The Jabbawockeez
I watched the hottest thing I’ve seen on TV in years the other night: the finale of American’s Best Dance Crew. If you want to instill nationalism in today’s youth and fight their disenchantment, just promote shows like American’s Best Dance Crew. America is a mixture of many cultures and the people of each geographic region have various characteristics. I have been exposed to people from every area. I lived in DC, which is a mix of north and south. My husband is from the Midwest and I am from the West – THE WEST SIDE! The final episode was a battle between all the crews from each region of the country.
The first dance was the Westside, made up of teams from San Diego, Hollywood and the OC. They were the most diverse group with many Asian, Black, White, female and male dancers. His dancing was slower, slick, fluid and funky, like Snoop Dogg’s voice. Their movements were more precise and crisp than any other dance team with highly complex choreography. The West is always the most creative and uses visual effects through clever positioning. During their dance, they simulated driving a lowrider with the hydraulics bouncing to the beat and ended with everyone doing their own b-boy pose showing the symbols of the west side. They were by far the most modern equipment.
The next dance was the South and they showed everyone why they call it the Dirty South. They danced to Lil’ John and they danced low (I mean they looked like they were sitting on low chairs). They showed how someone is supposed to dance to the crunk beat: slow and powerful, hitting each beat hard. They did a lot of stomping and the girls turned their hips with their legs open towards the audience. The South had the best dancers, and her big, strong, shiny thighs were hard to miss. They had the most explosive intense energy. Towards the end of the dance, a guy does a somersault and the girls bend down and touch their toes (as the song says) facing the audience and shaking them while walking backwards and the guys pretend to play them with drumsticks. I was in awe at first, but the dance really epitomized what I had seen in dance clubs in DC for a while. People in DC make those moves every weekend at the club. The South has a gritty sexuality that is unmatched by any other region and vaguely resembles a Bantu style of African dances. This was my favorite dance of the night.
The third dance was the Northeastern Dance, represented by teams from Boston and Jersey. They looked so clean dancing LL Cool J. His stunts were great as always. One guy ran up the stairs from people and did a somersault from the top; However, his dance was not original and his movements were imprecise. They ended up bursting the campaign glasses. (Ending on the Northeast snobbery – how perfect!) The dancing was as weak as the region’s hip hop.
The last dance was Midwestern and they always exceed expectations. There was a men’s team on roller skates from Indiana and a women’s team from Chicago dancing Pop Lock and Drop It. They came together perfectly with complex choreography. They started and ended the dance with one team holding the other like puppets. They all dressed like healthy children. They danced so well that it was hard to tell if everyone was on skates or if no one was on skates. They did some great breakdancing and busted a lot. They were like the cute white boys next door flirting with the sweet naughty girl with pigtails.
No wonder, at the end of the episode, Randy Jackson crowned (wearing hip hop baseball caps) the JabbaWockeeZ the best dance team in America. Their dances amazed me every week and they had a style that no one had seen before. Randy says they are the future of hip hop but I don’t know if anyone else can do what they do. For the semifinals they worked with a mixing desk to compose their own music with a Jaba-style dance. The song opens with applause and a black man preaching. They clap like mimes and one poses as a microphone while the other poses as a speech. They then slowly dance in formation following the rhythms of the violin. They danced completely in unison with clarity and made beautiful fluttering finger movements and then a low hip hop beat played. They all got into their own b-boy stance and their leader started doing the most amazing break dance I’ve ever seen. You have to check it in the following link. The song ended with the sound of rain and their fingers falling and they pointed to the sky to remember their crew member who died at the beginning of the show. The reason I’m writing this is because the JabbaWockeeZ are not just dancers, they are also illusionists. They wear white masks and gloves that hide their identity to create a pure interpretation of the music. They have a positioning that deceives the eye. They had this unique posture where it looked like an 8 foot man was levitating in the air, by having three men kneeling in front with the top half of one body and the bottom half of the other sticking out on each side a foot off the ground. . They also used accessories like wheels for a car made out of JabbaWockeeZ and bounced around like a low rider. They are like Cirque du Soleil meets the streets. They have created an amazing cultural phenomenon among our youth that should not be ignored. This is the Broadway of hip hop youth, which is now making its way into the United States.
http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1583319&vid=217727