Thursday, 21 April 2016

Born To Dance.

I wanted to type a quick review for Born To Dance, I recently purchased it on Ebay from a place in Australia as I've been a fan of Parris and the Palace since 2010 and just couldn't wait!

I'm really unsure where to start with this as I have a love / hate relationship with the movie, don't get me wrong, its still tons better than all Step Up movies, but I feel as if it lacks in some places. One thing that concerns me especially with things like ABDC or the Got Talent series is cutting away from the routine to see things like judge and audience reactions, and the movie had quite a lot of that during "nationals" towards the end, I am curious why Parris went with the HHI type of story line~
Another thing that kind of got me is, usually in movies like step up, there's a lot of story line between each dance routine, but this had a battle at the beginning, some rehearsal stuff and then ALOT (perhaps too much) dancing towards the end, all of which I wish was longer, which may sound odd saying its too much but I want more, what I mean is that it should have been spread out throughout the movie and also the routines should have been a bit longer than 1 minute.

I really liked the story line, so props to Parris for it, Tia's not the best actor but he did well enough to keep me engaged in the movie, the real surprise was Onyeka, when seeing youtube stuff in the past, or even when I went to see Skulls and Crowns in Barking last year, Onyeka seems like the sort that is very, whats the word, I wanna say bitch, but in a good way? I guess she seems like the type of person you don't wanna mess with, but it was surprising because her relationship with "Tu" was kind of cute, and I she seems like a really good actor, and the name calling she was throwing at Tu was fun.
Kyra, also a bitch, when she pushed past the one girl when the dude was saying who was in K Crew, I thought "Damn, Kyra you bitch" she talks with her eyes I guess, I remember calling her "crazy eyes" with Sorority's 2013 routine as soon as those masks come up over the face and she stares into the crowd, and the sdnz routine when she's "gone with the wind fabulous" Kerrington was also a pretty good actor, OH and I loved Mikey in this, again not the best of actors but, he's cute and his character is like that guy that everyone wants to be friends with and loves, and I loved his story of the other guy having problems with "Tino's" sexuality~ when he came for Mikey, and Mikey got him in an arm lock, I was like FUCK YES!!! that was awesome, so props again to Parris for this part of storyline.

So I guess I'll go into the routines, the first battle, It seemed as if picture was a little off sync during this battle in some places, maybe too much switching between the camera's and stuff, the rehearsals too, when some of them were dancing, I wondered what they were dancing to, I think it was around the part where people are showing off their moves for "K Crew" and the O'neil twins were dancing and I wondered what they were dancing to, I also noticed Kiel's piece for "No Flex Zone" was used for the track that "Queen Bee" Kyra was dancing to, so I felt that was a little lazy to not use new material.

Neon Faction - Bill Gates
This is a catchy song, the routine was pretty good, it had that sort of choreo that brotherhood use at HHI each year, I really enjoyed it.

K-Crew - Ayo
I really didn't like the thing with the hood when Tu was doing it, it seemed pretty cheesey, but K-Crew's version seemed a little bit better, though its still a bit silly imho when they're holding the sides and just going in and out with the build up of the song, there was some krump but not much happening other than that.

Freaks vs 2PK - Not Many (The Remix)
This was a pretty good routine, though the whole part with Tu cutting them down the middle seemed a bit cheesey, but other than that, I liked it.

K-Crew - Semi final (unsure of the song name)
I guess I'll call this "click click click click ehhhhh" I loved the popping / robotics in this routine but, it literally lasts 45 seconds and 33 seconds of it is sound effects, again, too short, way too short and I feel as if theres not enough music in the routine, the choreo itself when the dubstep part starts reminds me of that choreo we see from Identity at HHI, but the camera is zoomed in way too much to see what else is going on in the routine so for me, it didn't make much sense.

Imminence - Its Ovah
Ok, can I just say how disappointed with the lack of Kiel, Todd and Joseph in this movie, when seeing the trailer, I was expecting to see more of them, this routine was pretty fun, it was gay, I loved it, but didn't last too long, the song itself is a little ehhhhh, meh? but the routine was fierce, hot, sexy.

Infamous - Semi final
No idea what this song was, but... wondering where Parris had gone, was she kicked from the crew? she was there earlier for the routine in the club to "Let It Go" this routine was pretty good, but when they were doing the sexy thing with their hips, again the camera panned away to some guy in the crowd.

2 Freaky - Two Times A Charm
I really liked this routine because Mikey got to be in charge of the girls, but some of the angles, I didn't get the opening with the one guy running towards the camera, then running back, but loved the rest of the routine, the O'neil twins dancing, is that the same choreo from their rehearsals over at K-crews studio? I'm unsure, this song too, good, but odd good perhaps?

K-Crew - Fresh
This song is bangin' I really like it, I think this camera angle in the opening works with the guy and the face paint, I think it should have zoomed out a bit quicker when more things started to happen, again I was a little let down when Kyra was walking on the guys backs and there wasn't much else happening apart from "walk walk walk walk" and then at some point Kyra does something kind of cool looking with her hands in the air, but the camera cuts her hands off so~

2 Freaky - Baddest
Didn't think too much of the drum solo at the beginning, the routine was good though, it had that royal fam dance hall stuff and some of that "little movements says it all" thing, I didn't think much of the lighting at the beginning with Kaea, but yea, the bottles were good, the whole routine was pretty spot on.


Extras:
So at some point, I did wonder whether this Bluray was a fake or not, mainly because the menu fonts weren't too great and was a little confusing, when going to subtitles, it was english, or off, but the only way to get off of this part of the menu was to scroll down passed off to get back to the menu, turning it off? how do I know whether its going to be on or off when clicking doesn't inform me whether it is or not? in the Extra's part we have a trailer, featurette, screening with cast~
There wasn't enough in the extra's to be honest, but I noticed in the featurette  that that was a clip where Kerrington was dancing and Kiel and Todd were to her left and right, I thought I had missed something at the end of the movie after the credits, but there was nothing, so it left me wondering where this routine was, also extra's should have had 1 shot camera's of each routine, like in those j-pop music videos, sometimes they'll have a close up shot and sometimes a "dance shot version" so again, I was a little disappointed where I had thought there would be some cool extra's.
If Parris does decide to make another movie in the future, I hope she gets camera angles right, doesn't cut away from routines and remembers to include something cool in extra's, Also want to say, I mentioned earlier there wasn't enough Kiel, there also wasn't enough Parris, she did such a great job in Step Up All In with her acting, she was funny, so thats another thing to include, more of yourself!

Hope this review doesn't offend / upset anyone~
~Aar

Sunday, 7 February 2016

Biting.

For those who don't know what biting is, its basically when people steal other crews choreography and use it themselves and I decided to put this post together as I was sitting earlier watching "Planet's Got Talent" a show on ITV that shows clips from the Simon's Cowells popular talent series from around the planet, e.i. BGT, AGT, Asia's Got Talent, Aus Has Talent etc etc.
Towards the end of the show, there was a clip and I thought "hold on a moment, those young girls look like they're doing Bubblegums choreography from their 2014 HHI set" and decided to post a photo on The Palace Dance Studio's facebook, and then was looking for a long while putting everything infront of the words "Got Talent Dance Crews" until I got to India and found an image on google that looked like the girls in the photo that I took, to find "Ele Angels Crew" and after finding a youtube video... well, its basically a rip off of Bubblegums set.

 Ele Angels
Original: Bubblegum HHI 2014.

The video is sloppy, they're pretty much out of sync, and they decided to ruin beyonces music by putting some other song over the top to try and mash it up, to a point where the audio is distorted and sounds incredibly low quality.







Cia Impacto
Original: IaMmE S&M ABDC11

This video is straight up biting, Bloggingbestdancecrew posted about this a few years ago, and it still bugs me to this day, I really don't get what people get out of this sort of thing, surely they know they'll get found out eventually right?






Monster MG
Original: Poreotics 2010

This time we have the original on the left side with the koreans stealing the choreography on the right, I think I remember Monster MG's lead choreographer apologizing for taking the choreography and were taken out of the competition.







Purplay "Remember Love"
Original/s: IaMmE Right Above It / Ill-emental

This one sucks, because the song is pretty catchy but the girls (maybe not their fault) straight up take the Rubix cube tutting piece from IaMmE's first ABDC routine for Right Above It, and their final piece which is also kind of a rubix cube in a way, from their Ill-emental final routine.







Team B / YG
Original: IaMmE Right Above It / Meet Me Halfway

I feel bad for IaMmE, I actually came across this one while searching for that brazillian group a few videos above, The parts taken are the robot piece from their Meet Me Half Way routine on ABDC6, and the ending gun part from Right Above It, when coming across this video, I saw something that I think was posts by Brandon (IaMmE) saying he doesn't get why these asian companies don't just hire them, which is true, alot of these companies are geniuses with their groups and have more than enough money to pay out for choreography, not only that but some of the other choreography in the video looks familiar, YG have Parris on board at the moment so... I guess if she see's any funny business, she'll point it out.


Thats all the ones I know of at the moment, I could add to this I guess, I remember someone saying that Diversity stole their transformers thing from Phillipine Allstars before, not sure if thats true or not though ;0

Thursday, 20 August 2015

ABDC Season 8 Episode 4

Damn, this episode was emotional, and had alot of cool routines!
I'm gonna start off with the stuff I usually leave until last, so get the negative stuff out the way firt.
Firstly, the whole thing that happened last week with Super Crew, people on FB have been saying "people take from art all the time" and some idiot is saying "they also changed clothes while doing it" at the end of the day, they still COPIED something, whether its from art, a dance crew, or whatever, I don't care, you shouldn't expect that on the ABDC stage, and to follow that up, I've seen my favourite crew go home, and the last 3 should be the best 3 crews in the competition, so the fact that Super Crew are still there really angers me.
onto other stuff, MOOOON, his gf, that was so emotional for me, I started crying, but it was beautiful moment because he had everyone he loved around him, the crew, quest crew, dancers in the audience, It really was nice! and he got emotional, and... uuuuuuh, It was a gorgeous moment :D


Super Kinjas:
The whole temple opening with the pillars falling was really cool, and they were nicely synced, the guys on the other dudes backs coming in slowly for an attack (I guess for an attack) was pretty cool, the new dude from SC wasn't in the middle, the next part with the 2 guys infront was cool, to the vocals, sensei has returned so thats pretty cool.
The whole forming an alliance thing was cool, the following choreo was cool and nice and smooth, suprised Super Crew could pick up this sort of choreo, the stairs section was really cool, the next part on the other contraption (forget what its called) was cool, but some of the guys were offsync, and a few of the guys sat up too quickly, the thing across the stage from right to left (new guy again) that was pretty cool, the 3 in the middle in front of the trophy was cool, I like that the trophy was included as this... like, Gem or... something, and I've just now noticed that theres 2 young girls that look about 10 or so in the audience and the judges have been swearing and all sorts, also notice a few other dancers ;0 I think that one guy who was in Walking Dead, I liked the use of the audience, and I do honestly feel like, if the audience wasn't included, that the judges would have picked the other 2, the other 2 felt much stronger for me, and it seemed that way to the judges too listening to their comments but... oh well~


IaMQuest:
The opening was cool, liked the spins and walking up the wall illusion, the next part with the brainbang was soooooo good, I'd really love to see how phillip comes up with some of this stuff, because its not all squared shaped tutting now, and it can be hard to watch it and get it with rounder shapes, but he does so well doing it, and Moon (not sure which one of them comes up with it, maybe both?) the next part of choreo was cool, and it was, looked like Feng was way too early with it though, was a little odd watching it back, seeing Tam do one of those flips with the little kicks with Steve was niiiiiice, Bebo coming out forward was cool, the following choreo was nice, but I think Feng was off a little bit again, D-trix doing the bboy stuff was noiiiice, I think that Brandon's footwork is a little bit too fast, it was offsync again, I liked the footwork, but I seems as if some are forgetting what beat they've gotta hit and just doing it all as one (which is what Feng seemed to do in that first part of choreo after the brainbang) the floorwork into the 4 towers looked cool, and then the tutting was nice, pretty on sync but maybe a little fast? the whacking was cool too, something I want to learn, Bebo's then thrown like a cannonball ;0 the swag was sweet, and then this part looked fun, the 3 who are best at tutting pop up behind the judges, Frankie smiles, he makes me laugh, fav judge ;0 the next bboy section was cool, and the choreo they did with the girl infront was good, though not sure if I was meant to see a bit more of that? the camera wasn't focusing on that part so, not sure when exactly it started~ the part on the right steps? that was pretty sweet, with Lisa? I think, rolling down, it was such a good routine.


Kinjas:
I've seen videos of Mike dancing with this guy before, and they're cool together, but I do honestly feel, even though its a cool performance, you can dance pretty much however, and then make sounds up for it, anyway... the popping was good, the small section of house was good, then the voice thing was kinda cute, the Mortal Kombat thing was cool, Goro? I think is the name of the character with 4 arms, the select your character part reminded me of their performance earlier in the year, the following housing / footwork was cool, and now we get some sick wubs, but I do feel somewhat odd with this routine, I loved it, but would have prefered seeing them dance to music.


Super Crew:
I don't know what to say about this, the freeze on the stairs was cool, most of the choreo was very one, two, three, four, with tricks in between, the 2 in the back spinning slowly with their hands on the floor (crouching) was a bit weird, the 3 guys on the things closer to the audience wasn't that great, I wish they'd had stepped on an audience members hand to be sent home or something, going through these watching, I've paused every one to rewatch but... I didn't with these... I cbb.


IaMmE:
We can see the boards, but the 2 girls on the left and right, that looked good, it was a nice illusion, they looked like they were floating, the judges kept saying how hard it is to use one of these boards so I'm really curious how hard, the popping and locking on them looked sweet, Bebo running over the other guys, I didn't catch it the first time because I was watching Phil with the girl doing some sort of Bicycle thing with her legs, Bebo's freeze was a nice touch with the others floating around him, went nice with the break in the music, I'm not quite sure what Moon was doing, the other 4 were doing something and Moon did something different, the spinning boards round Tam while she whacks followed by Emellio jumping off the board, how did that not slip and make him fall? was awesome, the following brainbang with new girl and phillip, but also bone breaking and brainbanging? that was pretty insane, the choreo after this was nice, and the footwork was nice and clean, the popping too, the ending was pretty creepy, ahhh I forget what the new girl is called, Lisa is the one from Funk'dation right? hmmm I'll have to check fb~


Quest Crew:
This was sad, them all sitting at the beginning as friends and then them (btw, who are the 2 girls in baseball jerseys behind Jayson?) all of them going away, it was pretty sad, the choreo was nice, and when the bassed dropped, the thing they did with their knees was cool, they're SUCH A BETTER CREW than the other Bboy crew, all their expressions <3 its so sad T___T Steves flip was cool,  the brainbang section, D-trix's face, he looks so sad at this point, the following chairography is sooooooo cool, then them coming back at the end sitting, It was an emotional performance, Teyana said "blah blah, no props" but... hey that big yellow chair is there, she blind?
T-pain getting upset, was soooo sad, gah this show, if ABDC comes back with season 9, I hope it doesn't get all emotional, what he said about believing in his music... its true, and this was a beautiful / emotional / amazing routine.

I'ma miss IaMmE :(


Friday, 14 August 2015

ABDC Season 8 Episode 3

I want to start off by saying, we've seen alot of plagiarism in the past, with Monster MG copying Poreotics, that one Brazillian crew copying IaMmE's routine to Riri, I think there was something before about Diversity copying Phillipine Allstars too, So the fact I've just witnessed it, even though it wasn't taken from a dance crew, but a video floating around on facebook kind of dissapoints me to a point where I no longer have as much respect for a crew as I did.
So the video I'm talking about is one that was floating around where a group of 5 / 6 people hold hands and moves to their side, pretty much what Super Crew did, yea they didn't copy a whole routine but heres why i'm pissed at the fact they did it... They're a well known crew, and to bring any form of plagiarism to the ABDC stage is not ok, you don't expect that from ANY American dance crews as its usually the American crews that get copied, So, lets start with Super Crew.


SuperCrew:
I usually dislike Bboy crews because the breaking seems to be a bit "1,2,3,4" I mean... sure its cool what they can do, spinning on their heads, insanes tricks, the head into the hat was pretty cool,
and they kind of prooved me wrong with what I thought about them over the past few weeks, but what they did has kind of taken away alot of respect I had for them, they're "champions" so you don't expect it... Apart from the hat trick, and the 6 guys on the vinyls, and then it looked like they were about to fall, but the camera changed angle and they were fine, reminded me of Week 1 when We Are Heroes performed, looking at the routines on youtube, you see it repeats the failed part, I don't know if they had to redo the routine on stage, or it was a quick recovery from falling... it was a little odd.

Anyway, this routine didn't have much going for it, the choreo inbetween the stolen move, and the vinyls didn't really stand out, the only things I'll remember this routine for is being pissed off, and then them being shirtless, which isn't enough I'm afraid.


IaMmE:

Is it me, or do they come out and just KILL IT every week, the opening was a bit odd with the floorwork but not bad, the shadow part with the tutting was cool, I had a feeling those shadows were from behind the screen ;0 the shadows was pretty fun, I liked it, the following flip with Bebo was kind insane coz he went around and was flung by his feet without touching the floor, was a bit crazy!
the footwork was a little out of sync but not terrible, then that swag, that was pretty sexy, this weeks Brainbang was pretty cool, some cool waving in and out of parts, the following floor work was pretty cool, reminded me of being in photoshop and trying to make patterns haha, the fall at the end was also a nice effect.
I did love the routine, but I do feel a little bit like "Ok, you 3 go over there and do stuff, and us 4 will do things over here, then we'll regroup" which is a little odd, Kinjas also did that this week but more on that in a bit.


Elektrolytes:
This opening was pretty cool but as I said previously, the whole "you go over there" what are the others doing? anyway, this routine is very funky, the locking is really good, the following gliding using the walkers was cool, another part where the camera is focusing on 3 guys, but this is probably their best routine, it was funky fun.


Kinjas:
Theres the fun sensei voice again, the opening for me was a little weird, and a bit of an odd song choice for them I guess, they zipped up on the 4ths which was a little odd, then the last guys zipping up on its own was cool but, I didn't like this opening much, it just went up, then they stood there for a few seconds, was a little odd, the handkerchief part was really cool though, looked like a little flame.
The choreo is cool, but again, people running off to do their thing, though... the part with the red carpet (I'm reminded of the 9 tails in Naruto, and I know Mike watches Naruto and other animes so maybe related? ;0) Its cool, the butt part too :P then back to the other 3, the following flips were really cool with the 2 guys, again, I do like Kinjas but I'm expecting more from a crew thats made up of Kaba, Jabba, Poreotics~


Quest Crew:
Wow... just... wow, I don't even care if they weren't in sync for some of this, what frankie said was right, if someone were to do something like this in the past on ABDC, they'd probably not get away with it, the fashion... they all look so pretty... I loved the VT when Dtrix tried to break something and hurt himself (not really hurt) he's a comedian, I miss him as a judge and it was cool when Ru was dressed up too at the end haha, Fengs beard... It was just hilarious, his krumping was cool, the opening to reveal the gurls was funny,
The tricks were cool, and Dtrix doing a nice spin on his one leg, the following part to Nicki Minajs vocals was some cool choreo, a little offsync but was really good, the following with Steve (I really need to stop saying the following) was cool, jumping through the curtain, then the mini skirt, into a flip where he kicks his legs, the part with Hoks hair was hilarious and cool, a little brainbanging :D
Ryan did one of his flips landing on his head which is always cool, I do wonder if he suffers a mad headache after doing these! the scissors part was funny and cool, taking off their trousers (pants for you americans!) the pop sound made it sound like... something bad happened, either something went in, or something exploded x: maybe I shouldn't say that haha, the next part of choreo with the pink pants was cool, then the death drop (I think thats what they're called) that Hok did at the end... was just superb, this routine was my favourite of the night, it was fabulous, sexy! and Damnit, fengs beard haha.


So, maybe I'm a little angry this week, I'm in an odd mood and my head hurts, I'm liking the judges alot now... Frankies funny, and they seem to be giving a bit more critisism, not being SOOO nice like they were the first week, frankie falling to the floor when T-pain mentioned people taking their clothes off was funny, T-pain saying "thats what she said" Its fun, maybe they are better than Lil Mama and JC, and Teyana swore! It was a good thing I guess, it shows that she's passionate.
T-pain did a little waving after one crew performed and that was kind of fun, and at the end of the show he was on the stage dancing, and it was impressive!
It was a little sad to see Emellio crying too when Elektrolytes were voted off <3
I did think they'd be voted off next... efore ABDC aired, I thought that Elektrolytes would be the first to leave, but week 2, I thought We Are Heroes, Elektrolytes, Super Crew, Quest Crew, Kinjas and then IaMmE would be the winners...
But after their performance for week 3, I think that Super Crew deserved to go home, taking the whole facebook video out of the equasion, their routine in all felt pretty poor.
I do wonder what happens after this season finishes, Is there going to be a brand new season with new crews? If so when? or is it just champions and then we've got to wait a few years for a new season again?

Thursday, 6 August 2015

ABDC Season 8 Episode 2.

Ok, so its week 2 and I've just finished watching, though I had a few spoilers following crews on facebook and a guy uploading to youtube, Its really a shame that MTV doesn't just upload the full episodes on their facebook, alot of these crews have huge fanbases worldwide, so surely it'd be better for MTV to get the views on youtube than people watch performances from others on youtube, and then not bother tuning in a year later on MTVs channel~
Anyway, lets start.


The Opening:
This was sick, I didn't think that I could be impressed by anyone else than The Royal Family dancing to "Started From The Bottom" but, the opening, introducing all the crews for a 2nd time, and it being smooth was kind of epic, I liked the whole... looking at the opponent type thing they had going on, and the piece just blew me away, I liked the music changing to different genres for each crew, the parts that stuck out the most for me though were IaMmE's brainbang (mainly because it was something we had seen before but they took it to a better level) and weirdly enough, We Are Heroes, I'm soooo dissapointed that We Are Heroes choregraphy, yet again... is better in the opening routine with the others than the routine thats meant to keep them there.


IaMmE / Birthday:
I hadn't actually heard this song before, or maybe I have and had forgotten, the opening was nice, I the trampoline bed was a nice touch, some little brainbanging with the balloons was cool, and Bebo spinning on his head, while wrapping the sheet around his head was cool, some nice whacking from Scarlette too :D it amazes me how Moon and Phil come up with these brain bangs, the next part with the connecting, its stuff that I've seen before, but this is in a different way and unique, and it was nice and smooth, which was a little different.
Emilio doing some stuff on the trampoline while it was rolling was pretty cool, I worried that he may hit his head on the side though as he was a little towards the back, the next part of Choreo was really nice and then... the next brainbang... was somewhat trippy, I think it worked well for them having the left and right sleves on their jackets different colours because it looked like it was 1 set of arms, but moving in an odd way, it was cool, then the next part, I thought they were going to go into that head roll thing they did for the Kanye West routine they did on ABDC back in 2011.
Scarlettes double backflip was cool but it didn't look like she landed too well, the same with Emellio, I thought that she was a bit close to the front or back end of the bed, the following choreo was cool, and then some sort of brainbanging backflips over one another, this was cool, it reminded me a little of IaMmE's routine for Black Eyed Pea's week on ABDC6, when they leant backwards into each others hands, it was all about timing so that one didn't fall on the floor, one wrong move and these flips could have gone horribly wrong! The ending was really nice, It felt like it represented someone growing through time, which Birthdays are all about :) was a nice routine.


Kinjas / Oh My Gosh:
This opening, yet again, cheesey but... I love it, It reminds me so much of Naruto (anime) I too, like Teyana want to kno whose voice it is, its funny, but good, anyway, the peace up, A town part was fun, the stepping down off the steps (I'd also like to mention, I like the use of crews using the stage steps and stuff this season, makes things somewhat bigger) the stepping down too, what I guess are hard kicks was cool, I wish I could have seen what the others were doing when the guy was doing stuff on one hand, the next part of choreo was pretty cool, then the next part was a little robotic and sexy... which was really nice, I loved the use of Usher's moves, the part where the guys are on their heads doing stuff with their feet was really cool, most of the sounds they picked out to dance to aswell, helps you hear sounds you usually wouldn't hear, in a way, they're a blend of Jabbawockeez, and Kaba Modern, but they also remind me a little bit of Mos Wanted too.


Super Crew / Uptown Funk:
The opening footwork was nice, the jumps left and right were a little cheesey, the following athletic stuff was pretty good, but the roll overs and unders, I've seen this done so much, so I didn't like it much,  the sliding across the stage, I'm really curious how the hell he did that, the next section with the locking was done really well, and then the section with the guys on the chairs looked pretty cool, but the following part where the guy jumps up on the judgeing panel was funny, Its funny, rewatching on youtube, to pause and see the judges aren't paying attention to the guy coming from the right, and they're just looking forward as he jumps up, and Teyana looks so confused, then she looks shocked when he jumps off infront, it was fun, the following bboy stuff was really cool, and nice little touches with the 3 guys on the chairs doing some little bits while the others were bboying, I wasn't too much of a fan at the ending of the guy saying stuff loudly~
But I enjoyed it.


Quest Crew / Turn Up The Music:
This opening was pretty cool, somewhat robotic, it shows that they're not just a bboy crew, but we've seen that many times with Hok's tutting and cool choreo, their arms coming out to the "bop bop bop bop" was cool, and then some cool bboying stuff and Ryan does a weird flip that goes into a worm kind of, I'm curious what that is what they're dancing with, is it just a light? the next part with Hok on his head was cool, the way he moves is so interesting, I'm loving the robotics :D sliding over to the right, and the guy loses his balance, which was a little sad but he did a good job at entertaining, and the slide D-trix did on the 2 guys back was pretty insane, I love it when the guys do something that been done before but take it to a whole other level :D


We Are Heroes / Freak On:
This was alot better than last weeks, to be honest... and it pains me a little, I'm going to be honest, maybe it'll sound a bit brutal but... its expected that they're in the bottom 2, Season 4 of ABDC was a little weird, didn't we have dancing cowboys? the crew from Brazil that wasn't really street but somewhat street? I spent the past few days looking at some stuff of theirs and looking back to guest performances, the crew doesn't paint a good picture for some of what appears to be brainbanging / connecting, its not framed well, I looked at their collab with Flavahz on ABDC7 and there was a part where the 5 girls from WAH stood and all did different things, It looked and felt weird watching.
I liked the opening to this, I don't think they put enough energy into the floor work, the jumping down off the stairs was pretty sexy, this was kind of awful, the new girl, who was dressed in pink... she didn't even dance, she came in half way, took a pic, moved the camera in a circle, leant over so reveal herself as being pulled too hard, and then dissapeared off stage... the choreo with the others was pretty good, but it makes me wonder... can this girl even dance, was she just in last weeks performance for doing flips and tricks? the music playing backwards part was pretty cool but, it reminded me of what I said above, they're all doing things seperately.
The part after which was actually some quite cool choreo, somewhat popping, then a pose, then some cool part followed by what appears to be their arms going up and down like the Johnny Bravo opening, the following was actually... sexy and done well, then the part where Marie Poppins and Hiro were on their knees with their arms out popping with their chest... wait... didn't we see this last week? just... the girl in pink... what was she doing throughout the rest of that routine, it was so bizzare, I had great hopes for this crew when I saw that Marie Poppins was going to be a part...
I'ma leave it there, just dissapointed.


Elektrolytes / Want You To Want Me:
The connection to last week was pretty cool, I like that they're playful with it, feel sorry for whoever had to clean up that popcorn, the Choreo is nice, and pretty sexy and smooth, again making good use of the stage, some cool tricks and more smooth sexy dancing, the following with the books was pretty cool, though felt like IaMmE's opening last week, well... just reminded me of it anyway, I feel as if all crews are making good use of the stage this week (btw I want that poster) but I feel like props are going to become a bit of a problem this season, I'd prefer if they just all dance.
Love the next bit on the stage where they all kinda shift to the left, again, somewhat sexy, felt kinda like grease ;0
was good.


So, We Are Heroes were voted off, I'm not surprised, and its a little saddening, I know they say "the first female group to win" and stuff, but there are other females representing that are better.
I think the judges were better this week, more honest and not harsh but said what had to be said, I think Frankie is going to be the one thats really honest, the mean judge, well... not the "mean" judge but the hard to impress judge. I did say last week they're too nicey nice, but I do like them, Frankie seems fun and playful, like when Elektrolytes blew a kiss and he was saying "It was for me" to Teyana, the other 2 do seem pretty fun too, but I like Frankie the most.

Oh yea, I'd also like to add, I'm liking that MTV are letting crews use their own logo's this season :D

Friday, 31 July 2015

ABDC Season 8 Episode 1.

So ABDC started this week and I managed to get a copy of the video thanks to Randy Moon on youtube, check out his channel.
So its been 3 years since the last ABDC and they started off with a bang! Ne-yo opened the show with some of his songs, accompanied by all returning crews for a special performance, all was good, So I'm going to start off with the crews first.

SuperCrew:
I didn't see season 2, so I don't know if they've improoved, I started off with Season 4.
I don't usually like Bboy crews, apart from Quest, but these did a good job at opening the show, I thought they'd be mostly doing Bboy stuff and tricks but when the song dropped, that cool footwork they did was cool, the opening also on the steps, reminded me a little of IaMmE's connecting stuff.
It was a feel good routine but not the strongest of the night.
I'm going to mention the last part with the holding of one guy, and dropping him toward the floor because of the following performances.

 IaMmE:
All I've seen over the past few weeks on facebook is "where's Chachi" or "where's Jaja" but more so Chachi, and I've noticed most of these people seem to be kids who are either girls who look up to chachi, or little boys that fancy her, I like Chachi, but I don't particularly care about her not returning, what I care about the most is the choreo the boys come up with.
The opening with the books were cool, reminded me alot of that microsoft surface ad which I think Phil had some involvement with, and I'm glad the paper plane went where it was suppose to! usually when I make them, they spin or turn and go somewhere not wanted.
That weird flip Tamara did was awesome, then followed by a sick trick of their jumping off of their backs, and heres what I guess is the brainbangin? though I wouldn't say its brainbangin, but it was cool, the next section with the wubs had alot of cool choreo and then the ending with Tamara doing the splits on the chairs was amazing, I think she's a good replacement for Chachi ;0

Elektrolytes:
I almost didn't recognise the song with the opening, the opening choreo was interesting, then the housing and cool footwork for the drop was cool, then a guy does the splits and twists down, this reminded me of the ending of Supercrew's performance, the next section was pretty cool, followed by the floor crawls? then some lovely wubs, wish MTV hadn't zoomed in for most of it, the choreo with the chains were cool, using them like Nunchucks, the ending was a little odd, I know it was meant to look like the guy fell off and was dead, I'm curious what the audience saw haha.

Kinjas:
This was a little dissapointing, the choreo was nice and really smooth, but I've seen alot of Kinjas stuff on youtube that was alot better than this, you can see some of the Jabbawockeez influence in it, I think my favourite part was probably the footwork, I feel like I've seen this choreo before, I think when watching the first time, I got alot of nostalgia from watching it, but yea... I've seen better stuff on youtube than this performance, was just expecting a little more from it.

we Are Heroes:
Ok so, when the show started with Ne-yo, and We Are Heroes opened up as the first crew on stage, I thought this choreo was a lot better, and that they had stepped it up from Season 4, and the fact there were new members and one of them being Marie Poppins, I thought it'd be amazing was really dissapointed, also... Diamonds by Rihanna? thats an odd choice seeing as the leader, Hiro is a popper, you'd expect her to pick a dubstep track by Skrillex or something.
The opening was great, it was somewhat beautiful, then they leant backwards and Marie didn't lean as for as the other 3 that were infront, it looked odd, then they all reached up, then it went incredibly girly, but weird and happy, they said in their package that they can go as hard as the guys, but I didn't see it, the next part had one of the new girls do a roll and into splits, followed by weird tutting before the wubs, which I didn't think were needed until the wubs came along, then Marie and Hiro weren't in sync with each other, I thought the next part with the chest popping was a little boring, the next part was pretty cool with the other girl doing some weird thing, but the others seemed out of place, they should have "framed" it better, maybe all connected as a circle or something.
The following tutting section, Hiro and Marie weren't synced up again, so it looked weird.
The Diamond at the end was my favourite part, they were voted to go, and I see why, hopefully they step it up next week, I'd like to see Marie choreo something...
Oh and before I forget,  The girl at the back in the opening was in a splits pose and rolled down, It felt like I had seen this for the 3rd time.

Quest Crew:
This was good, opening all rock like, good tricks, Hok's nuts almost being crushed, fun choreo, I liked the cool thing D-trix did, the part with Hok on the guys back, the drum sounds when Hok went, then the other 2 joined in, the guy on the left wasnt on beat, and then we have our first over / under / middle flip trick, which are always fun to see in Quests performances, the following footwork looked like alot of fun, and Terada's flip at the end was really cool.

So this season started well, I'm looking forward mostly to seeing IaMmE, Quest and Kinjas, I did go into this thinking Elektrolytes would be the ones to be voted off first, but they did a good job, the Judges however, and host, Jason is pretty good on the eye, nice to look at but he doesn't have the personality of Mario, I remember a few times Mario would join in a little and do a few jokey dances when the judges were giving feed back, the judges... I would have prefered more people who know about dance, T-pain said "blah blah blah sandwich" or something similar, instead of the professional word, I see Judges, for example, if someones tutting, they'll say "that really cool thing you did with your hands" instead of "The tutting was on point" or whatever, they seemed to nicey nice, I miss JC being honest about the routines, these 3 don't seem to have anything bad to say... until ya know, the end when they voted We Are Heroes.

Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Skulls & Crowns.

So last night I had the most amazing night ever, I got to see my favourite dance crew, my fav dancer and DAMN it was full of hilarious stuff and was such an awesome night, I'm so glad I got to spend it with my best friend and my sister.

So there were some opening acts to the night, and usually I'm not impressed with any dance crews that are british, IMD in particular, I didn't like when I looked at their performance at HHI, and I didn't like their audition on BGT a few weeks ago, but more about that in a bit.
The first act was a group of girls krumping, and it was impressive, I forget their names (sorry) but I enjoyed it, I don't like when people dance to vocals with no music, but when they got into it, I got into it, and for the first time ever I was impressed.
Then when the host said IMD was coming out, I thought "oh no, I don't really like these"
but DAMN, theres something about seeing it live thats so impressive, infact, they did the same routine that they done on BGT and it felt better, maybe its something to do with frames per second, just seeing it live was pretty amazing, and I have to hand it to them, they really did a good job, I'm just not a fan of grime (I've said previously) but now, I'm really looking forward to their next piece on Britains Got Talent, I'd like to see them dancing to something else because they have the moves, they listen to the music, and I take back what I may have said about them previously, I was wrong.

Now for the main show, damn, just... wow, Parris and the gang were having some technical difficulties so we had a few fun things go on while we waited for laptops and audio to be perfect.
Her dad apologized for being late and the technical difficulties, and told us it felt so good talking to people that spoke English as it was difficult explaining in the previous countries in the european tour.
He decided to get 5 of the girls out and pick 5 people from the audience, my sister was saying "Aaron, go on!!!" and then it was for a small dance battle to win a Royal Family jersey.
My sister said after "Its a good thing you didn't, I didn't know it'd be for dancing"
In the end, 2 guys battled it out and it was really fun to watch.
Another guy that was also from New Zealand did some beatboxing because the audio still hadn't been sorted, and after that, Parris came out and apologized, told us the audio may be lower quality but they'll give it their all and it was so lovely.
They opened with their performance for Twerk It and... damn, If you've seen that on youtube, the opening where they're all moving slow... remember I previously said something about frames on TV~ this... seeing it in person, its so incredibly smooth and slow, it was incredible.

I don't want to give much away, I mainly want to talk about some of the funny stuff that happened.
So the host, he was funny, he was saying how RF do the slow "ting" and was doing it while getting us ready for the show, at some point, Parris was behind the left curtain, and he was off to the side where it leads down a hallway, and she popped around was dancing sexily and he was watching and I guess getting a little embarassed, and she took his hat from him, and his bottle of water and walked center stage with the water and hat, and was dancing, she's so good at improvising, grabbing that hat and water and changing her routine a little to use them both was so gooooooooood.
Then throwing the hat back at him after, he caught it, It was so amazing and funny.
The 2nd laugh of the night is when they did a special dance for 5 lucky audience members, one guy, he was.... very into it, biting his lip, playing along, and as soon as he was in view again, he pulled out his phone, Parris walked up behind him and put his arms around him, It was so funny, he looked so nervous but knew he had to do it.
I was watching on my sisters facebook a few minutes ago (its private) and it made me cry, the whole show was a top highlight of my life, I don't think I'll get to see Parris and TRF again, all I know is that if the chance comes to get tickets for a show next year, I'm buying as soon as I get any sort of info.

I'ma go ahead and add IMD to my favourite dance crews, they deserve a place there, also "Boyband" from BGT, they were fun, another thing I wanted to mention~
The whole community seems lovely, there was one girl I noticed when we arrived that was queing, and it took me a while but I realised she was on the first season of Got To Dance, some other faces looked familiar and they all seemed to know each other, they were all cheering on the opening acts, all seemed to know each others names and it just felt like such a wonderful community, and I hope by the end of the year, I'm part of it.

Crowns up! :D