ARTESIA-BASED Quest Crew won the all-star battle that served as America's Best Dance Crew 8th season. It's too bad that the audience had to pick a single winner because all three finalists were fantastic and unique, each in their own way and deserving of being "the best." But it was out of the judges hands and up to America to vote their preferences. With 95 million votes cast, Quest Crew beat out Super Cr3w out of Las Vegas and Kinjaz from southern California. All three dance crews were dominated by Asian/Americans but Quest Crew was 100% composed of Asian/Americans. Artesia, California, where most of the crew is based, is a small city of about 17,000 in L.A. County, but it is 37% Asian.
Congratulations to the winning crew, whose members are: "D-Trix" AKA Dominc Sandoval, "Hok" AKA Okuto Konishi, "Dope Turtle" AKA Steve Terada, "Ryanimay" AKA Daniel Ryan Conferido, "Ru" AKA Rudy Reynon, II, "Feng" AKA Ryan Feng, "Jolee" AKA Joe Lee and "Hirano" AKA Brian Hirano. The two final performances of Quest Crew that convinced the voters, are below:
The Quest Crew's first routine during the finals.
The Quest Crew's second performance was a dystopian-themed number.
After a year's hiatus, MTV revived the popular ABDC by bringing back the winners of the previous seven seasons to compete in this season's all-star competition. Whether or not there is a ninth season is yet to be determined. For winning the dance-battle, Quest Crew won $100,000 plus the crew got to appear on MTV's Video Music Awards show the following night.
Kinjaz - the unknown factor in this year's America's Best Dance Crew competition.
I'M NOT sure why, but the television show, America's Best Dance Crews, has a high preponderance of Asian/Americans participating compared to their proportion in the general population. This is one of the few areas of entertainment where Asian/Americans have been able to demonstrate their talent without any hindrance of institutional or personal bias. Perhaps, A/A's have been able to take to dance genre because the door was wide open. It's a brand new art form so there are no legacies, precedents, expectations or barriers to overcome. I bring this to your attention because this year's installment of the show will be an all-star production featuring the winners of past seasons; a true tournament of champions. When you see the winners from the previous seven seasons, it becomes evident that Asian Americans have done exceptionally well in this dance competition, which calls for precision, athleticism, brilliant choreography and a healthy dose of showmanship.
The season one winners, Jabberwockeez, is probably the best known of the crews with world tours and Las Vegas gigs among their resume. Because each dancer wears the group's trademark white mask, their cultural heritage has become a curiosity. “The idea of the mask is to remove all ethnic and social barriers when we perform,” said member Eddie Gutierrez.
Jabberwockeez is currently at Las Vegas' Luxor Hotel & Resort until Aug. 30 and after a brief hiatus, will return to the MGM Grand in October.
Take off the masks and you can see the crew ethnicities (seven members are Asian/American, including Filipino/American, Korean/American and Vietnamese/American; one is African American and two are Mexican/American).
Chris Gatdula told AsianWeek that growing up Asian American meant their parents expected them to follow the traditional route of higher education and professional careers. “A lot of our parents expected us to get a college degree, make $50K, get a traditional career, like become a doctor, a nurse, an engineer,” he said. “But young Asian Americans like us look at the world differently. Dancing, once viewed as a past-time activity, is actually an artistic form of expression and is a career.”
Unfortunately, because of their busy schedule, Jabberwockeez is not in this year's competition, but their legacy will be present.
Competing this year are: Super Cr3w from season 2, Quest Crew from season 3, the only all-women winners from Season 4, We Are Heroes, I.Am.mE from season 6, season 7's and reigning champs Electrolytes, and the dark horse, Kinjaz, an all-star crew unto itself. Kinjaz, the only team not a season champ, is made up of dancers from former ABDC competitors including season one winner Jabberwockeez. The show was cancelled last year but this January it was resurrected by MTV with the best-of-the-best twist. Season 8 premieres July 29. Check your local listings. It's going to be a good time!
