Jabbawockeez - Devastating Stereo

Jabba and the Bangerz... nice.

The Voice - Battlefield

Final performance from Cee Lo and Vicci from The Voice... The kids killed it! So fierce!!!

Exchange

What I'm peepin tonight. Love Salah's message at the end... exchange and learn. True true... Those are some of the most engaging types of conversations. You can talk about your likes and dislikes but to talk about life experiences, culture and religion, you expand your mind and your souls connect if only for that moment. The dancing is pretty impressive as well. Check it out.

via WOD

The Bay is Waacking

When I was back home the beginning of this year, I was able to support the first day of my best friend's waacking intensive. It'd been her wish to cultivate a waacking community in the Bay Area, our hometown. She took her mission very seriously, doing the research and interviewing og's so she could get the history straight.

It was a beautiful event filled with warm positive open energy. The perfect setting to learn, let loose and find yourself in the dance. No judgments, just dance. And from my experience, if you want a style of dance that's freeing, this is it. It's an amazing release... sassy and fun as well for the ladies and the fellas!

Check out this vid by Funk'd up TV documenting the beginnings of the Bay Area Waacking movement. So proud of her and so great to see the community come alive! And it's only just begun so keep a look out for more events. And if you don't know what waacking is, she breaks it down for ya in the video.

Waaacking/Punking workshop intensive by Tiffany "Jimini" Bong January 3-8, 2011 at City Dance, SF.

Check the super fun and fierce battles here. They only learned the style in a few days!

Movement Lifestyle at EnKore

This is too good not to post. If you're into isolations then the first half is for you. For me, I'm feeling the Zodiac (3:10) and Daydreamer (4:05) pieces in the later half. I'm a sucker for the swagger of the Zodiac piece. The choreography of Daydreamer on the other hand is simply amazing. The interpretation of the lyrics and music, and the interaction and intertwining flow about the stage between the main characters and other dancers is absolutely beautiful... especially the chain sequence starting at 6:20. It took me a couple replays to see everything but it's brilliant. And the choreography of the main male role is so smart as well. There are so many layers to this. It's beautiful.

Kinjaz (ANBU Black Ops)

Kinjaz: A Dance Anime.
Directed by: Mike Song and Anthony Lee

This is choreographed so well with the music. The transitions between "Cuz I Got High" and "Pink Panther" are awesome and Mortal Combat, what?! The roll into a head hollow during Imogen Heap is pretty nice. The whole piece is awesome, hilarious, and entertaining. Enjoy!


And check out the sick trailer for ENKORE, a dance competition that happened this past weekend benefiting the CSLA's after school dance outreach program.

Fix you

This is the first piece from this season's SYTYCD to move me. The choice of movement, so unique yet so clear in it's emotion and message is beautiful. The sensitive musicality to the song and it's tempo was so on. In combination, it was powerful and danced beautifully. If you weren't moved by the ending, your heart must not be beating.

Robert Roldan and all star Allison Holker. Travis Wall choreography about his ill mother. Song, Fix You by Coldplay.

Somebody to Love

Gotta give some love to my best friend's crew, Syrenz, who appeared in the Justin Bieber/Usher video. Go ladies!



Also in the video, crews you may know like Poreotics, The Beat Freaks, and LXD and some you may not like Media Sirkas. And if you don't, let them break it down for ya. SF represent!

LXD online series

The online LXD series (The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) is now here on Hulu with a new episode each Wednesday. An innovative series by Jon M. Chu brings dancers into the main focus. Some familiar faces are involved... like a member of the Glee cast, Harry Shum, a dancer/choreographer who I vaguely remember hearing about when I was still in SF. The series is more like a showcase of the amazingly talented and skilled dancers... Episode 1 and 2 already have loads of tricks. Check em out.

Baby Bogaloo & B-boy Bailrock

I'm in awe. Check out Baby Boogaloo. He's 5 years old but he's been dancing even earlier then that. He freestyles, knows routines, dances to the beat and music, and gets down! What?! Son of Wildchild (Jack Brown) from the Lootpack Crew. He knows how to pop, lock, break, and krump according to the Ellen interview. And I guess he can even rap! I wouldn't be surprised if papa's got him learning the tables and graffiti writing soon too.

B-boy Bailrock (age 9) is crazy awesome as well. Apparently they are on America's Got Talent. Check out Future Funk. Love the name. They're so cute!

WOD NY 2010

I was able to catch this year's World Of Dance competition in NY and I was pretty impressed. Due to the venue there wasn't a b-boy/b-girl battle this time but there was the main choreography competition which my friend Dennis helped judge. I wanted to check it out since I missed it last year.

There were 40 plus performances with Celebrity and Exhibition teams (many from ABDC) scattered amongst Competition teams so it's difficult to keep track of it all. Of the ones I did catch, I thought The Family stood out. They got third place. I missed the 1st and 2nd place teams but caught the videos. Props to the 1st place Psyde Project for continuing on so cleanly when their music cut out. All the flips and tricks definitely carried the crowd appeal.

The 2nd place, Static Noyze, was a-ma-zing. There was too much of the same music, same moves, walking transitions, and abruptly mixed music that dominated throughout the night so Static Noyze was definitely a stand out... a cohesive theme, music that blended well, moves that translated the music and told the story. It was so artistic and so well done. It wasn't about the music, it wasn't about the moves. You paid attention to the story and how beautifully they told it.



Blue Print, Poreotix and other crews from the latest season of ABDC were some of the Celebrity performers. And while Jabbawockeez didn't perform at the NY WOD, they did at WOD in Pomona, CA. I can't get enough of this performance. I didn't think they could get any crispier or cleaner but they did. So much so I almost wonder if it's a video effect. Even when they're all doing different moves, they look amazingly clean. They've mastered performing on stage. They think of every detail - notice KB puts down the air guitar (0:52). Love SwaggerBoy's groove starting at 1:40. The Gibberish section was so hot, cute, and funny. And 5:28 kills me every time! Check out part 1 here.

Dancing distraction

A big thank you to those who came out to the Design C.L.O.T reception Saturday night! For those who missed it the show will still be up @ powerHouse Area until May 9th. I'll likely be there Saturday so come on by!

Now, for the post. One of the many things I miss during this crazy last semester is dancing and just letting the music flow. Been getting some of it out of my system now that I have a tiny bit of room to breath since recovering from thesis presentations, but I just hope I can plant my butt into my chair long enough to finish my thesis paper, which is due sooner then I thought!

Anyhow, here's more fuel for my distraction... and maybe yours. Vid promoting Jabbawockeez's new show, mus.i.c in Vegas. Vegas baby! Amazing! Wish I could check it out.

No excuses

Love this. These b-girls are SICK! I've been a long time believer that being female is a check-box on a form, not an excuse. We can do whatever we put our mind to. That doesn't mean it won't take that much more work but we can do it. Much respect to these ladies! Link - NastyRay. One of the interviewers - B-girl Peppa.

Dancin at the Oscars

I like what LXD did to tell the story of the different movie scores and incorporate different styles of dance. I appreciated this more then their other performances. There was a purpose to dancing to this music and where hip hop dance was used, it made sense... well, I'm not so sure about the krumping. Krumping (let alone any other hip hop dance style) to anything other then hip hop just doesn't seem right. How do you feel the music? But that's another topic and just my opinion.

The duet was amazing. Overall, I feel the whole performance was choreographed beautifully. They did an amazing job incorporating and contrasting the different styles. And the dancers were awesome.

All the Way Live Foundation

Was sent this today...
All the Way Live Foundation I love the foundation's mission...

Discussing roots

I got myself edumacated tonight. My classmate Esin thankfully informed me of this event.
Late Nite @ DNA: Roots of Hip Hop
hosted and curated by Robin Dunn.

Performances by:
Buddha Stretch/Mop Top Music & Movement,
Jazzy J & Electrify (&Crazy Legs),
Violet Galagarza’s KR3T’s,
Kim Holmes,
Tweetie,
Spex,
Jason “Mouse” Vasquez
Jonathan Lee

*Pre-show panel discussion on “Roots of Hip Hop and the Pop Culture Massacre”
Panelists:
Crazy Legs,
Popmaster Fabel,
Buddha Stretch,
Jonathan Lee, and
Violet Galagarza.

There was lots discussed and debated upon in the panel and I'm thankful to have been in attendance. I'm letting it all marinate at the moment but I'll leave you with this... examples Popmaster Fabel mentioned that exemplify traces of hip hop before it was hip hop and that even the pioneers are still learning the history as well.

For the love and joy of dance...

You can see it in their movement. Love, love, LOVE this...

Doesn't 2:53-3:01 remind you of something? And Peg Leg Bates, talk about overcoming obstacles.

Thought I wrote about the Nicholas Brothers before but I guess not. They're definitely worth checkin out as well as the Berry Brothers. The level of skill and talent is insane! And the pure joy. Love it!

Future of dance?

I haven't had time to watch tv lately but Hanna recommended that I look this up. Not really sure how I feel about this. Looks like LXD "futurized" popping, waving, breaking, kung-fu, and I think I saw some krumping and ballet in this performance. Made it more robotic; stripped away the grove and rawness of the dance and added a more controlled force which I think is counter to the essence of hip hop dance. But that's just my opinion. They did do an awesome job unifying the different styles of dance into their futuristic movement style (think Matrix). It's definitely great entertainment and the dancing was so clean.

Seeing this below puts it in context and makes a lot more sense to me. I'm glad Jon Chu is creating something so powerful. It's taking what Michael Jackson did much further by featuring the dancer(s) in a full storyline usually saved for films or musicals. Telling the story with dance alone is amazing. And yes, dancers are superheroes for what they put their bodies through... dancing through physical and emotional pain.

Is this the future of dance in terms of that futuristic style? I hope not. But in terms of how they're featuring dance? Hells ya! I'm for it. It's a beautiful thang. Now, will it ever have a box office draw? Maybe someday. It's slowly trying to make its way to Broadway right now so we'll see.

Housing Janet

I can see locking and house dance in Janet Jacksons's video for her new song Make Me. From what I know house dance has been around since the 80's but its popularity hasn't really hit the mainstream. It think Janet's video picks up on it's popularity in the underground scene though so I wouldn't be surprised if it is highlighted on one of the dance shows sometime soon.

House Dance

House Dance is not technically hip hop dance I've read but many are taking to house dance these days. It's taken me a while to get used to the music (I like jazzy soulful house best) but tonight I finally felt its pulse and its influence on your body and I'd like to learn house to be able to fully express the music. Hopefully I'll get to. I'm definitely in the right city for it.

The video below is of Brian Green dancing house. He is amazing. The way he hears and translates the music is nuts!