Saturday, May 5, 2012

Mikey (ICONic Boyz) & Chris talk to Chachi - rapid fire questions, choreo, memories

Chris Trondsen and 'Spiky' Mikey Fusco (ICONic Boyz) interviewed Chachi from IaMmE before the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's JLo Challenge. Chachi talks about how she creates chroreography, her fondest memory after ABDC, which crews she particularly likes, and rapid-fire questions on favorites (e.g,, hairstyle, shoes, lip gloss flavors, movies, favorite foods).

Mikey (ICOnic Boyz) & Chris interview Fanny Pak before ABDC JLo Challenge: reader questions, their slogan & 'the word game'

 Chris Trondsen and 'Spiky' Mikey Fusco (ICONic Boyz) interviewed Fanny Pak before the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's JLo Challenge. The crew members talk about how they are preparing after being in the bottom 2 during the Drake Challenge, how they've progressed since Season 2, what their "Be You" slogan means, and how they come up with their choreography with the 'word game'. And they show their best 'dance' faces.

Mikey (ICONic Boyz) & Chris interview Mos Wanted Crew pre-ABDC JLo taping: creative process, inspirations & imitations!

Chris Trondsen and 'Spiky' Mikey Fusco (ICONic Boyz) interviewed Mos Wanted Crew before the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's JLo Challenge.The crew members talk about who inspired them to dance, and talk about how they come up with their choreography each week. The crew members also imitate the other members of the crew

Video: Freestyle by Nick Mara (ICONic Boyz)

Most of our coverage of ICONic Boyz's dance highlights their group efforts, but the members have done solid solo work too. This video from Nick Mara was self-produced and self-choreographed. From nicholicious1997, Youtube, which has more of Nick's work.

Byenyn's Review of ABDC Drake Challenge

Last week, nine crews expressed themselves to the songs of Madonna. The voting public decided it really didn’t like Canadians, Mexicans, or crews named after car crashes. The judges saved Collizion, leaving Funkdation and Irratik to simultaneously walk it out. Presumably to their native countries, never to return to the US again. So now the seven remaining American crews will perform to the music of rapper and former child actor, Aubrey “Drake” Graham.

In addition, their challenge is to take a significant lyric from their selected Drake song and “bring it to life.” I don’t really GET Drake’s songs since they all pretty much talk about being famous, so this challenge should provide some much needed spice. If nothing else, this is going to be an interesting episode to study. The musical shift from Madonna to Drake is significant, and it’s going to be a challenge to see which crews will keep up. So what happened this week?


Click here to read the rest. Thanks Byenyn! 

Videos from World of Dance Dallas: Mike Song, Chachi, Architeks, Poreotics & winners of competition!!

World of Dance hit Dallas on April 28, 2012. Many performances worth watching and rewatching from the event including
- In exhibition: solos by Chachi, Mike Song; Poreotics; and Architeks

- Competition - congratulations to the winners (click here to watch all).: Upper Division: First Place - Redefined Dance Company; Second Place Wyldstyle; Third Place - GX Dance crew. Youth Division: First Place - Riot Squad; Second Place - Sand Lot ; Third Place - NSD Hip Hop Crew.

Friday, May 4, 2012

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

America's Best Dance Crew Season 7 (aka the Superstar Season) will be taped tonight, with the 6 remaining crews dancing to Jennifer Lopez hit songs. If you attend the taping, leave a comment and let us know what it was like -- the dances, the judges, the songs, the crowd, the crews, the costumes, celebrities in the audience, oddities and funny moments, etc.
 
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT -- NO SPOILERS. DO NOT TELL THE RESULTS FROM THE SHOW, INCLUDING WHICH CREWS WERE IN THE BOTTOM OR ELIMINATED! 

From the archives: Lady Jules (Beat Freaks) Jolly Rancher ad

On the Facebook page for Judy Urich (aka Lady Jules) of ABDC3's Beat Freaks was her TV ad for Jolly Ranchers, filmed in 2003.

Drake recaps around the net

- Daily Princetonian explains why this week was a game changer and cites all kinds of sources, including tweets from Lando and Dtrix
- AV Club liked Elektrolytes the best and observed that "Lil Mama drops her pen with “unh” for emphasis after a particularly judging a good performance."
- All Voices summarizes the action with no commentary, but has a weird photo gallery of Lil Mamas including a squirrel.
- Ology is all about assigning grades, and there's no inflation -- Elektrolytes gets a B+ for the best of the night
- Screen Invasion thinks Stepboys was robbed if you base elimination decisions only on this night's performances
- We'll Fix it In is a week behind (in case you're nostalgic for Madonna Challenge Week, but always trenchant

Ninjaboi's Review of ABDC Drake Challenge



Ayo, it’s Ninjaboi’s Review (shoutout to District 78). I’m here right after my finals for the school year, and just before going to go watch the Avengers movie (ASSEMBLE!), and I’m really excited to do this review, in what was probably the best episode of the season, as well as the most emotional (what with Angel’s mother, CLZ’s car flashbacks, and Chris’s return). I’ve got my review right here, focusing on the technical aspects of the crews performances. None of the crews did badly this week at all, although some really work with Drake’s music better than others, in one way or another, be it story telling, raw musicality, or energy.  I will say this review was exceptionally easy to write, as if each critique almost wrote themselves. I guess that’s what you get when A) you don’t want to study for finals, and B) every crew gives such great routines to an actual danceable artist.

Just as a note, this is my own personal review that I am thankful to Nancy for letting me put and post on this site. These numbers are my way of trying to make dance more accessible to those who otherwise don’t dance, in a way that can be more easily and intuitively understood. That said, this is not an official review of any sort, just the musings of a college kid who loves street dance, and who’s analytical enough to pinpoint trends among successful ABDC crews in the past.


Click Here to read Ninjaboi’s review of the Drake episode, with a quantitative breakdown of different elements of each routine.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Layla Kayleigh 'on the couch' at ABDC Drake Challenge taping: emotions and fan impact

Chris Trondsen talked to Layla Kayleigh at the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge. They talk about the sadness at 8 Flavahz performance dedicated to Angel's mother, what it takes for lesser known crews to surge to the front of the pack, and fan vs. judges in determining the outcome of ABDC .

Want to change your vote for the ABDC Top 4 Contest? Enter again now!

Thanks to all of you who submitted entries on which ABDC crews will be in the top 4 at the end of this season, in the order of their elimination. If you want to change your vote, here's your weekly chance. Note: there's no penalty for entering each week. If you get it right early, that's the vote that counts!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. ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL NOON (East Coast Time) on FRIDAY MAY 4. THIS ROUND IS NOW CLOSED. NO MORE ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL NEXT WEEK. GOOD LUCK!

'Dance's' Review of ABDC Drake Challenge

This week the crews finally got a Hip Hop Artist to dance to Drake! It was a high energy episode with great music. In my review, I ranked the crews this week from best to worst, so let me know how you think the crews did in the comments section!

Also, a charity that Drake supports is the National MS Society. If you can, go to their website and click on the donate icon, so hopefully a cure for MS can be found one day!

Click here to read the full review. Thanks, Dance!

Time to predict next week's bottom 2 in our Elimination Challenge contest

Time for the next installment in our ABDC Season 7 Elimination Challenge: Which crews will be in the bottom 2 each week? Who will be eliminated? Enter each week and the person with the highest cumulative score for Season 7 will win an ABDC crew shirt of their choice and size (up to $35 retail).
To enter: Each week, we'll publish a new post for this contest. When the weekly post is up, leave a comment with the name of the bottom 2, specifying which one is eliminated. For example, in Season 6, a winning entry for the Rihanna Week Challenge would have read: "BOTTOM 2 WEEK 5 -  Phunk Phenomenon, 787 Crew. Eliminated: 787 Crew."  You will be awarded 1 point for each crew you name in the bottom 2 that week, and an extra point for identifying the eliminated crew, for a total of 3 possible points per week. The person with the highest cumulative score wins, and we'll figure out something if we need a tie-breaker. 

This week's entries will be accepted from now until noon (East Coast time) on Friday May 4, so that nobody can use insider info from the tapings. THIS ROUND IS NOW CLOSED; NO MORE ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL NEXT WEEK.**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). NO EMAIL ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED
  • MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE THE WORDS 'BOTTOM 2' in the comment (so I can search for them easily).  
  • Only 1 entry per person per week, please.  Good luck!   
At this point, 3 people (Ryan, ICONicore, and lmfao) are tied with 5 points apiece, but Season 7 is still young and it's anybody's game to win. Image credit: Narwhaler.com

Send some love to Stepboys!

Stepboys attempted to do something VERY tough --  presenting themselves as zany clowns (both onstage and offstage) who are also consummate dancers. This was a risky strategy for America's Best Dance Crew, since the humor sometimes distracted viewers from the awesome dancing that the crew brought to the show. I, for one, appreciated their humor as a device to introduce surprises into performances, as well as a welcome contrast to some past crews that took themselves way too seriously. Stepboys showed us both classic forms of hiphop dance, and moves that had not been seen before on ABDC.  Imbookie!

To get some perspective on what the crew is really like behind their mask of a clown, watch their exit interview with Layla Kayleigh.


This post is only for positive comments about Stepboys. If you want to say anything else, please post it on our Party Room/Critics Corner.
Photocredit: MTV

What was your favorite performance during ABDC's Drake Challenge?

What was your least favorite performance during ABDC's Drake Challenge?

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Vote now to save your favorite ABDC crews -- here's the MTV voting info!

The online voting is now open from now until 6:00am Eastern time. If you want to protect your favorite crew, act now! Click here to vote online at MTV.com. Performance videos will probably be online after 11:00pm West Coast time, to aid in your choices. 


If you want to phone or text instead, the numbers are: Phone: 1-855-4CREW + (0 +number): OR Text: 22444 then (number):
* RNG- 1 (so you would dial 855-4CREW01)
* Mos Wanted Crew-  2 (so you would dial 855-4CREW02)
* 8 Flavahz- 3 (so you would dial 855-4CREW03)
* Collizion Crew- 4 (so you would dial 855-4CREW04)
* Elektrolytes- 5 (so you would dial 855-4CREW05)
* Fanny Pak - 6 (so you would dial 855-4CREW06)

After you vote (or while you're obsessively texting votes all night long), join us back at the party room!  VOTING IS NOW CLOSED

The ABDC Drake Challenge Party Room/Critics Corner is now open -- Come on in!

The Party Room/Critics Corner for ABDC 7's Episode 4 -- the Drake Challenge -- is now open! Join lots of other readers and fans as they reflect on the dance battle arena and who makes it out alive. 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 for more action, reaction, and interaction, love and hate.  Are you hooked on the crews and superstars, or getting bored?  Why are the ratings down from Season 6?  Which crews have changed, and for better or worse? This is your party -- snark, humor, recriminations, nostalgia and almost everything else (except obscenity and abject disrespect) are expected and welcome! 

Photocredit: Neurotech software

Join us now - Live Play-by-Play blogging of ABDC Drake Challenge

Del, TBone, Ninjaboi, NamesAreOverrated, Mike, and Nancy will be co-hosts of this live play-by-play of America's Best Dance Crew Season 7's Episode 4 -- the Drake 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).

Video: Layla Kayleigh interviews all 7 crews before the Drake Challenge

On ABDCInsider, Layla Kayleigh talks to all 7 crews before the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge. All the crews open up to Layla, and some highlights are Layla dancing with Elektrolytes and Stepboys talking about getting more serious.

Exclusive interview with Emilio and Jaja (IaMmE) at ABDC Drake taping - "I'm glad I'm not on Season 7!"

Chris Trondsen interviews IaMmE's Emilio Dosal and Jaja backstage at America's Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge. They talk about what it's like to come back to ABDC as an observer, what they're excited to see, whether they'd want to be on this season (instead of their winning Season 6), their trip to the Philippines, and what's next for IaMmE.

Exclusive interview backstage at ABDC Drake Taping - Shorty (Beat Freaks) talks about ABDC7, Beat Freaks, Britney tour & more

Emilio Dosal (IaMmE) and Chris Trondsen interviewed BGirl Shorty (member of ABDC3' Beat Freaks) backstage at the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge. She talks about having fun conducting crew interviews, what's coming up for her and for Beat Freaks (including Shake It Up), touring with Britney Spears, and why she loves ABDC Season 7

Video: Sneak peak of Stepboy performance on ABDC's Drake Challenge

Celebuzz has a clip of Stepboy's performance on America's Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge.

Video: Steelo and the Groovaloos on Dancing With the Stars

As we reported a few days ago, Richard "Steelo" Vazquez, of the LXD, Groovaloos, and Killa4nia just performed with the Groovaloos on Dancing with the Stars. In one of the greatest comeback/recovery stories of this year, after spending 6 months in the hospital, and many more in physical therapy, he's dancing for the first time publicly. Even if it's a while to go before he returns to full form, it definitely is one of the greatest feel-good stories of the year. Best of luck to him and his family as he continues to recover.  

Click here, here, and here for past BBDC coverage of Steelo's recovery, and the remarkable response by the dance community to help him and his family. If you are interested in  in donating financially, please click here.   

Skip to 2:55 for the Groovaloos performance, and just try to stop yourself from either cheering/bursting into tears of joy when he gets on stage. I dare you. No shame if you do.

Join us tonight for ABDC Drake Party Room/Critics Corner, Live Play-by-Play, MTV vote info & More

 
Watch America's Best Dance Crew Madonna 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.

At 10pm ET, I will be doing live play-by-play while watching the show along with  Del, NamesAreOverrated, Michael, and TBone (and maybe Ninjaboi), so feel free to tune in. Later that night, please vote in our polls on the best and worst performances. Tomorrow we hope to have reviews, a new round of the Top 4 Challenge and Elimination Challenge contests, and other coverage.   Join us!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Tight Eyez Single: "Wype Nyggaz Out"

Tight Eyez is not only the founder of krump and the leader of ABDC6 crew Steet Kingdom, he is also a music producer, specializing in extra buck tracks (naturally). Check out his latest single and the accompanying music video from his album "Mansanity 2: Tha SoundTrack"

Better Late Than Never: Ninjaboi's Madonna Week Analysis



Hey all Ninjaboi here. Sorry this is a bit late...

I gotta keep this short, as due to finals weeks, a bad week for allergies, and my interviewing of Poreotics on Friday, I don’t have as much time to go in depth into the reviews as I usually would, so I’ll have to do a quick abbreviated version of my analysis for each review. If you guys feel that there is something missing/wrong from my review, hopefully I can come back in a couple of days or so and address that in the comments. This means I won’t have crew advice, or power rankings aside from simply listing the totals over these few weeks.

Disclaimer: This review is the product of my own personal analysis from a combination of being a dancer (primarily in street styles), and from watching ABDC and picking up on trends of what does/doesn’t work well on the show.  By no means do I claim to be an expert in all dance styles, nor do I claim to represent any sort of “official” review. 

Exclusive interview: DTrix advice to ABDC crews at Drake Challenge taping: "Be yourself and be weird"

Emilio Dosal (IaMmE) and Chris Trondsen interviewed America's Best Dance Crew judge D-trix (Dominic Sandoval) before the taping of the ABDC Drake Challenge. Dtrix talks about Season 7 as going back to dance (rather than mostly tricks), advice for crews to get more votes, what it's like to judge young crews vs the most professional crews, and how hard it is to judge crews he knew before ABDC

Chupaka's Spoiler-free preview of the ABDC Drake Challenge

Chupaka attended the taping of Americas' Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge. Click here to read an edited version of some things to look for on the episode. Thanks, Chupaka!

Results from our Madonna Challenge surveys: 8 Flavahz wins the night!

Results are in for our surveys rating performances for America's Best Dance Crew Madonna Challenge. Click here for the details on the favorite performances and here for the least favorite. Highlights:
  • With almost 1500 votes cast, 8 Flavahz was the favorite (37%) followed by Mos Wanted Crew (31%)
  • Out of 1067 votes, the least favorite for the week was Stepboys (47%)
We'll have our surveys on the Drake Challenge posted shortly after ABDC airs on the West Coast.

Monday, April 30, 2012

The REAL Playlist for ABDC Drake Challenge!

DanceOn has the Drake Challenge playlist, as well as their weekly short interview video with the crews. Here are the crews' picks (listed in alphabetical order, not the order they appear on the show):
  • 8 Flavahz - "Find Your Love"
  • Collizion Crew - "Over"
  • Elektrolytes - "Headlines"
  • Fanny Pak - "Make Me Proud"
  • Mos Wanted Crew - "The Motto"
  • Rated Next Generation (RNG Crew) - "HYFR"
  • Stepboys - "Best I Ever Had"

New Videos from old ABDC competitors: Lawrence Kao (Kaba Modern), Instant Noodles, Hype 5-0, Street Kingdom

ABDC alumni continue to show their stuff via Youtube. Some standouts for this week:
Lawrence Kao (Kaba Modern) dancing to "Midas Touch". Thanks for the tip Greg!


Instant Noodles battling Del Fuego at Brown University on April 22, 2012:


Hype 5-0 at Crewz Control in Fort Collins, CO



Street Kingdom at Virtual Dance Battle

Exclusive interivew: Elektrolytes before Drake Challenge: martial arts demo with IaMmE's Emilio, Elektro fight call!

 Emilio Dosal (IaMmE) and Chris Trondsen interview Elektrolytes before the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge. They talk about using momentum from Madonna week week to the Drake Challenge. Chris talks about this injury during Week 1 and coming back for this week,  how they want to build a fanbase using Youtube and Facebook. And they demonstrat martial arts expertise with Emilio and do their pre-show fight call for us

RNG before ABDC Drake Challenge: birthdays, inspirations, & the secret to big feet!

 Emilio Dosal (IaMmE) and Chris Trondsen interview Rated Next Generation (RNG) before the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge. They show their best military salutes, go through military pushups, tell their shoe sizes, Bailey tells the secret to big feet, tell their birthdays, describe their inspirations, and show their dance faces. And Bailey talks about his newfound fan group and lack of having a girlfriend. Sorry for the sound problems on the video -- we'll have it fixed by next week!

Exclusive interview with Stepboys before Drake Challenge: this week we'll do something never before seen on ABDC

Emilio Dosal (IaMmE) and Chris Trondsen interview Stepboys before the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge.They talk about bringing something new to this week's episode and whether they're funnier onstage or offstage

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Our condolences to Angel Gibbs of 8 Flavahz on her mother's passing

Carolyn Gibbs, the mother of Angel Gibbs (member of America's Best Dance Crew's 8 Flavahz) passed away today from cancer. Our deepest condolences to Angel and her family. 

Please leave positive comments for Angel. Anything else left here will be deleted.

Exclusive video: 8 Flavahz backstage before Drake Challenge taping: ages & birthdays, celebrity crushes, & what to expect this week

Emilio Dosal (IaMmE) and Chris Trondsen interviewed 8 Flavahz backstage before the taping of America's Best Dance Crew's Drake Challenge. They tell their ages and birthdays, celebrity crushes, talk about Lil Mama's positive feedback during the Madonna Challenge, and what to expect in this week's challenge.

JSkunk's Review of ABDC's Madonna Challenge

 Hello all, this is JSkunk.  I figured it wouldn’t hurt to share my views and opinions this week, since I have been meaning to do so in the past but instead succumbed to laziness.  But before we get onto the crews and how I feel they performed, let’s start with something truly ‘interesting’, such as my backstory.

I have been watching ABDC since season 1, I am a dancer (street jazz, hip-hop, breaking, and contemporary) who is self-taught, I am a college student, I like soccer, and I also write in my free time.  Despite my preferences and opinions on dance, dancers, and styles of dance, I have nothing but the utmost respect for these people who are following their aspirations and seeking to only entertain us.  Even if I don’t like it, I feel that everyone on that stage deserves to be there and has worked hard for it. 


Now with the pleasantries out of the way, let’s move onto this week’s episode.
Click here to read the full review. Thanks JSkunk!

Exclusive interview with Poreotics by Ninjaboi, including Advice for new crews, Creative Process, & "Uploaded" documentary

Hey guys, Ninjaboi here.
As you can tell from the picture above, I had the honor of meeting ABDC5 Champions Poreotics this last Friday at Drexel's Best Dance Crew. I was able to conduct an interview on a number of topics, ranging from whether they thought they would get as far as they did when they were younger, why they decide to go back to college campus events (even if there are much bigger events), advice they have for kids who want to start their own crews, or to join their college dance teams, about the coming Uploaded: The Asian American Movement Documentary, and their creative process. They also tell us how to keep up to date with the latest on Poreotics news.

Unfortunately my camera died right before the interview so I had to substitute with my laptop instead, hence the quality or lack thereof. There is a transcript on Youtube (though it doesn't always match up with the video...).  Still, much thanks to NancyT and Jenny Valles for helping me set up this interview, and of course many thanks to these guys for honoring me with this interview.
  ~Ninjaboi 

Exclusive interview with Mos Wanted Crew members pre-Drake taping - kisses and hijacking the interview

Chris Trondsen tries to interview Mos Wanted Crew members before the taping of the America's Best Dance Crew Drake Challenge. In this short segment (as they are waiting for wardrobe), the guys blow kisses, take over the interview and interview Chris, mention our site (thank goodness for microphone flags!) and generally goof around.