Hip Hop International 2015 | Videos, Pictures, & Review #HHI2015

Several weeks ago, I spent a wonderful week in beautiful Southern California to attend this year's Hip Hop International.  I had so much fun!  Special thanks to the HHI Staff and Pacific Rim Press! Everyone was really cool.  Check out my full review here or at the link down below.  It includes pictures, videos, and my opinions on things like- the new location, the performances, the controversy, and the results!  Visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel - BloggingABDC - for ALL our #HHI2015 videos.  Visit and follow us on Facebook - BloggingBestDance - and see ALL the pictures I took (even the bad ones!).  And lastly, follow us on Instagram - BloggingBestDance - to follow me on ALL my hip-hop dance adventures.

Click here for DirtFaceX HHI 2015 Review

BONUS: Here's my personal favorite routine from this year's HHI.... and it didn't even win a medal! I could watch this performance all day.  Crowns up!

Ninjaboi's review of ABDC's Crews Control Challenge: was the right crew sent home? #abdc

Hey BBDC readers.  Hope you guys have been doing well this week. Apologies for missing most of the live play by play, I had some real life stuff happening (nothing major don’t worry), but I wouldn’t let that keep me from doing a write up this week.  An man what a week this was. A lot of ABDC firsts - megacrews competing outside of opening performances of final episodes, no music on stage, hoverboards, single shot performances, and loooooove in the air.

Insert obligatory introduction here - Hi I’m Ninjaboi, a dancer and blogger who owes this site a lot for getting me into dance. I like Excel and dance so decided to combine the two and write up reviews that try to go a bit more in depth compared to what the judges say on air, while adding in a quantitative scoring metric as well. I have mostly background in bboying and other funky street styles, but love learning from any dance style I can. 

In short, for this week my rankings (out of 20) are

1) Quest Crew - 18

2) Kinjaz - 16

3+4) Super Kinjaz and I aM Quest - 14

5+6) Super Cr3w and IaMmE- 13

Click here to read the full review. Thanks Ninjaboi!

Video: Battle between Quest and Kinjaz #abdc

In a possible case of art predicting reality, a dance video was created on April 1, 2014 on Mike Song's Youtube Channel showing a Final Fantasy Dance Battle between  Quest Crew and Kinjaz

Enter Week 3 of ABDC8 Top 5 Contest! Prize! #abdc

Note: the comments field is acting wonky. If it doesn't appear for you, just click on this post's headline and it should work. Sorry for any inconvenience!
This is the third week of our Top 5 contest! Predict the finishing order of the America's Best Dance Crew winners for glory and a prize!

The Top 5 contest: Submit the names of the top 5 crews -- in the order that they'll finish. For example, in Season 5 the winning entry would have read " FINAL 5: 1. Poreotix 2. Blueprint Cru 3. Hype 5-0 4. Jungle Boogie 5. Saltare" Note: if you change your mind, you can enter again the next week, but we will only accept the FIRST entry from each commenter each week (PLEASE DO NOT USE MULTIPLE IDENTITIES!!!). The prize goes to the first person to get it right, based on the week they submit the answer. If more than one person submits the right answer in that same week, we'll employ a tiebreaker rule to be determined.

To enter: Each week, we'll publish a new post for this contest. When the weekly post is up, add a comment with the names of the final 5, specifying the final order. Subsequent weeks' entries will be accepted from Thursdays (once I put up the new contest post) until midnight ET the following Monday. Yes I know there is a chance for spoilers since the program tapes the day after the prior show airs. That's why you need to get the order right as soon as possible! This week's contest closes at midnight Monday August 24.

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).
• MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE THE WORDS 'TOP 5' in the comment (so I can search for them easily)

Good luck! During Season 4, we didn't get a correct entry until 1 week before the season ended, so keep entering if you change your mind!

Let us know if you attend tonight's ABDC taping! #abdc8

America's Best Dance Crew Season 8 tapes again tonight -- three crews left and the dancing quality could be amazing. If you will be in the audience (or backstage or press or performing!), please let us know (almost) all about it --- what you think of the performances, music choices, clothes, and what a fashion challenge even means. Just please do not include spoilers:  DO NOT reveal who is in the bottom and who goes home. 

If you want to attend this performance or the finale, check with 1iota.com to see if there are any remaining tickets.

Poll: what was your favorite dance on ABDC's Crews Control Challenge? #abdc

Poll: What was your least favorite dance on ABDC's Crews Control Challenge? #abdc

Join us NOW (we hope) for ABDC Party Room/Critics Corner! #abdc

The prior party rooms appear to be blocking comments, so I'm going to try again here.
The Party Room/Critics Corner for ABDC 8's Episode 4 Crews Control Challenge is now open! Join lots of other readers, fans (or not) as they vent on what they love and what they hate. 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. 

Did the right crew go home? Was the megacrew idea a good one? Who will win the season?

Join us NOW for Live Play-by-Play of ABDC Crews Control Challenge! #abdc #abdc8

This is live play-by-play for tonight's America's Best Dance Crew Season 8 Episode 4 - the Crews Control Challenge. Follow along or keep up with the show if you can't watch it immediately. You should be able to sign in on the platform the first time you try to leave a comment. So --turn on your viewing machine and comment along with us.

Videos: Some sneak previews of tonight's Super Cr3w, Quest #abdc

Here are 2 Instagram posts showing some outstanding excerpts from tonight's performances by Quest and Super Cr3w.

Quest Crew excerpt
Super Cr3w excerpt

Chris Trondsen's preview of tonight's ABDC Crews Control Challenge! #ABDC

Chris Trondsen attended last week's America's Best Dance Crew taping as part of the Pacific Rim press crew and send this non-spoiler preview. Thanks Chris!

Ever imagine what some of your favorite crews would look like performing together? Well, on tonight's episode of America's Best Dance Crew you'll finally get your dream come true! I'm not going to ruin the surprise on which crews pair up but the remaining four crews split down the middle and form to make 2 mega crews. The first crew that comes out the gate is able to match their styles beautifully. There is some critique from the judges and some of it is understood. The expectations of seeing these two crews perform together were probably so high that unless they flew around the stage they couldn't meet it. But overall it was a perfect blend of two styles. The second group came out and was spectacular. This one seems like a more genuine combination and the performance couldn't have been any better. They really seemed like they were a mega crew and they were able to take the best of both styles. During the deliberations the judges and producers got it wrong and ended up putting the two that performed better in the bottom two and saving the mega crew that wasn't as strong in my opinion.

Tonight's theme will be "Crews Control" where the crews have control of everything including the music, the background, costumes and more.

Click here to read the rest of Chris' report including descriptions of the dancing and teasers about the surprises!

Join us tonight for Live Play-by-Play, party room & surveys! #abdc

Tonight is Episode 4 of America's Best Dance Crew's Road to the VMAs - the Crews Control Challenge! Tonight we'll see paired crews, props, and some promised surprises.  We'll be watching  at 11pm ET/PT, 10pm other timezones and will open our live-blogging post about 15 minutes before showtime. We welcome the comments, observations, and clean snark of the community. 

We'll also have a Party Room/Critics Corner post for you to comment on what you've seen, as well as a few surveys. And, let us know if you feel inspired enough to write a recap in the next days. And, let us know if you're planning to attend tomorrow's taping!

Hope to hear from you tonight!

ABDC Survey results for VMA Fashion Challenge - Quest & I.aM.mE Rule!

Our survey results for favorite dance crew on America's Best Dance Crew's VMA Fashion Challenge might be off due to a late posting. Be that as it may -- Quest Crew got the most votes with 32.7% out of 309 votes, followed by I.aM.mE with 30.1% of the votes.

Our voters agreed with the judges on the least favorite crew, landing Elektrolytes at the bottom of that poll with 39.4%. 

Join us after the next episode of ABDC where we will have new and more reliable polls for you!

Ep. 2 Rehearsal videos Part 2: IaMmE & Quest paired together - do they collaborate or compete? #abdc

In the videos for IaMmE and Quest for this week's episode, there is talk about the conflict between collaboration and competition when working together. They also talk about use of props, as I.aM.mE. incorporates airboards into their routine

Videos; Super Cr3w, Kinjaz prepping for Episode 4 - bringing something entirely new & dancing together #abdc

MTV has released interviews with Kinjaz and Super Cr3w talking about preparation for Episode 4. Kinjaz promised that they will be doing something never seen before on ABDC. We've heard that before, but hope it's not an idle promise. The crews also talk about being paired together for one of this week's performances.

Format for ABDC Episode 4 - Pairing up! #abdc

Ninjaboi posted on Reddit (hey Ninjaboi -- what gives??) that "Apparently the remaining 4 crews are split into two groups to collaborate on a piece:
Kinjaz + Super Crew
Quest + I.aM.mE 

Whichever pair does better is safe. The other pair has to battle it out. Not sure if this entails a head to head battle, or if it entails just a separate performance each."

Ninjaboi recap & ratings of ABDC VMA Costume Challenge: was there biting? #abdc

Hey all - apologies for the late writeup this week - had a wedding I had to attend, and a slew of work at my job, so the time for writing this was few and far between. This week the crews tackle the fashion challenge, and overall it’s a bit of a step down, but only because the crews at the top didn’t keep up the same level as last week; however by my judgement I still think that all the performances (or most of them anyway) were at least average and all were more or less enjoyable.

For those of you who are confused as to who I am, I’m Ninjaboi, BBDC’s resident overanalyzer who has chosen to try to apply maths and number scores to the abstract art of competitive dance on shows airing on the Music Television channel. My primary experience in firsthand dance is through bboying with my college crew and randomly learning the basics of locking and popping, but I love to see how people love to move and express themselves through movement.

Also just a note - this week’s review does contain a note on the idea of biting, based on some conversations on social media about it in relation to this week, as well as comments on Frankie’s comments about Quest’s performance.  But for those, as well as this week’s scores (spoiler, I disagree a lot with the judges this week, though I do agree on some points), you’ll have to click through below. 

In short, for this week my rankings (out of 20) are

1) Super Cr3w - 14

2) Kinjaz - 14

3) Elektrolytes - 13

4) I.aM.mE - 12

5) Quest Crew - 11

Click here to read the discussion on biting and Ninjaboi's ratings. Thanks Ninjaboi!