This One's For Rhythm City

A new season of America's Best Dance Crew has begun, and I still cherish this show so much that I must comment.

Right now we're down to the final two, and I meant to comment sooner, but now I'm so saddened by the elimination of my favorite crew, Rhythm City, that I didn't have the heart. One of the biggest problems with this show is that "America" picks the bottom two contenders, and then the judges pick who stays and who goes. Earlier in the season, Rhythm City was in the bottom two with my other favorite group, the wildly underappreciated Southern Movement, and the judges were forced to pick between the two best performances of the night. Rhythm City won out and continued to create innovative and creative dance routines, but when the show got down to just four teams, RC had to go up against Massive Monkeys, which I'm sorry to report looks like EVERY OTHER b-boy team that's ever been on the show. In the end the Monkeys won out, and I shed a tear as my favorite crew bounded off the stage.

Thankfully, in the last episode before the finale, the Massive Monkeys were sent home. I don't mean to be rude to the Monkeys, and the tall black fellow is quite talented and the fact that he couldn't even walk when he was a kid is amazing. He should be proud to have come so far. The group can do fabulous tricks, but the dudes aren't dancers in the sense of the word that I thought would reflect upon America's Best DANCE Crew. For the last three years a b-boy group has won and I'm tired of it. Finally, we can have a finale with out any b-boys. But, I'm not entirely excited with the two remaining crews.

Currently, we are left with We Are Heros and AfroBorike. Sadly, it's difficult for me to get behind either of these teams, especially because I feel Rhythm City was by far the most creative and clean dance crew on the stage at any given time. We Are Heros is a full-on girl group, which is fabulous! But they are nowhere near as talented as last year's Beat Freaks. Beat Freaks kicked butt all of last season, but a less-than-stellar finale caused them to lose to Quest Crew in the end. I agree with that final decision, but only if based on that one last performance. But the point is We Are Heros is a fine crew, but I don't feel they are America's best. However, thanks to my stupid DVR I did miss their performance of Vogue on the VMA Challenge show, which I need to look up. And, to be fair, they did a nice job in the second-to-last episode's decade challenge. Perhaps they have grown over time and deserve more credit than I can give?

The other remaining crew, AfroBorike, is certainly a talented bunch of latin-inspired dancers, and I would kill for the abs on either of the three ladies. However, their problem lies in the fact that their routines need cleaning up, and they're starting to do the same thing over and over.

I still need to watch the final performances of these two groups. And the thing that I am most excited about is that both have women members and neither are b-boys, so already this season is ahead of the game. If I had to make a guess as to who will win, I'd go with We Are Heros. In fact, I'd bet some dough on it.

Since this post was supposed to be devoted to Rhythm City, I'd like to show some of their best performances (on the way). Best of luck to you kids, I bet you'll go far. And by the way, how cool would it have been to see them do that decade challenge? Very.

Quest Crew Crowned ABDC

Season 3 has ended, and Quest Crew was named as the champs for this season of America's Best Dance Crew. While I really did like Quest (still kicking myself for not saying anything when I saw them in L.A. before the show began), I'm a bit disappointed that the ladies of the Beat Freaks didn't win.

Throughout the whole show, the Beat Freaks showed that they had the same talent and drive as any of the boys. They completely blew the Fly Kicks out of the water. I will admit that the last performance was not their best. Quest Crew looked better in the final "decathlon" challenge. The Beat Freaks have the technical skills, but in this last challenge, Quest Crew showed personality and swagger that can't be beat:



I'm not going to show you the Beat Freaks' version, because it just isn't that interesting. However, I would like to show you my favorite Beat Freaks dance of the season. For some reason I can't find just the dancing, so skip through the junk at the beginning and get to the dancing about a minute and a half in.



The Beat Freaks were just solid every week, but I guess Quest Crew pulled it out at the end. I want to show you two more of my favorite dance numbers from this season, which occurred on the Brittney Spears night:






Congrats to Quest Crew! I hope that it was the last performance that won them the competition, and not the fact that America isn't ready to credit the ladies the way they deserve to be credited.

Last but not least, no none will be able to top this performance by the first ever ABDC champ, the Jabbawockeez.

I Heart ABDC

This isn't a show I would normally blog about, because I really think that America's Best Dance Crew is a fabulous show. Of course we can make fun of Mario Lopez or Lil Mama, but on the whole I think this is just a creative and exciting program that I enjoy watching every time. It is still sort of a reality show, but the difference is there is no fake drama resulting from forcing people to live in the same house. In fact, we have no idea where these people are living, and it doesn't matter. This show is about dancing and just dancing.

There are similarities between ABDC and American Idol, and perhaps the original idea stemmed from AI, but ABDC is so much better. I'm not interested in singing, and it seems like there are thousands out there that can do it well enough to make it onto the show. The songs they pick are cheesy and it doesn't take that much preparation to sing one minute of a song every week. I also hate the stupid audition crap where they make fun of poor schmucks who think they have talent.

ABDC cuts out all that audition junk and goes straight to the competition. A group of dancers that have either been together for years or just formed to dance on the show compete every week by creating a whole new dance routine together with specific challenges. They have to choreograph the entire number from start to finish and then all of them have to practice and practice so that they perform as one cohesive crew. Can you imagine how much stamina and commitment that takes to create and memorize all those steps in the first place, and then bring it all together to perform in front of the judges? Every week they have to produce something new and exciting as the audience voters are fickle. Even the crews that end up near the bottom of the bunch have accomplished an amazing feat by coming up with detailed and intricate routines. This is a show that take pure, raw talent; and if you don't have it the judges can tell.

Let's talk about the judges... Mario Lopez isn't a judge, he's the Ryan Seacrest of the show and he is skilled at looking like a tool as he announces the happenings. But he has sweet dimples and we know from his Saved By The Bell days that he can dance. If only he'd take his shirt off from time to time, then I could excuse his stupid comments.

First for the judges we have Shane Sparks. I guess he is a well-known choreographer, so he brings the "knowledge" to the show. He wears big hats and silly hip-hop outfits, but he is quite lovable. He tends to really like the "b boys" and overlook some of the more interesting groups. But he's not afraid to tell someone if they sucked. He had a really great comment last year about the Boogie Bots that I just can't remember, but it was basically like "That was whack" when they finished.

Lil Mama sits in the middle and also wears funny hats with her "hair" sticking out. She often has a fun nail color. If you've never heard of her, she had one rap song about lipgloss that was mildly catchy and mildly annoyed. That song wasn't really popular and somehow she became the voice of the youth. Regardless of that, I still dig her on the show. She can say mean things that aren't appropriate (to the Boogie Bots, too. Poor guys), but at least she is honest with what she sees. I don't always agree with what she says, but I like that she just says what's she's thinking. She cried this season because one group was from her hometown of Brooklyn. I'm surprised it took three seasons for a group to come from Brooklyn, and I'm still not sure why exactly it made her cry, but it shows the passion!

Last but not least is JC Chasez, formerly of 'N Sync. I know that the only guy we really remember from 'N Sync is Justin, but looking back in the old days JC was really the hot one. Justin was just kind of little and goofy with blonde hair. Now of course Justin is droolworthy, but this show is about JC, and I totally dig him. He's sort of the Simon, but I pretty much always agrees with what he says. He is really good at noticing that one person is not with the rest of them or specifics of the routine. It's hard when there are 9 people on stage flailing around. He's also just a cutie pie in his tight little shirts and his pretty hair cut.

The show itself runs a lot like American Idol. The dancers are given a specific challenge (last week was Brit Spears) and then maybe another challenge on top. The come up with a routine, dance and then the viewers can vote. The two that get the least amount of votes go up and then the judges decide. I think this is a good idea because the judges know when one group has potential better than America, so then they'll keep them around. Last season the winners were in the bottom two about three times.

That's a rundown of the show! I do have to say that I don't think anyone is as talented as the first crew to win: Jabbawockeez. They would do all of their routines wearing masks and still emoted more expression than Baya from the Real World. I also loved the runners up Kaba Modern. Last season, Fanny Pak was the way to go. They were more theatrical, but every dance was creative and exciting.

Here we are at season 3. It's hard to be in later seasons because the bar is always raised and comparisons are made. My favorite crews are Beat Freaks and Strikers All Stars. I very excited about Beat Freaks because usually the all-chick crews just don't cut the mustard, but these gals are AMAZING. I wasn't a fan of Quest Crew (even though I saw them in a hotel when I was in LA!! I didn't know who they were until I got home and saw the first episode and realized HEY!), but they had a great Brit performance. There are two crews that are really different, but I don't think they quite fit. One does clogging, and the other does weird crap where they turn their body all inside out and break their bones. Too bad they don't actually dance...

I'm not going to be blogging about ABDC regularly, because it would just be me gushing about how much I love the show. If you like dance, then you must watch it. Even if you don't like dancing, it's still the best show out there.