Saturday, March 28, 2009

New Quest Freestyling video

In preparation for the Myspace Music Release Show for Flo Rida, here's a video from ricknlo of Quest Crew, Jalen (a 7 year old dance prodigy and others. Thanks for the tip, Adobostreak!

Exclusive report: Quest Celebration Party

Our field reporters Brooke and Rebecca attended the Quest Celebration party on March 21 in Hollywood. Here's their report:

The Scene: As we arrive at the club the scene is mob-like. On one side of the door, the VIP line is wrapped around the corner of friends, family and other very important people . On the other side of the door another long line of eager fans, supporters and followers of our Quest Crew almost impatiently waiting for club security to let them in. Quest has already made their very public entrance through the front door by the time we arrived, so we were excited to get in and meet them. We decide to try to skip the lines on either side of the entrance and find our contacts on the inside to come out and get us. We were able bypass everyone and walk into the club, taking our first look around we see big screen TV's playing America's Best Dance Crew Season 3 winners -- Quest!. As we walked into the main area of the club, we began immediately scanning the crowd to see where they are sitting.... Duh they're dancers, they aren't going to be sitting down at a club! So we started looking for Quest Crew, well they were much harder to find then originally suspected. People were in crew type formations in different areas doing there own dances, routines and compilations. You could see some watching the tv's and trying to do Quest's moves. It was amazing! Hip hop was definitely the fashion trend of the evening, tennis shoes, hats, bold colors, sunglasses, chunky stripes, hoods and overall a very funky fashion forward feeling... A very unusual scene for a typical Saturday night in any LA/Hollywood club.

We finally spotted a few of the Quest crew... I was able to get a photo with Hok, a very friendly and appreciative guy. It was hard to have much of a conversation with all the loud music,
but I did congratulate him and the team. Looking at the photo's you will spot a few of the other crew members but I was unable to grab them for a photo. It was a very interesting experience and I'm so pleased I was able to be a part of it.
Click here to see more party photos, including a quiet moment with Ringmasters.
Thanks for the great report, Brooke and Rebecca -- I wish I could have been there too!

#9 Favorite for America's Best Dance Crew Season 3: Quest's Got Money

Today: #9 in our survey of the our readers' 10 favorite America's Best Dance Crew performances for Season 3. We're starting with the most popular and are posting them throughout the next few weeks.

Reminder: respondents were allowed to pick more than one performance as their favorites. 26 % of our survey respondents identified Quest's Performance of Got Money as one of their favorite performances. It aired in the Illusion Challenge Show in Week 5. Watch it here (at least for now!) or you can watch this performance by clicking here for the full MTV version.



Next: In a tie for 10th place - Beat Freaks' Womanizer.

Friday, March 27, 2009

World of Dance Pomona to featureQuest, Beat Freaks, TM Performances, Quest Appearance

Today's The World of Dance event in Pomona, California (on April 4) is shaping up to be a star-studded day for America's Best Dance Crew and hip hop choreography fans. Beat Freaks and Team Millennia will perform along with dozens of other established and up-and-coming crews. In addition, Quest just announced that they will perform at the Pomona show. Super Cr3w will be doing a live webcast from the Shiekh shoes booth there.

Click here for all the details, and click here to purchase tickets.

Pacific Rim posted 4 videos of Quest promoting the World of Dance tour. My favorite is the photoshoot, where the crew members pose using dance moves.Sort of like America's Next Top Dance Crew.

#8 Favorite Performance for ABDC Season 3: Beat Freaks Hot N Cold

Today: #8 in our survey of the our readers' 10 favorite America's Best Dance Crew performances for Season 3. We're starting with the most popular and are posting them throughout the next few weeks.

Reminder: respondents were allowed to pick more than one performance as their favorites. 26 % of our survey respondents identified the Beat Freaks performance of Hot N Cold as one of their favorite performances. It aired on the Battle of the Sexes Show in Week 6. Watch it here (at least for now!) or you can watch this performance by clicking here for the full MTV version.


The #9 pick: Yet more Quest!

More Fanny Pak/ASIID collaboration: Girls on the Dance Floor

ASIID members Della Hamby and Himerria Wortham (Meme) and Fanny Pak member Glenda Morales taught and performed at 4C the Power Workshop on March 21, 2009. Thanks to Kcalination007 for the video and abdcs3 for the tip!

Both of my 'banned' Quest Videos are back on Youtube!

As mentioned in earlier posts, two of my Quest interview videos (the Week 7 interview and the post-finale interview) had been removed from Youtube for copyright violations. UPDATE: both were reinstated late last night. I am thankful to whomever helped with this, and grateful that I didn't have to start involved legal communications.

So, here are the two videos (sorry if you've already viewed them):
The Week 7 interview, with Quest teaching field reporter Noah a 'secret dance move'


And here's the post-America's Best Dance Crew finale interview, where we talk to Quest about comic book heroes, singing, and other absurd and delightful subjects.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

#7 Favorite Performance for ABDC Season 3: Quest and Beat Freaks Together, Beggin'

Today: #7 in our survey of the our readers' 10 favorite America's Best Dance Crew performances for Season 3. We're starting with the most popular and are posting them throughout the next few weeks.

Reminder: respondents were allowed to pick more than one performance as their favorites. 26 % of our survey respondents identified the Quest/Beat Freaks performance of Beggin' as one of their favorite performances. It aired on the Finale Show, as the first and only dance featuring just the top two crews of Season 3. You can watch it legally by clicking here to watch the entire episode, then going to 26:18. Sorry for the commercials.

There are no legal clips, and most of the unlicensed Youtube versions are removed within a few days of their appearance (as well as videos that aren't even in copyright violation). If you don't want to watch the full episode,
just search for it yourself!

Next up: More Beat Freaks!
Photocredit: MTV

JabbaWockeeZ interview - Creative process, relating to the music

QuadCity Times in Iowa talked to JabbaWockeeZ when they were in town for the New Kids on the Block concert. A few quotes of note:
  • In their full interview, JabbaWockeeZ talks about how America's Best Dance Crew gave them their big break. And Founding Member Joe Larot tells them ""We cater to the music. We develop a relationship with the music..we kind of have this code that we try to do where, if you were a deaf person and you couldn't really hear music, how could I show you music through my movements?"
  • A separate blogpost based on the interview describes the JabbaWockeeZ creative process: "We’re a bunch of goofy guys and we just like to vibe off each other.”

A Boxcuttuhz Dance-off -- of sorts

Boxcuttuhz Lando Wilkins (America's Best Dance Crew Season 3) posts a dance-off video: "At the Boxcuttuhz performance on March 20th, 2009 @ Shark's Club, an older fan from the Super Galactic Beat Manipulator days asked how my style started and how i came to where i am now. Well i had the feeling always but one major influence that helped me realize my own weakness in music was Kevin Brewer of the Jabbawockeez (look him up, simplicity at its finest). So for fun i battled myself in the mirror from the older style to the now incorporated style. this is for all to enjoy. Daywalker (SGBM) vs. Bang Jenkins (Boxcuttuhz)...who wins???" I vote for Bang -- and you should go to Landizeesgbm (Lando's Youtube Channel) and vote! And thanks to FannyBoxFan for the tip!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Update: Viacom's Youtube Policy=RESOLVED!

Those of you who are loyal readers of this site know that I go out of my way not to publish pirated videos, even though it would make my readers much happier. So, I am incredibly annoyed that Viacom had my post-America's Best Dance Crew finale interview with Quest removed from Youtube for alleged copyright violations. I plan to fight the violation notice and get the video back on my Youtube Channel, but it takes some time. In the meantime, you can watch it -- on someone else's Youtube Channel who made a pirated copy of MY video!!

UPDATE: this video and another exclusive interview with Quest have been reinstated on Youtube. Thanks to whomever helped out with the problem!!

Quest performance at DUB auto show

On March 22, America's Best Dance Crew Quest performed at the DUB auto show on March 22 in Los Angeles. Thanks to dgar949 Youtube Channel and Phil Joz for the tip.
In a few days, we'll also post a field report and pictures from the March 21 Quest celebration party (I've got them now, but I'm on the road and can't process the photos for posting!)

Beat Freaks Question and Answer Session in Atlanta

Beat Freaks held a Question and Answer session with fans on March 22 at Pure in Atlanta. They sit on the floor and really open up in a funny, honest.and cool way. In the first video, the America's Best Dance Crew finalists talk about their personal values (and why they're so cool), Freak the Dream, B-Girl the Movie, their ages (and why age isn't important for being a good dancer).Much thanks to Len for pointing these out, and Julemister for posting them.
Here's the first video:
Click here to watch Parts 2 and 3 of the Q&A session, including info on their non-dance marketing plans.

#6 Favorite Performance for ABDC Season 3: Quest/Dynamic Edition/Strikers Finale Performance

Today: #5 in our survey of the our readers' 10 favorite America's Best Dance Crew performances for Season 3. We're starting with the most popular and are posting them throughout the next few weeks.

Reminder: respondents were allowed to pick more than one performance as their favorites. 28 % of our survey respondents identified the Quest/Dynamic Edition/Strikers All-Stars performance of Right Round as one of their favorite performances. It aired on the Finale Show, as Shane Sparks picked the crews that he wanted to see dance together. You can watch it legally by clicking here to watch the entire episode, then go to 6:08. Sorry for the commercials.

There are no legal clips, and most of the unlicensed Youtube versions are removed within a few days of their appearance. If you don't want to watch the full episode,
just search for it yourself!

Next up: Another group performance!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

#5 Favorite Performance for ABDC Season 3: Quest's Hero

Today: #5 in our survey of the our readers' 10 favorite America's Best Dance Crew performances for Season 3. We're starting with the most popular and are posting them throughout the next few weeks.

Reminder: respondents were allowed to pick more than one performance as their favorites. 38 % of our survey respondents identified Quest Crew's performance of Toxic as one of their favorite performances. It aired Week 1 during the Sudden Death Challenge. MTV does not have the entire performance on-line.You can watch it legally by clicking here to watch the full episode, then go to 20:49. Sorry for the commercials.

Here's most of the performance, from Fanscape Videos. There are other embeddable sources that have the complete performance, but since they're bootleg, I'm concerned that they will be unavailable too soon.



Tomorrow: #6 favorite: a group performance from the finale!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Beat Freaks First Performances after ABDC

Beat Freaks performed at Club Pure in Atlanta on March 21, their first performance after the America's Best Dance Crew Finale. This video is from Shortyfan87's Youtube channel. Thanks for the tip, anonymous (whoever you are!)
Click here to watch the performance on March 22.

New Fly Khicks Performance Video

Fresh from the America's Best Dance Crew Season 3 Finale, Fly Khicks performed at Coral Reef High School in Miami. Thanks to OhhKIMI for the video and fkfan for the tip!

#4 Favorite ABDC 3 Performance: Beat Freaks "Freeze"

Today: #4 in our survey of the our readers' 10 favorite America's Best Dance Crew performances for Season 3. We're starting with the most popular and are posting them throughout the next few weeks.

Reminder: respondents were allowed to pick more than one performance as their favorites. 45% of our survey respondents identified Beat Freak's performance of Freeze as one of their favorite performances. it aired Week 5 during the Illusion Challenge. In case MTV pulls this full version, you can watch the performance by clicking here.

Several readers have commented that the illusion was done with a prop called the kinetic sphere. Click here to learn more about the kinetic sphere and buy one for yourself!



Coming up tomorrow: the #5 Favorite is Quest's Hero.

Upcoming Super Cr3w: Boston, California, Las Vegas

Courtesy of SuperCr3w.com, information about upcoming Super Cr3w appearances:
---April 2: Super Cr3w will perform at Northeastern University at Blackman Auditorium at 7pm.
---April 3: The Winners of America's Best Dance Crew Season 2 will be doing a meet-and-greet at the Shiekh store in Merced Mall from 4-6pm. If you visit the store before then, you can receive a VIP pass for express entry
---April 4: Super Cr3w performs at the UC Merced gym. More details here.
---April 25: They'll perform in the Guam Festival in Las Vegas (see poster for details)

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Fanny Pak and ASIID performance together =Asylum video

On March 20, Fanny Pak and ASIID (America's Best Dance Crew Season 2) performed together calling themselves Asylum, at ISA with Far East Movement. Video courtesy of Nami914 Thanks for the tip ABDC!

#3 Favorite Performance for ABDC Season 3: Quest's Toxic

Today: #3 in our survey of the our readers' 10 favorite America's Best Dance Crew performances for Season 3. We're starting with the most popular and are posting them throughout the next few weeks.

Reminder: respondents were allowed to pick more than one performance as their favorites. 49 % of our survey respondents identified Quest Crew's performance of Toxic as one of their favorite performances. It aired Week 3 during the Britney Spears challenge.Watch the complete performance here (on MTV).

Here's most of the performance, from Fanscape Videos. There are other embeddable sources that have the complete performance, but since they're bootleg, I'm concerned that they will be unavailable too soon.



Next up: Beat Freaks!

Fysh N Chicks Performance in Miami Fashion Week

Fysh N Chicks, girl group extraordinaire from America's Best Dance Crew Season 1, performed at opening night of Miami Fashion Week. Here's the video, from littleinthemiddle.com.
Update: I was incorrect in thinking this was a new performance: it is a new video of a 2008 performance. But it's a new video, and worth sharing.