I've always been a big fan of hip hop dance.
One of the funniest sketch comedy shows on TV "In Livin' Color" always had a team of hottie "fly girls" who would bring us into and out of commercials with a little dance routine.
I saw "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo," I way I looked at Turbo (Shabba-Doo) and Ozone (Boogaloo Shrimp) could almost challenge my idolization of Bruce Lee as a kid. But then somewhere during this little trek through life, I traded in roundhouse kicks and up-rocking for awkward highschool freshmen style bumping and grinding.
But college came, and I got to see crew's like UCLA's ACA hip-hop, and UCI's CADC consistently pump out solid routines that were nothing short of inspirational. These were my brothers and sisters that were not only performing hip-hop routines, they excelled and had fun in it.
Fast forward until last year, it has been a relatively lackluster season of lame TV show's and television is just now recovering from the writer's strike. America's Best Dance Crew takes the nation by storm, Jabbawockeez are shot into the spotlight and Kaba Modern helps to make up for UCI's lack of a football team.
It's amazing to see how much hip-hop culture has evolved over the years. Kevin Brewer of the Jabbawockeez, the guy who did about 20 pelvic thrusts in 3 seconds during their "Michael Jackson" routine might be the most talented freestyle dancer I've ever seen. See the way he hits almost every beat in the following video, he's like a conductor for the hip-hop orchestra. This took place at the famous battle between Supreme Soul (Soul Sector) and Jabbawockeez (So Cal All-Stars).
There are a lot of talented crews out there, and I would like to encourage anyone interested to go out and actively look for a local production, or get into a good college because a lot of colleges now have very strong hip-hop teams.
EKETC out in San Diego has a strong stable of crews, is surrounded by a good community filled with extremely dedicated people. Check them out at www.eketc.com. Here's a shout out to that production for putting on a show that absolutely blew me away at "Fullout 2008." Energy was abundant throughout the night, to say the least. Among many great performances from the local high school kids, to the 70 person "Joyful Joyful" finale, the Frou Frou "Let Go" piece which looked like "The Matrix" summed up in a 4 minute dance routine, and Freestyle Bass't routine which was a random mix of hilarity and fun times still stick out in my mind. So yea, thank you Christine for inviting us out to see you do what you do. Nahmeanyaurd?
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