Exclusive IaMmE interview: messages to fans & their post-ABDC plans

IaMmE talked with Glenda Morales (Fanny Pak) and Chris Trondsen before the taping of the ABDC6 Finale. They discuss how crazy it is to share the stage with the ABDC past champions, how they changed their final routine over and over this week, how they've worked for the last week to show something new, their goals after ABDC ends, and their message to the fans. Thanks to MOVeMEDIA for their camera and production work all this season!

ICONic Boyz interview video: "we're like brothers with IaMmE" & each members' message to their fans

 ICONic Boyz talked to Glenda Morales (Fanny Pak) and Chris Trondsen before the taping of the ABDC6 finale. They discuss how excited they are meeting all the past champions of ABDC, which champions they're most excited to see and the advice they got from the champions. They also want to assure their fans that they're, how they're like brothers with IaMmE. Chris gives them gifts and each crew member sends a message to their fans . Thanks to MOVeMEDIA!

Byeynyn's Review of ABDC's Battle Challenge

Last week, three crews were challenged to incorporate several dance styles to the same Kanye West songs.  ICONic Boyz was saved primarily by a swarm of young teenybopper fangirls, most of whom probably stayed past their bedtime in order to text their votesies. With no other choice, the judges had to say goodbye to either Phunk Phenomenon or IaMmE, and Phunk Phenomenon was shown the door. This week, the two crews will basically do filler until the season finale on Sunday. Will this week make any difference whatsoever? Probably not! But I watched it anyways! Click here to read the full review.

Recaps of the ABDC Battle Challenge episode

• Too Interesting for Twitter asks: what was the point of having this episode?
• Ology thinks that IaMmE won the battle, but ICONic Boyz may have won the war
• CMR explains why they refuse to predict who will win ABDC and gives both crews points in the battle

Video: ICONic Boyz and IaMmE teach MTV's Jim Cantiello how to dougie

It appears that Sunday's ABDC finale will be intercut with red carpet for MTV's Movie Awards. To celebrate the merger of these two unusual but watchable entertainment forms, MTV has video of the ABDC final two ICONic Boyz and IaMmE teaching interviewer Jim Cantiello how to Dougie.  Nice to see Cantiello covering ABDC again -- his MTV Detox segments during ABDC Season 3 were recap masterpieces!

Tags: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

More notes on ABDC: finale votes, ICONic Boyz & IaMmE news, ABDC7(?)

Freeze wrote a comprehensive review of his impressions of the taping (click here to read). I want to share facts I picked up at the finale and in conversations with crews and other ABDC people:
--Over 50 million votes were cast this week, and that's before the final night of voting (between the taping on Thursday night and the polls closing on Friday morning)

--Though the final two crews are exhausted, there's no rest for either one:.

• ICONic Boyz fly back to New Jersey on Friday morning, rehearse for an ICONIC show on Saturday, perform on Sunday, and will watch the finale at the ICONIC dance studio along with the rest of the ICONIC dancers.
• On Friday, IaMmE will tape a new LXD episode. They are performing as a crew on that show, though I didn't find out anything about the characters they will play

--IaMmE members are indeed relocating to Los Angeles

--No news yet on America's Best Dance Crew Season 7. Given the great ratings and heavy voting, many of the people involved in the show's creation are feeling very hopeful that there will be a new season and there's already some thought (but no definite plans) about how it might differ from earlier seasons

Freeze's review of the ABDC6 Finale taping

Here's Freeze's review from the taping of America's Best Dance Crew Season 6's Finale:

So here's how the night went, IaMmE and IconicBoyz did an opening performance, Poreotics, Quest Crew, We are aheroes, Super Cr3w, and Jabbawockeez performed in that order. Followed by a performance from ICONic Boyz then IaMmE, then the two crews did the elimination. Because the voting ends tommorow they did two takes. IaMmE was called first and the place went crazy. Then, they reset and prepped the place for ICONic Boyz to be called..when IB was called their banner got stuck while it was coming down. Click here to read the rest of the review.

Video: Hiro (We are Heroes) on So You Think You Can Dance

The cross-fertilization between America's Best Dance Crew and So You Think You Can Dance continues. Hiro from We are Heroes (ABDC Season 4 winners) is moving on to the next round on SYTYCD. BTW -- I was at the ABDC taping last night and can report that We are Heroes KILLED their performance in the ABDC finale -- it was one of their best performances ever! Thanks for the link, Mike, Taff1013 and Ian

Survey: What was your favorite performance in ABDC's Battle Challenge?

poll by twiigs.com

Survey: What was your least favorite performance in ABDC's Battle Challenge?

poll by twiigs.com

ABDC Battle Challenge Party Room/Critics Corner is now open -- join us!

The Party Room/Critics Corner for ABDC 6's Battle Challenge is now open! Join lots of other readers as they rave and vent on the best and worst parts of this episode, America's Best Dance Crew in general, the final 2, the fans and other stuff. IMPORTANT: If you want to write a long comment, write in in NotePad or Word and then paste it into the comments field. Otherwise, all your work may disappear if someone posts something new while you're in the middle of writing.  

After the show is over: The party has just started, so stick around and join your friends (old, new, and not-yet) to praise, bemoan, predict the winner, and free associate. Was it a fair fight? What did you think of the fan tributes? Were the long-form dances by ICONic Boyz and IaMmE improvements over what they did earlier this season?  What challenges would YOU issue to the crews? How does this season rate with other ABDC seasons? This is your party --  humor, keen observation and almost everything else (EXCEPT personal attacks/disrespect not related to the dancing itself,  spam, and obscenity-- Please read our guidelines!) are expected and welcome.

Join us NOW for Live Play-by-play of ABDC's Battle Challenge

TBone, Del and and Michael Calvin will be co-hosts of this live play-by-play of America's Best Dance Crew Battle Challenge. Feel free to follow along (particularly if you cannot watch it until later). Please be aware that your comments might not be posted immediately (or at all) as we have to moderate them, watch the show, and type at the same time.If you want to leave longer comments and be sure they're used, go to the Party Room (the post above this one).

Let us know if you attend tonight's taping of the ABDC finale!

America's Best Dance Crew Season 6 (aka the Superstar Season)'s Finale will be taped tonight for airing on June 5. It will feature performances by the champions of ABDC Seasons 1-5: JabbaWockeeZ, Super Cr3w, Quest Crew, We are Heroes, and Poreotics as well as ICONic Boyz and IaMmE.    If you attend the taping, leave a comment and let us know what it was like -- the dancing, the past champions,  the judges, the crews, the costumes, and anything else you found interesting. I am planning to be there, but I want your feedback and impressions too!

Since there will be no spoilers at this session, feel free to talk about anything you saw! 

Video: Kaba Modern Legacy members freestyle in Singapore

Viet Nam The World Tour is presents its newest dance video: Kaba Modern Legacy Freestyles in Singapore > Fly.  You really should to watch this one.

Join us tonight for live play-by-play, Party Room, surveys and more!

It's the last Thursday show for America's Best Dance Crew's Season of the Superstars. This is the next-to-last episode, since the Finale will air on Sunday June 5. Watch America's Best Dance Crew Battle Challenge with us tonight! The Party Room/Critics Corner opens at 9:45 ET and stays open as long as you want, so that everyone can comment on anything remotely related to ABDC. What did you think about the battle? Did you like the fan packages? Did ICONic Boyz and IaMmE show everyone why they are the top 2?

At 10pm ET, Del and TBone will be doing live play-by-play, so feel free to tune in, watch and comment along with them or get a sneak preview of the action (for those of you from the West Coast/Puerto Rico/New Zealand or other ABDC-deprived zones). Tomorrow morning, please vote in our polls on the best and worst performances. Plus we hope to have recaps and other content. That night, I'll be at the taping of the Finale (yay!) and will report back. Join us!

SYTYCD videos and ABDC connections: Samara Cohen, Virgil Gadson

sIt looks like So You Think You Can Dance is going to be the summer series to watch for fans of America's Best Dance Crew. Virgil Gadson of Phresh Select made it to the Las Vegas round on the show -- click here to watch his performance. We think this is the first time that an ABDC alum went on to the second round on SYTYCD, though we know it's gone the other way with SYTYCD alums later appearing on ABDC (e.g., D-trix and Hok of Quest, Brandon of Dynamic Edition, PacMan of IaMmE, Donyelle of Artistry in Motion). And, here's the audition appearance from wacker Samara Cohen. Thanks for the tips, MichaelC.,Altern, and DirtfaceX!

Please help Freeze win tickets to the ABDC finale!

Freeze has given us non-spoiler coverage of the ABDC tapings all Season 6. Now it's our turn to help him. The demand for tickets to America's Best Dance Crew's finale has been ridiculous, and he got closed out. But he's trying to win some tickets, and you can help: 

• go to http://www.facebook.com/1iota, 
• like the 1iota page
• like this post by Luis Verde 

This two-minute exercise can result in more awesome reporting about the tapings. So, do your part and help Freeze! Thanks!

Survey results for ABDC's Kanye West Challenge favorite and least favorite performances

There were thousands of votes cast in our surveys about readers' favorite and least favorite performances in ABDC's Kanye West/Last Chance Challenge episode. As usual, there appear to be some polarized opinions:

• Favorite performance. Out of 3086 votes, the favorite performance was IaMmE's Last Chance Challenge (43%), followed by ICONic Boyz' Kanye West routine (20%) and ICONic Boyz Last Chance Challenge (19%). Click here for the full results
• Least favorite performance: Out of 2254 votes, the least favorite performance was ICONic Boyz' Last Chance Challenge 44%), followed by IaMmE's Last Chance Challenge (18%), and ICONic Boyz' Kanye West Challenge ( 16%). Click here for the full results.

Ken-ya Dance 2011 Videos: Beat Freaks, Fanny Pak, Quest Crew

 Pacific Rim covered the action at Ken-Ya Dance on May 21. Among the crews they covered: America's Best Dance Crew alumni  Quest Crew, Fanny Pak,  and Beat Freaks:

Ninjaboi's review of ABDC's Last Chance Challenge Challenge

So moving on, we come to the Last Chance Challenge (for some reason they’re calling it Last Stand. Whatever).  Before I describe each performance, let me talk about what I consider the crucial elements of a good Last Chance Challenge.Aside from the Crews Showcase week the first episode of season (except this one), this is the only chance a crew has to perform who THEY are totally without any sort of limitation in terms of music, challenge, whatever.  Crews that stay consistent with who they’ve been will usually be pretty good. It’s a closer on your story of ABDC, so it better wrap up your story pretty well.

It’s also the vote-getter.  This is what show’s up on the website, so it better be a damn good impression.  The idea of “holding nothing back” applies.  Unless you are a crew whose repertoire could fill an entire season of ABDC by itself, there should not be a single thing that will impress America that you hold back. Click here for the full review.

Video: Team iLuminate on America's Got Talent

The group iLuminate was the highlight at the Atlanta auditions on the new season of America's Got Talent. One of the group's choreographers is Lindsey B. from Beat Freaks. Thanks for the link, Koopa and JJVirus.

Something different: B-boys and "The Mute Button"

This is a little off-topic, but worth sharing: Improv Everywhere's latest stunt involved 23 actors (including some b-boys) and 2 dogs who infiltrated a public space in Brooklyn and went on "mute" at coordinated intervals. The boombox used for the b-boys was one of the prime signals for sound transitions. This is the same group that staged the Frozen Grand Central stunt (in which I participated) and is effective and funny in much the same way.

Last chance to enter our ABDC Top 4 Contest

The end is here for our ABDC Top 4 contest. If you want to change your vote, here's your last chance. The prize goes to the first person to submit the correct answer, based on which week they submit it. If more than one person gets it right that week, we'll employ a tie-breaker rule.  Click here for contest rules and prizes. All of the combinations have been chosen, so no entry this week can win. Nonetheless, you might want to enter just for bragging rights and to support your crew.
 
IMPORTANT: If you submitted an entry in the last 2 weeks naming the top 2 as ICONic and IaMmE (in that order) -- BE SURE TO ALSO include a guess on how many votes MTV will receive in this final choice. That is the tie-breaker question for determining the winner. This is especially important for Alyssa, Sylvia Catherine, and ICONiacz. If I don't receive a tie-breaker estimate, that person can't win.  However, if IaMmE wins, then Alan automatically gets the prize, since he had the IaMmE/ ICONic Boyz/ Phunk Phenomenon/ Street Kingdom combination earlier than anyone else.   Deadline for this round: midnight on Saturday June 4. Good luck!

Ninjaboi's review of ABDC's Kanye West Challenge - Part I of 2

Apologies, denizens of the internet.  The real world has been calling so I couldn’t get this up in a timely manner. Thankfully we have another week of ABDC left on us, so I have time to get this out still.  Also due to time constraints, on my ability to work on this, I’ll post the Kanye West performances today, and post the Last Chance Challenge review tomorrow, because I really want to go in depth into what makes a good LCC.  That and it gives me another day to run some statistical analysis on the entire season, which I’ll post tomorrow as well.  Just a preview though: it’ll include stuff like “if such and such crew had stayed on and performed constantly, where would they have ranked talent wise?” Click here to read the full review.

Video: Bboy Machine on So You Think You Can Dance

So You Think You Can Dance is back for Season 8. On the first show, Bboy Machine showed his skills and got a ticket to Las Vegas for the next rounds. Thanks for the tip, Ninjaboi!

Video: JabbaWockeeZ dance on The Bachelorette

JabbaWockeeZ (America's Best Dance Crew Season 1 champions) figured prominently in the plot of The Bachelorette Episode 2. In this long clip, the crew dances onstage in rehearsal, give some advice to the bachelors forming dance crews to win Ashley's heart, pick a winning bachelor crew to perform with them one night in MUS.I.C., and perform some more toward. the end. Thanks for the tip, TheTrend!

Video: the making of Lil Mama's latest song "On & On & On"

ABDC judge Lil Mama has released a new song:- "On & On & On." The lyrics are ...interesting. Click here to listen to the track on Youtube.  Here's her video on the making of the recording.

Exclusive Interview: D-trix "ABDC is also "America's Favorite Dance Crew"

ABDC judge D-trix talked to Glenda Morales (Fanny Pak) and Chris Tronden before the taping of ABDC's Kanye West Challenge. D-trix talks about how he met Glenda at auditions for So You Think You Can Dance, his ballet moves at World of Dance San Diego, how he feels about the Top 3 on Season 6, and advice he'd give to the Top 2 crews going forward. Thanks to MOVeMEDIA!

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

Twenty-seven crews competed at the 2011 World of Dance New York. Here are the winners:
First place: Rockwell Family from Montreal. Click here to watch the performances by 2nd place winner Wanted Ashiqz and 3rd place winner EPIC Motion. Congratulations to all!

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

Hello again BBDC. Apologies for not having a review last week, personal issues. To sum things up, a certain crew didn’t do well, two of them did well, and one did okay. Now to this week, WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK. Two crews really brought the fire this week and blew up the stage in ways never before seen. This was, bar none, the best bottom 2 battle in the history of America's Best Dance Crew. This topped the likes of Jabba vs Kaba, Fanny vs Super Crew and so on. One crew (that greatly deserved to be in the finale) ended up leaving. For starters, the group performance this week was impressive, except for one small (literally) issue, but other than that it was great. "All of the Lights" was a fantastic song to dance to and an easy song to incorporate your own vibe to. I wish that more of Kanye’s more recent songs were used (*cough* Monster/ Runaway/ So Appalled *cough*). But, Time fo…. HEY YO NINJA, I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU, IMMA LET YOU FINISH, BUT ZEKE-ISH HAD ONE OF THE BEST REVIEWS OF ALL TIME, ALL TIME… *ahem* time for my review. Click here to read the full review.

FootWorKINGz and footwork in the news: NPR audio, TV video

-- National Public Radio recently aired a feature on the footwork dance movement. If even NPR is noticing this, it must be catching on! Click here to listen. Thanks for the tip, Ekpen!

-- FootworKINGz appeared on local station WCIU for an interview, a lesson in how to footwork, and performance by the full crew.

Note to commenters -- the rudeness here must stop now.

A reminder to everyone here: Read the guidelines on leaving comments on this site. NOW.

The rudeness is increasing from  both IaMmE fans and ICONic Boyz fans and should stop immediately. No ad hominem attacks, no personal insults and obscenity about the crews and commenters is ever appropriate. AND the ICONic Boyz fans have been particularly rude to me in comments and email, what with spam attacks on some posts, personal attacks (I am not a slut or a whore!), and even some threats to my safety. JUST KNOCK IT OFF.  There is a zero-tolerance policy to these types of practices -- the commenter is banned for life.

ICONic Boyz fans: why you need to chillax about ABDC voting fraud rumors!

We've gotten a flood of comments, emails, and texts about rumors that there is fraudulent voting practices occurring in support of IaMmE. There are multiple rumors, but all involve use of computers to flood the voting or change votes. Please calm down and don't worry about it! It is NOT a problem!

First of all, these rumors arose from comments here and elsewhere on the internet and are JOKES. The jokes were written in response to bragging by ICONic Boyz' fans about casting thousands of votes apiece. The rumors/jokes aren't true. I know a fair amount about computerized voting, and the egregious rumors about vote-changing are impossible. Also, think about it: if someone wanted to commit this type of fraud, the last thing they'd do is to publicize it and bring it to the attention of MTV and ICONic Boyz fans!

Further, MTV understands the risk of fraud and has systems in place to pick up on automated voting and to negate the voting. Here's the scoop from the MTV website: "Use of any device to automate a vote is prohibited, including but not limited to software-generated, robotic, programmed, script, macro or other automated votes. MTVN reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify any individual (and remove any votes from that individual) it suspects or finds: (i) to have used a software-generated, robotic, programmed, script, macro or other automated online or text message entry; (ii) to have tampered with the voting process; (iii) to be acting in violation of these Voting Rules; or (iv) to be acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person. MTVN reserves the right to remove votes at its sole discretion."

Enter our last round of the ABDC Elimination Challenge now!

The Elimination Challenge: Which crews will be in the bottom 2 each week and which one will be eliminated? Enter each week; the person with the highest cumulative score for Season 6 wins an ABDC crew shirt of their choice and size (up to $35 value). 

**IMPORTANT**: Create a user name you will use every week for the entire contest, and make it memorable (not just a common first name or word). I can't track email addresses, and if it's difficult for me to track votes, they won't be counted.

The contest is close, but right now Zekeish is ahead by one point. He can still be unseated though, so get those last guesses in now! This week only: leave a comment with the name of the winning crew; it will be worth 3 points. Also include a guess on how many votes were cast at MTV for the final choice between IaMmE and ICONic Boyz. This is the tie-breaker question.  Deadline: Midnight on June 1, 2011. Good luck!

World of Dance NY first report: Mos Wanted Crew video, congratulations Rockwell Family!

World of Dance New York 2011 was overwhelming, and I need some time to process all of it  - my impressions, and lots of videos. In the meantime, I know many of you wanted to see the Mos Wanted Crew performance!

Congratulations to the competition winners: 1st place: Rockwell Family; 2nd place: Wanted Ashiqz, and 3rd place: Epic Motion. I have video of all of these performances (and many more) and will share them over the next day or so. In the meantime -- if you were there, tell us what you thought. What were your favorite dances? Did you participate or watch any of the battles? Did you go to the meet and greet (special surprise guest - Phunk Phenomenon!). If you're going to today's Mos Wanted Workshops, please share your impressions and any visuals!

Freeze's report on the ABDC Battle Challenge

Freeze attended the May 28 taping of America's Best Dance Crew's penultimate episode -- the Battle Challenge. Click here to read the full report including the individual crew challenge, the battle, the scene in the stands (ICONic Boyz fans vs. IaMmE fans!), Lil Mama's outfit, and much more. 

And, BloggingBestDanceCrew.com readers will be represented on that episode. Both Yoo and JabbaJake have material used in the video packages. Well done!

Byeynyn's review of ABDC6's Kanye West Challenge

Last week, four crews got crazy to Nicki Minaj, and Street Kingdom was finally dethroned after its third trip in the bottom. Three crews are left- IaMmE, ICONic Boyz, and Phunk Phenomenon, all names that make my computer’s spell check cry in pain. The crews will be tasked with performing three different dance styles to the same three songs. Those songs belong to this week’s special artist, Kanye West. That’s right, West is being featured on a season where the winner reps either the South or the East. Three crews! Six dances! Twenty dancers! Who will be the American Idol… of Dance Crews? Click here to read the full review.