Welcome to Something for Nothing

Fan-ny Pak, Fan-ny Pak! I was chanting right along with the audience. My favorite performance of the night. I have a confession to make, Fanny Pak was on my list of crews to be eliminated early in this competition. During the auditions I thought Fanny Pak was a joke, during the top twenty show I was surprised when they made it through to the top 10. Fanny Pak, really?!? But after the first show I saw creative potential and they’ve grown on me ever since!

My favorite three crews, Super Cr3w, SoReal and Boogie Bots are still my favorites, but tonight were a little disappointing. Both Boogie Bots and Super Cr3w were just okay. Thankfully, SoReal were good… again!

Which brings me to A.S.I.I.D, how did they manage to get more votes this week than SoReal? Every week SoReal is a fan favorite, both with the live audience and those posting on message boards. Last week their routine was definitely one of the top four.

A.S.I.I.D. has always seemed a bit sloppy to me, as Lil Mama pointed out about their performance last week. I think right now they’re getting sympathy votes for having a hearing impaired person on the team. I know it’s not PC to say it but that’s how I feel. They made it into the top three crews this week over two more popular crews. One crew that was awesome last week. Of course, I’m basing my opinion of popularity on what I read online and hear from real life people. Maybe their fan base just puts their efforts into voting rather than talking and posting. Not a bad thing. It didn’t help my opinion of the situation when the show made sure we knew that it was the loss of a hearing aid that threw them off and not just sloppy dancing. Milk the sympathy votes some more! Of course, I have to be fair; they milked sympathy votes for my Boogie Bots, too. Yeah, so I’ll be quiet now.

Phresh Select and Supreme Soul landed in the bottom. Many people were predicting that Phresh Select would go this week, as was I. So that was not a surprise. But Supreme Soul, that threw me. I think they are the sleeper crew and will be in the final battle. I’ve seen some of their performances before this show and they are definitely not showing their full potential. Actually, if the bottom two were not decided by public votes, I would say this was planned. My prediction: Expect Supreme Soul to continue to shine strong for the rest of the show.

Overall, it was just an okay show, but I still love it!

This week Phresh Select heads home.

This was a fun week for ABDC. Eight dance crews had to visually transform to reflect their assigned song title. All in all, the crews executed their challenges with imagination, ending on a creative note.

Roll, rolling, human rolls,
A.S.I.I.D hits the stage to meet their challenge goals.
Shane was inspired but Lil mama, not so much,
J.C. liked it but felt it needed a cleaner touch.

SoReal charmed their way into our imaginations,
showing off their sneaky snake innovations.
We had a snake tut, a backwards snake moonwalk,
two gorillas making love in a jungle - no need for talk.

It’s Clark Kent, its Superman, no…. it’s Super Cr3w! Flying high.
With jumps, leaps and air flares our boys took to the sky.
The ending, OMG, that said it all judge Shane,
Super Cr3w had turned into a human airplane.

With a shoyuken uppercut from Sega’s street fighter,
Boogie Bots touched the childhood gamer.
Crazy, hot, lights out! Watch out!
Five dancers became one transformer, that’s what I’m talkin bout.

Visually stunning, soldiers from a toy store
Fanny Pak gave us something to explore
Shane said this is the crew to watch
Does this team have a chance to become topnotch?

Supreme Soul took us to a hotel
Used the stage and props very well
With precision, the crew rippled grabbing a bag
Up and down the elevator, showing their swag

Phresh Select and Xtreme Dance Force landed in the bottom two

Phresh Select had a poppin performance
Simple choreography and interesting stunts
With high energy, XDF made the stage shake
Organized chaos reflecting a quake

After the judges gave their critique
They had to decide which crew was weak
Though they gave it a really good try
Xtreme Dance Force, time to say goodbye

This season is going to be hard to predict. Last night everyone stepped it up, creating a very exciting night.
The challenge: Take a hot music video and immulate the dance moves while adding their own signature flavor. Everyone was fun and entertaining, in fact, I can’t really list my favorites of the night. Super Cr3w and SoReal are still my show favorties so far. Fanny Pak really impressed me. Their creativity is really starting to shine, hopefully others will see it too.

Surprise of the night…Boogie Bots in the bottom two. SAY WHAT!?! Chicago’s Xtreme Dance Force got more votes than the Boogie Bots! Someone’s been fibbing to me because everyone I talked to after last weeks show had them in the 5th or 6th place. Ok, who didn’t vote? Remember Shane’s warning last week: Pay attention to who you’re voting for America.

Whew! Boogie Bots are safe for one more week.

This week we say goodbye to Sassx7.

I can’t wait till next week to see what happens next.

Shane mentioned that he’d like to see more robotics in Boogie Bots routines. Here’s a fun instructional video on learning the robot dance.

Disclaimer: No chickens were harmed in the writing of this blog.

The second season of MTV’s  America’s Best Dance crew premiered Thursday, June 19th and it looks like this is going to be a great season.  The only problem I see is that the time between season 1 and 2 has been too short. There hasn’t been enough time for the love fans have for last years crews to fade so it’s easy to make comparisons. Unfortunantly, we’re going lose some very talented crews this season before the audience gets a chance to know them.

Here’s a look at the top 10 crews. This also features some clips from last years winners, Jabbawockeez.

My picks for the night:

West Coasts Super Cr3w - They had a Ninja theme going that was exciting from the very beginning.
Houston’s SoReal - They exploded to a whole new level.
Washington D.C.’s Boogie Bots - A smooth blend of Kaba Modern & JabbaWockeeZ.
Philadelphia’s Phresh Select - These guys turned up the volume.
San Francisco’s Supreme Soul - Promises to bring the heat this season.

Bottom two up for elimination:
Los Angeles-based Fanny Pak
Distorted X from Texas

The judges have spoken, Distorted X is the first crew to go home.

You can see full episodes and loads of backstage goodies at http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/dance_crew/series.jhtml

Rocky