Joyce & the Boys of Singapore performs during the 2009 World Hip Hop Dance Championship Adult Division held at the Orleans Arena Sunday
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 | 2 a.m.
World Hip-Hop Dance Championships
More than 1,000 dancers from 28 countries came to Las Vegas last week for the Hip-Hop International World Championship. The annual event provides the audience with entertainment while giving the performers, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds, a sense of hope. The final competition was held on Aug. 2 in the Orleans Hotel and Casino. The competition puts individuals and teams against each other in several events, including popping, locking, breaking, and hip-hop dance.
Hey, Vegas clubgoers, there are a few 8-year-olds I’d like you to meet.
At the Orleans Arena last weekend, this group of tiny Japanese girls in purple camouflage pants and teased ponytails started dancing in perfect locking unison to a song more than a decade older than they are. MC Hammer’s “Too Legit To Quit” gave way to Celine Dion’s Titanic anthem “My Heart Will Go On,” and the girls paused their frenetic, music-video-quality dancing to hold the lone male member of their group aloft, his shirt ruffling like Kate Winslet’s on the ship’s bow.
With a few more tightly choreographed hip-hop passes, the crew known as Monsoon finished its routine to raucous applause.
I couldn’t help but think: Ninety percent of the women on tables at XS Nightclub would kill to dance like this.
Most grade-schoolers can barely perform a passable “Macarena,” let alone two minutes of street dance that rivals Justin Timberlake’s moves.
But with the Orleans Arena hosting the eighth annual World Hip Hop Dance Championship on Sunday, the children competing in the international street dance Olympics were incredible lockers, poppers and breakers, and they were only the tip of the iceberg.
The World Hip Hop Dance Championship is a yearly summit for street dancers from around the globe. Dancers come from as far away as the Philippines, New Zealand, Spain and Singapore to compete not for money but for a spot on the podium.
To hit the top spot and hear their national anthem play across the Orleans Arena, teams of five to eight dancers in three age divisions had to bring routines that showcased not only technical skill, but also creative choreography and stage presence that impressed a panel of international judges. Simply locking in unison didn’t cut it. Standing back tucks weren’t going to earn anyone gold. You had to go big, and you had to bring lots and lots of attitude.
When 2008 champions the Philippine Allstars took the stage for the final competitive routine of the evening, the applause reached a crescendo. The crew tossed a dancer into the air like a basketball, fit their bodies together into a slowly moving human car and spun the vehicle so a dancer’s feet became the muzzle of a gun.
Well after midnight, the winners took their places on the risers as flags from Singapore, Mexico and France rose above the stage. No one looked more surprised than the gold medal winners, France’s R.A.F. Crew, whose slick slow motion breakdown and gravity-defying performance left such a strong impression.
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