Arts Entertainments

The Jabbawockeez

The other night I witnessed the hottest thing I’ve seen on television in years: the end of the American’s Best Dance Crew award. If you want to instill nationalism in today’s youth and fight their disenchantment, only 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. He lived in DC, which is a mixture of north and south. My husband is from the Midwest and I am from the West, WEST !!! 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 OC. They were the most diverse group with many Asian, black, white, female and male dancers. His dance was slower, slippery, smooth and funky, like Snoop Dogg’s voice. Their movements were tighter and sharper than any other dance group with very intricate choreography. The West is always the most creative and uses visual effects through intelligent positioning. During their dance, they pretended to drive a low rider with the hydraulics bouncing to the beat and ended up with everyone doing their own b-boy stance displaying the west side symbols. 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 the beat of Lil ‘John and danced low (I mean they seemed to be sitting on low chairs). They showed how someone is supposed to dance to the crunk: slow and powerful, hitting each beat hard. They walked a lot and the girls turned their hips with their legs spread out towards the audience. The south had the best dancers and their big, strong, shiny thighs were hard to miss. They had the most explosive intense energy. Towards the end of the dance, a boy does a cartwheel and the girls bend over and touch their toes (as the song goes) facing the audience and shake them as they walk backwards and the boys pretend to hit them with drumsticks. At first I was in awe, but the dance really summed up what I’d seen in dance clubs in DC for a while. People in DC do those moves every weekend at the club. The south has a rough sexuality that is unmatched by any other region and vaguely resembles some Bantu African dance styles. This was my favorite dance of the night.

The third dance was the Northeast, represented by teams from Boston and Jersey. They looked very clean dancing to LL Cool J. Their stunts were great as usual. A guy ran up the stairs of people and did a cartwheel from the top; however, his dance was not original and the movements were imprecise. They ended up bursting the field glasses. (Ending the snobbery of the Northeast, how perfect!) The dance was as weak as the hip hop of the region.

The last dance was from the Midwest and they always exceeded expectations. There was a male skating team from Indiana and a female team from Chicago dancing Pop Lock and Drop It. They blended 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 they were all on skates or if no one was on skates. They did a good break dance and played it a lot. They were like the nice white boys next door flirting with the sweet naughty girl in pigtails.

No wonder, at the end of the episode, Randy Jackson crowned (in hip hop baseball caps) the JabbaWockeeZ as America’s Best Dance Team. His dances blew me away every week and 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 mixer to compose their own music with a Jaba-style dance. The song begins with applause and a black man preaching. They clap like mimes and one boy pretends to be a microphone while the other pretends to give a speech. They then dance slowly in formation hooked to the rhythm of the violin. They danced completely in unison with the sharpness and made beautiful movements with their fingers flapping and then hit a low hip hop beat. Everyone jumped into their own b-boy stance and their leader started doing the most incredible break dance he’s ever seen. You have to check this in the link below. The song ended with the sound of rain and his fingers dripped and pointed to the sky to remember his crew member who died at the start of the show. The reason I’m writing this is because the JabbaWockeeZ aren’t just dancers, they’re illusionists. They wear white masks and gloves that conceal their identity to create a pure interpretation of the music. They have positions that deceive the eye. They had this posture where it looked like an 8 foot guy was levitating in the air, having three men kneeling in front with the upper half of one body and the lower half of another sticking out on either side a foot off the ground. . They also used accessories like wheels for a car made from JabbaWockeeZ and bounced like a low rider. They are as if 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 taking America’s mainstream.

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1583319&vid=217727

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