Dance Masterz

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First of all, as many dancers agree, I don’t like the show MTV’s “America’s best dance crew”. I don’t like it for the fact Most of the dancers in this show are not impressive with a few exception of dancers from knuckeheadzoo (super crew) and soul sector (supreme soul) yet with staged over hyped studio audience reaction and judge clueless comments made them look like super star. Jabbawockees, for instance, their routine are nothing new and the individuals are a kind of weak. (Imagine, if any member from jabbawockees enter the 1 on 1 battle… could they win? ) Although, I don’t like the show, I have to admit and appreciate the fact that the show could promote this dance culture to the mass audience. But I worry that kids who are only exposed to this MTV’s show would have misunderstanding about lot of things in culture.There is a similar dance show in Japan which is not big scale as much as this mtv’s show. I like their show for the fact that they actually talk about the cultre. They often invite the OG dancers who have been in the game for a long time and has made contribution to the culture and have them talk about it. MTV doesn’t do that.

By the way, do you know why some of the crew enters this show with different name? After the success of Jabba, they see lot of potential to make some profit. So, now they want to hold the right to use the crew name in case they become famous. After all, it is MTV, though…

Anyway, I am just wondering why MTV’s been ignoring house dancing as a style. Only the reference to house was (though I don’t watch the show all the time, so I might be missing) In the beginning of the season 2, there was a crew from chicago supposedly they said they were doing house, which was not House at all. I guess house is still least known style though last 5 years, finally people started to recognize it especially on net. I remember in early 90s, nobody in West Coast, and nobody in Europe except France does House. The house dance scene only existed in NY, Japan and France back then.

The clip here are linked from Tatsuo’s website. (They don’t start dancing until 1 min so just be patient…) Tatsuo is from Grasshopper in Japan and recently he won the 1 on 1 house dance battle at street dance kemp in Chez republic. The dancers in this video are Pino, Hirossy from Alma, Tatsuo, and Hiro. I like all the dancers here but especially I love Hirrossy (the guy with red thing on his head). His move is so smooth and sexy. plus if you notice that he does lot of little extra things during the routine, which shows his character.

Just came in..

Popping final:Acky (JAPAN) & Sarah (FRANCE) vs Coo-Thkoo (Kei & Gucchon)( JAPAN)
Winner: Coo-Thko

Locking Final:Seiji & Yukari (JAPAN) vs P-Lock&Jimmy Soul (FRANCE)
Winner: P-Lock&Jimmy Soul

House:Pinochio (Kenji & Pino)(JAPAN) vs Hiro & Tatsuo (JAPAN)
Winner: Pinochio

Hip Hop: ???? (FRANCE)  vs NIAKO&SALAS (FRANCE)
Winner:NIAKO&SALAS(FRANCE)

Yokoi & Dominique was defeated at the 1st round!!more information to come..

 Juste Debout is one of the hottest street dance events right now!!. The final for 2008 event is going to be held this weekend, March 2 at Paris. Juste Debout is the international street dance 2 on 2 battle event. It has hip hop, house, locking and popping. This year, they had preliminary event in different countries such as Swiss, Germany, Japan, Italy, Paris, etc.. and the only the team who won these preliminary event are going to enter the final event. I don’t know why there was no preliminary event in the US. Since the preliminary event are organized by local people, I guess there was no organizer who was willing to host the event in the US. This is the same case with Battle of the Year. The US being the pioneer of this culture, It is a shame!!!! The US needs somebody who think more about preserving the true essence of this culture as opposed to having a show like “MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew” . 

Anyway… This year, I expect the level of the competition to be really really high!! Many dancers I mentioned on this page are actually going to be at the final. Since I was at the Japanese event, I can tell Japanese dancers who won the preliminary events.

Hip Hip: Yokoi&Dominic (Electric Trouble -no need to explain!)
House : Pino & Kenji (Pinocchio: Pino is my favorite house dancer and he is also the member of ALMA)
Popping: Gucchon & Kei (Coo-Thkoo: -they went through the most intensive battle of the all category. Guccho was 2nd place at 2007 UK BBOY Championship)
Locking: Seiji & Yukari (They beated Hilty & Bosch. ) 

On top of these dancers, I heard the rumor that there are more big name dancers entering the contest from Paris preliminary event which will be held the day before. They are:

Acky & Salah for popping (what a team!!)
Yoshie & Akane (BE BOP Crew) for locking
Hiro (ALMA) & Tatsuo (Grass Hopper) for house

So anyway, I was going to fly to Paris just for this event. But I end up not being able to… If you happen to live near Paris, I must go to see this event. Yoshie said, “If you are a street dancer and you are missing this event, then you are not a street dancer.”For more information, visit at www.juste-debout.com

This is the best documentary about house music so far. It is long but you love house music, it is worth watching.

Excellent showcase from Grass Hoppers crew (Tatsuo, Itsuji, and Hiro) I believe this is the routine they used for “Japan Dance Delight vol14″. Japan Dance Delight is the biggest street dance contest and it is the category free. The Grass Hoppers got the special prize with this performance.

As you noticed, I started uploading original clips from my collection. I will continue to do so. so, stay tuned. This is one of the most rare video clips. It is really interesting to see all famous NY dancers when they are young though Marjory looks the same! I can not identify some of the dancers. At 2:40, I can recognize Peter Paul, Calef, Link, who are the other dancers? One guy look like Shannon (a guy who does lot of jacking) is that him?

This is the respond to one of the requests from viewers!