Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew is in the midst of its fifth season, with just seven crews left battling for the top spot for the $100,000 grand prize. The show started off with its regional battle, where five crews from each region vied to be in the top three. Only nine crews remained to make it to nationals–and television. Judging the crews are teen idol from 'N Sync JC Chasez and hip-hop artist Lil Mama. New on the panel is R&B singer Omarion, known for his popping-influenced dance style in music videos; he also starred in You Got Served. And, of course, hosting the show is Saved By The Bell's AC Slater (Mario Lopez).
Last night's show, Lopez announced that the show ran into technical difficulties that may have altered the votes. Because of this, the show decided not to eliminate any crews and everyone made it to the next round. However, two crews will be voted off next week's show, making it a high-stakes performance.
Yusuf Shariff (OC Weekly): So what's with the sunglasses?
Poreotics Crew: The sunglasses are for having a character on stage, it's pretty much hiding our eyes, so that you think we are serious, but our dancing shows that we are not. We're actually goofy. When we have glasses on, it pulls the audience in thinking that we're serious, but when we dance we're the opposite of that.
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Last week you guys got mixed reviews from the judges about doing too much popping, what are you guys going to try differently?
Poreotics Crew: I don't think the judges have ever seen our style on the show yet. We're just going to keep doing what we do best. We came here and our fans love us for that, so we're going to keep doing that and be true to ourselves.
What is Poreotics?
Poreotics Crew: Poreotics is a style that is mixed with popping, choreography, and robotics. There have been a lot of popping crews and a lot of animation, robotic, and choreography crews, so we decided to mash it all up to see what we could come up with. This is our style.
Do you guys have a leader of the group, or someone who comes up with the choreography?
Poreotics Crew: We all put input, but it's mostly Dumbo that starts with a skeleton and then everybody else suggests ideas and we talk about it to see what we come up with. It's really a collective thing.
How do you guys come up with the humor for your performances?
Poreotics Crew: Usually it's on the spot when we're practicing, because we like to have fun when we dance, even though sometimes we take it too far. When we realize something is funny, we decide to put it into our routine.
On the next page: More from other crews on ABDC, including Saltare, Hype 5-0, Static Noyze, Bluprint Cru!
Saltare Crew: Not messing up. We're having a lot of fun playing with the theme of Lady Gaga, just how far she can go. We want to show people that, yes we did make a mistake, but we're not scared to do those big tricks. We understand the mistake and we're going to keep pushing forward. that was last week, this is this week. It's a whole new ball game.
Are you starting to feel like the jump-ropes are getting harder to use?
Saltare Crew: It's who we are. The jump-ropes are why we're on the show. It's not that it's getting any harder or easier to use them, it's just that we're having to find different ways to incorporate them, as well as incorporating choreography. That's the challenge.
Hype 5-0
What's the hip-hop scene in Hawaii like?
Hype 5-0: The hip-hop scene is crazy. It is nothing what people think it is. The community is small, because it's a small island, but there is so much hidden talent there.
How are you guys feeling so far in the competition?
Hype 5-0: We're feeling good. We finally really got to prove ourselves last week in our performance. It was tough in the beginning, because it was hard to get the judges to like us, but now we're feeling good and feel more confident.
What was going through your head when you heard about the Hawaii tsunami scare?
Hype 5-0: It's good that we're here right now and not in Hawaii, but I actually think I'd rather be home with everyone. In our rehearsal, we sat down for over an hour not doing anything, because we were just so worried.
Static Noyze
Enrique, you just had a serious back injury, how you feeling?
Static Noyze: The back is getting a lot better. It took a lot of pain killers, but it's better.
What can we expect from you guys in the next performances?
Static Noyze: We always listen to all the critiques, and we have a lot to show that we have not yet shown. Our versatility is definitely going to be shown in the weeks to come, if there are more weeks to perform.
Blueprint Cru
So “TL,” you're the one that cracks the whip on everyone, does that put a lot of pressure on you?
Blueprint Cru: Definitely. Yes, because Blueprint has been around for seven years. Our director created this group and an image, so we need to live up to that image. There's a lot of pressure and we always need to hit that edge each week.
Don't forget to tune in to find out which two crews will be voted off next episode, Thursday March 11 at
10 pm, on MTV.
