was like that in terms of clarity of movement and defined control, I would be a lot more impressed. Some OK botting (that’s roboting or robotics for everyone else out there) kind of ruined what they just did, but another great part is the handstand hand-hops. Wow, did I not expect that at all! And it made me really happy to see them branching out of what they normally do, and get into something new and exciting for their overall growth in dance (bboying in this case)! I could care less for the awkward strange transition after, however, because it looks like they’re walking around all stupid like, for no reason at all. Why ruin great parts with subpar and bad parts? I get to see some more bboying after the marionette part (cute, by the way, but not amazing) in two members attempting to do what looks like inverts or just a handstand freeze (in either case, there’s some work to be done), and afterwards I can definitely tell that they were striving for that raw, bboy flavor in their routine as evidenced by their movements with their upper bodies and their toprock (again, needing work). However, I give them massive props, because it was a welcome change of pace and a fun surprise overall, although they certainly are no Instant Noodles.
G-Factor: 6  Wasn’t completely feeling their “it” for this week. It might have been because of said prior confusing emotional conflicts for routine, but I really wasn’t feeling it. Maybe it was because they weren’t using their default “cute it” for the whole performance, and if that is the case, they need to get back to that to really give themselves and captivate the audience more.
The Challenge: 6  Eh, it was ok. The main marionette part, with T-Money, was cute, but not overly impressive, and their ending was a little out of sync and didn’t really lend much to the overall performance. But I saw potential of some great challenge creativity, like when four members in pairs of two were doing some marionette work with two in handstands and two controlling their legs.
Total: 24/40


“Well, you made it to the top 3, and that’s what matters, right? Right? We could go all the way, RIGHT?”
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BOTTOM TWO CREWS: 

 
Phunk Phenomenon – Challenge: Indian Belly Dance With Belly Rolls and Hip Isolations
Song: My Chick Bad
Phunk Phenomenon, this week you are Edward the Blue Engine! You’re the oldest train on Sodor Island, and you are very kind and always open to listening and being kind. You work hard, and do just about everything when it comes to train work, from pulling coaches and trucks to heavy loads, special loads, and even act as a pilot engine for a special train. So you just about do everything well, and show your versatility.
Stage Presence: 9  Fiiiiiiirrreee! I felt this performance when I first watched it, and every time since I feel the same emotion: buccness! The song “My Chick Bad” is all about swag and command and confidence, all of which Phunk Phenomenon depicted and emitted extremely well to the audience and the viewer. They really did light the stage this week, and man did their stage presence really get me pumped up—which is their job in the first place.
Technique: 9  Oh wow, this performance technicality wise was freaking great. The beginning was a great framing situation, with some ticking in the front and the girl rising in Nicki Minaj mode. I’d like to point out that she exampled the challenge at the get go with hip isolations, but instead of making them smooth and sexy or exotic, she made them hard and aggressive, which was fitting for the open. They had some really good quirky moments going on, like the guy being some sort of animal and the “Nicki” pulling his leash. Even the choreography in the background was very hard hitting and high energy, while still being clean, which was awesome. The lyric “guess who’s playing Jason” was great when one of the members murdered the other to make a play on words for the situation (Jason is a murdering horror character, in case someone lived under a rock and didn’t know), and subsequently Bebo screaming at “guess who’s playing Freddy” was just the same (again, Freddy Kreuger, another horror character). We really get into the challenge after with some sweet smooth belly moves and Bebo being showcased (as usual) on his head doing upside down belly rolls which were surprisingly really good. The spin part with the member making a neck snapping motion to set Bebo into his headspin was a good move not only because of the edginess, but also because the move itself (the neck break motion) fit with the whole theme of horror character and quirkiness. I feel like they must have talked to Street Kingdom for the general choreography, because this week it really feels like hard hitting kind of krump choreography, and it works really well with the song. Two last things to note, the portion where the member swags out by himself was great for a showcase, and the end with the bboying section where everyone (save “Nicki Minaj”) is doing some sort of move whether that be swipes, windmills, or more amazingly, back worms and freaking airflares to suicide drops to freeze, is just great because it gives so much to look at that I literally had to watch it four times to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
G-Factor: 9  They really sold their G-Factor this week, no doubt. Using the buccness and quirkiness if the piece, their individual personalities all seemed to combine into some amazing, un-definable thing that really just made me get so into this piece.
The Challenge: 10  Second ten of the season. This challenge to me was executed perfectly. You have a dude being sexy in the middle while doing it well, two dudes on the side basically asking the audience to love their sexiness while also doing some belly/hip rolls, and then Bebo in the middle on his head just being hilarious and ridiculous. I couldn’t see it being done any better, to be honest.
Total: 37/40

“Yes, your versatility and experience showed up this week, and for that, you should be happy!”
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Street Kingdom – Challenge: Flex Military Drills Like Soldiers
Song: Did It On Em’
Street Kingdom this week you are Henry the Green Engine! Much like the others, you are generally a hard worker and can get stuff done just as well. However, you do have a problem in illness, which makes you very similar because some routines seem to be amazing and others not so much. Much like Henry, you have overcome great adversity, as Henry was bricked up in a tunnel forever, but eventually proved his worth later.
Stage Presence: 7   I felt the military-esque discipline throughout the piece, and the song definitely calls for a hard style of emotion. It didn’t emit nearly as hard as some previous pieces though. Still, their stage presence was definitely commanding, and they did their persona on stage well. It took a while for them to get to their on fire level on stage however, and that posed a definite problem in really captivating at the onset of the piece.
Technique: 8  I’m dropping them lower not because it wasn’t good, but because they weren’t to me sticking 100% to what they know they are great at, which is getting straight bucc, rough, and hard in their krump. I thought the initial circular formation started out slow and kind of simple choreographically speaking, but once they got to the part where they were kicking and roughing up the “new recruit” on the ground to wake him up from sleep, I became more impressed as to what they were doing. I feel like this week they tried having their krump movements be more together and in sync, which to me is both a good and a bad thing. A good thing in that they’re attempting to get to the same choreographic cleanliness level as say, Kaba Modern from season one or IaMmE on this season, but a bad thing in that in choreography, making everyone the exact same hinders the individual self-expression aspect, which is what krump is initially all about. The monkey bar section I thought was one of their more genius moments, and definitely super clever. Once the piece hit the little isolation to head nod section, well, it all went uphill from there. I really do applaud them for realizing that their greater numbers as a crew can really lend to some amazing moments in choreography. I mean, normally head nods in a crew are cool to great, but with 10 people, it looks awesome. To conclude, the little things to me make big differences in choreography, such as went they isolated only their fingers. Those are the things that separate great from good crews and dancers alike on both a technicality and musicality standpoint. All their krump and movement in general in the second half of the piece was great, I just wish they didn’t start so slow.
G-Factor: 7  Their rawness and aggression and in turn their individuality and krump really didn’t explode out this week, which is unfortunate because we have seen so much better from them. It was there, and the second half it was definitely present, but up until then it felt really stagnant and good, but not typical Street Kingdom G-Factor flair.
The Challenge: 8  They achieved the challenge well. The push-up and roll under was cool, and the monkey bar was really creative and neat. Also the beginning in waking up the new recruit was super clever, and imaginative, and just as much of a drill as everything else. Total: 30/40
“You guys kind went a little down this week, but in the second half of your performance you decided to show up. I think I’m going to be sick.”
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Eliminated: Street Kingdom
I am sad to see Street Kingdom go this week, I really am. They brought something completely different and unseen on the ABDC stage. And really, they helped expose as a crew an art form that is rarely seen on mainstream dance media. People, we need to all understand krump is just as viable and legitimate a dance style and physical self-expression form as any of the other forms of dance, from ballet and jazz to popping and bboying. I give massive kudos to Street Kingdom and more so to Tight Eyez, and I hope and pray that they continue to not only progress as dancers and as a crew, but also continue to express their love for Christ and their FAITH.


Rankings for the Nicki Minaj Challenge:
1. Phunk Phenomenon (37/40)
2. Street Kingdom (30/40)
3. IaMmE (28/40)
4. ICONic Boyz (24/40)

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Click here to return to the first page and to leave comments. Thanks JustAnABDCFan -- can't wait to see what theme you use next week!