Thursday, April 15, 2010

ABDC: Champions for Charity

The first time all 5 champions are on stage together! Every charity represented gets a $10,000 check to help the charities grow.

Opening Number:
It's awesome to see all the champions dancing together on one stage. The group numbers during the season sometimes suffer from the weaker crews and the varying styles, but this blended really well and served to introduce each crew as a distinctive unit and as champions.



Poreotix: They just won last week, but they have already found a teen to spotlight and help in charity work. Every Body Dance Now gives free hip hop classes to lower income kids and was founded by Jackie when she was just 14. 
Alvin and the Chipmunks themed routine? I guess the routines have to be related to the charities they are representing, so they had a "kids challenge." They had a great tutting section and again, they just look like they're having so much fun while pulling off such in sync moves. Best line from the judges: "You guys have a lot of nuts" - JC. Also, I love that the check read "that's right dawg, 10 Gs."

We Are Heroes: They are representing a charity for people with disabilities, The Sparkle Effect. It's a special needs cheer squad, so girls who normally wouldn't be able to cheer are not part of this special community.
They of course get a girl power routine and decided to go superhero/toy themed. The splits were impressive. They had great energy and really sparkled (ha!).

Quest: I'm really impressed with the kid that made this film to inspire young black men to strive to do better in their studies rather than just banking on rapping or sports.
They had a film challenge and opened it with a great spinning move shot in the style of old film footage. They are by far my favorite routine so far. They did a great broadway inspired hip hop routine that was filled with personality and energy. Some of my favorite moments were D-Trix's spinning, the crew linked together while two members jumped simultaneously through towards the camera, and the tutting section is always strong with this crew.

SuperCr3w: They're dancing for the POW! (Prevention on Wheels) charity that is run by a young woman that is HIV positive herself.
They are so athletic, it's ridiculous! They had a great flip where one guy pushed off the back of another, standing crew member. OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THAT LITTLE KID. Jaylen stole the show and was absolutely amazing! He did windmills, head spins, flips, flares, this kid did everything! Who is this kid? Is he the kid of one of the crew members? A younger brother? That is the next generation of ABDC right there.

The Jabbawockeez: They're dancing for Less Than Four, an amputee charity run by a cancer survivor and Special Olympics Athlete.
The Final Countdown! I love it already. They move so well together, it's barely human. It's just insane. I don't even know how to describe what they do because it is so original. They're a popping and isolation crew just like Poreotix, but they could not have more different feels and personalities. They both dance in the same genre, but their routines are so different and distinctive. Seeing this makes me even more excited to see their show in Vegas!

Since there's no winner for the episode, except for obviously the charities and causes they fight for, below are my rankings on the routines.

1. Quest Crew
2. Jabbawockeez
3. Super Cr3w
4. Poreotix
5. We Are Heroes

What a great episode and for great causes. I really like this idea and hopefully So You Think You Can Dance will do something similar.

2 comments:

  1. That is a great new decision. I agree with the merger of the participants to perform in one stage.

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  2. Thanks for the comment hotnews! I definitely think they should do an all-star edition again. All the crews were so talented. Maybe they should have a competition episode between the 5 champs. I honestly don't know who would win if it came down to Jabbawockeez vs. Quest.

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