So, in the vein of American Ninja Warrior as seen in my previous post, I've also been keeping a close tab on America's Best Dance Crew (2nd season running watching this). First of all, a couple of thoughts: 1) It's way better than any of the so called "dance" shows out there. Primarily, it's all hip hop, which means that we aren't bored with old-styles of dancing that permeate a lot of these shows. Also, check a list of the theme weeks: Britney Spears-Flo Rida-Madonna-Drake-JLo-Pitbull-Rihanna-LMFAO-Katy Perry. Yeah, mind-numbing electropop dreck aside, isn't this the song list that Idol aspires to get? Won't it be hilarious to see a contestant cover "Club Can't Handle Me" or "Wide Awake" or "Get Right" by JLo? Contestants have handled the first before in these singing competitions, so don't think it's impossible.
Anyway, isn't it ironic that Randy is the "executive producer" of this show and they had a J-Lo week? Idol, take some hints, your crew's basically working for this show that has a way fresher songbook than yours. Psshhh...acoustic WGWG versions of LMFAO or Pitbull, or cast a Cher Lloyd type just for the hilarity. Also, let's go to Randy for some funny hypocrisy, as he took over MTV's twitter last night:
Youngest crew ever! So great to have them on! I just love love love them. So cool! Major Swag for some young girls #ABDC -@yo_randyjackson
Yeah...Randy, dude, your comments on twitter are as dry as your "judging" on Idol. And if you're into swag, tell Idol to cast some "swag" contestants. And if Katy Perry is hot, tell them to instill a Katy Perry week--it's way better than hearing "And I Am Telling You" for the eighth time. Just like how hilarious the autotuned JLo is like judging contestants who sing better than her, or judging WGWGs, Randy looks awful when he touts singers dancing to dance pop while critiquing actual singers. Dude, I think D-Trix, Lil Mama and JC Chasez, if nothing else, would bring younger judges to Idol. Younger=more current songs. Capish?
So...rant ended on the ABDC/Idol front. Let's get right to the winners...Elektrolytes. I actually liked this crew from day 1--as said in the title, they're what I call a "parkour dance crew". They can dance--but they seamlessly couple it with a ton of parkour moves. It's a very athletic crew, pretty diverse (a mixture of different races, but get this--no Asians!--they broke the streak of dance crews not having an Asian to win). They also have the backstory thing working--they're from Gilbert, AZ, a place with no hip hop in sight, they have two brothers in the crew (first time that ever happened to win), they overcame an injury, they got ditched on America's Got Talent (clearly, those hack judges love their comedic acts better), so there were definitely a slew of factors that helped them. But most of all, they combined attributes of the best crews--they sort of had the parkour backflips and daring of crews like 787 Crew from last year but also combined it with the staccatos, humor and general athleticism of past winners like Poreotix, and the framing of moments, geometric lines, robotics and clumping together aspects such as what I aM mE had. Most of all, they had a trademark--their Elektrolytes symbol as seen in the picture above. Branding is important for memorization among the masses. As D-Trix keeps saying on this show, the show's a marathon, so if you keep having the tricks, and keep displaying them week after week in new and creative ways, then you can win. Seamlessly meshing them with choreo makes it even better. It's sort of like how Idol should operate from a singing perspective, but ever since the WGWGness pervaded since Season 7, as well documented here
Look at all the past winners--JabaWockeeZ, who's local to my area and has danced with heavy hitters like Shaq, Super Cr3w, Quest Crew (which D-Trix was a part of), We Are Heroes (a girl group that has more swag than anything that was ever come out of Idol), and then Poreotix and I aM mE. I aM mE isn't a traditional athletic group, but they do have their prototypical stunts guy in Emilio. Still, all things considered, this is a very athletic group that relies on stunts, more or less. It's why Mos Wanted crew didn't win--they have a guy who went to a similar high school than I did, but largely they're trying to bring back traditional roots hip hop dance, although I see how they're trying to follow in I aM mE's footsteps by featuring their stunts guy in Ricky Cole.
Elektrolytes was largely the real stunts crew--sure, their opponent had a few backflip types, but they were more like young gymnastics dancers doing hip hop, rather than being true hip hop types. Elektrolytes had several stunt guys, a krumper, a flexible guy, a high jumper, a fast hand reflexes guy...list goes on. Every person had their specialty. But at the end, it was clearly their stunts guys they featured most...and that was Sal and Marcus. Let's go to the template:
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Marcus:
Features: Walk with his hands, Downrocks, Freezes, Babies, Power moves, Double legs, Backflips, Front Flips, Butterfly twists, Side flips, Head slides, Knee Rolls, Comedy, Acting
#1: Flo Rida Week (Front flip)
#2: Flo Rida Week (Head slide)
#1: Madonna Week (Side flip)
#2: Madonna Week (Freeze)
#3/4: Madonna Week (Comedy)
#1: Drake Week (Walk on hands)
#1: JLo Week (Double leg)
#1 Rihanna (Acting)
#1: LMFAO (Head slides)
#1: David Guetta (Downrock)
#2 David Guetta (Butterfly Twist)
#3 David Guetta (Side Flip off crew's shoulder)
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Sal:
Features: Backflips (off Robots/member of crew/objects/self), Butterfly Twists, Side Flips, Karate Kick Flips, Capoiera Kicks, Side Twists, Vertical Spin Twists, Flip Horizontally
#1: Flo Rida (Backflip off Robot)
#2: Flo Rida (Side flip)
#1: Madonna (Side twist)
#2 Madonna (Backflip)
#3 Madonna (Backflip off member of crew's stomach)
#1 Drake (Backflip off member of crew's hand)
#1 J-Lo (Karate Kick Flip)
#2 J-Lo (Backflip off object)
#3 J-Lo (Backflip)
#1 Pitbull (Capoiera Kicks)
#2 Pitbull (Backflip off robot)
#1 Rihanna (Vertical Spin twist)
#2 Rihanna (Backflip off robot)
#1 LMFAO (Flipped Horizontally)
#1 David Guetta (Butterfly Twist)
#2 David Guetta (Side Flip off Crew's Shoulder)
#3 David Guetta (Back Flip off Crew's Chest)
#4 David Guetta (Side Flip off Robot)
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Ben
Features: Splits, Flexibility, Spinning, Backflips, Side Twists, Crab Push Ups, Nunchucks, Acting, Comedy, Illusions
#1 Flo Rida (Splits)
#1 Madonna (Side Twists)
#2 Madonna (Acting)
#3 Madonna (Flexibility)
#1 Drake (Illusion)
#2 Drake (Illusion)
#1 J-Lo (Spinning)
#2 J-Lo (Splits)
#3 J-Lo (Backflip)
#4 J-Lo (Comedy)
#1 Rihanna (Acting)
#1 David Guetta (Nunchucks)
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George
Features: Butterfly Twist, Side Twist, Robot, Side Flip, Comedy
#1 Flo Rida (Butterfly Twist)
#1 Madonna (Side Twist)
#2 Madonna (Comedy)
#1 Drake (Robot)
#1 J-Lo (Side Flip)
#1 David Guetta (Butterfly Twist)
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Kyle
Features: Airwalking, Leaping, Backflips, Side Twist, Comedy
#1 Flo Rida (Airwalking)
#1 Madonna (Side Twist)
#2 Madonna (Comedy)
#1 Drake (Backflip)
#1 LMFAO (Leaping)
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Nico
Features: Capoiera Kicks, Nunchucks, Side Twists
#1 Madonna (Side Twists)
#1 Pitbull (Capoiera Kicks)
#1 David Guetta (Nunchucks)
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Joey
Features: Predator Fingers, Side Twists, Acting
#1 Madonna (Predator Fingers)
#2 Madonna (Side Twists)
#3 Madonna (Acting)
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Chris
Features: Krumping (so he says)
No pictures; he didn't really stand out individually, actually
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So, on an individual basis, Elektrolytes had their two feature players who got a ton of roles--Sal in particular with a ton of backflips and parkour type stuff, Marcus with his B-boying and general floorwork but also helping out with the twists. The group really has everyone who can do a side twist, so we know they're athletic, and when they go all out in twists they employ George, Sal and Marcus to do the work, with Kyle and Ben also showing backflip work as well. Ben stands out with the flexibility and Kyle with the airwalking and leaping, and both them and Marcus can act, so they also employ that. Nunchuck work at the end was done by Nico and Ben, and Nico was also useful for capoiera work. However, really, it seems like Nico, Joey and Chris didn't do much--the last two didn't get any feature roles at all. I guess with a 8-person crew, if six of them can handle it, that's pretty much all you need--last year's winner I aM mE thrived in choreography, staccatos, and robots rather than individuality--although Phillip Chbeeb was known for his flexibility (like Ben), and Emilio (like Sal) was known for the stuntwork, while the other guys filled in the blanks and the girls generally did choreo work, more or less. Sort of like a boyband--a five person group only needs three main singers and two to blend in the background?
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And then we can go to the Collective:
Features: Elektrolyte Symbol, Lining Up, Choreography, Play to the Crowd
#1 Flo Rida (Lining Up)
#1/2 Madonna (Choreography)
#1/2 Drake (Play to the Crowd)
#1 LMFAO (Elektrolyte Symbol)
#1 David Guetta (Elektrolyte Symbol)
#1 Katy Perry (Elektrolyte Symbol)
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Even collectively, the Elektrolytes played to the crowd, had choreography, did lines, did staccatoes, spread out, made robots, generated illusions (with Ben) on top of capitalizing on their top crew member's talents. And each of the top six members has their own unique quality, or add on to the crew in general. So this was a good crew for sure. An athletic crew--jumping, backflipping, side twisting, airwalking--that's stuff made for parkour. May I recommend ANW?
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