Chris Polk/WireImage.comGod help her. My cohort in crime Korbi Ghosh (of Quickie fame) has a reality-dance-show fetish that apparently can't be cured. (We've tried.) And while I do enjoy a good booty shake from time to time, I figured she's the best "expert" to hit the set of the latest boogie-down contest: America's Best Dance Crew. Read on for her love letter to the show and for scoop straight from the set...
Attention, obsessed So You Think You Can Dance fans! If you have not yet given MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew a shot at your undying love, you'd best reconsider. There’s a reason the show was picked up yesterday for a second season and why people like Hayden Panettiere, Miley Cyrus, The Hills’ Brody Jenner and Dancing with the Stars’ Karina Smirnoff flock to the audience week after week: It is sick.
“I was into my work and my music before,” rapper and judge Lil Mama told me when I swung by the set this week, “but these crews, they’ve truly inspired me.” Former SYTYCD choreographer Shane Sparks, who joined Dance Crew as a judge, explained its draw: “Honestly, hip-hop is something people here and around the world enjoy watching more [than other forms of dance]. Some people watch So You Think You Can Dance just for the hip-hop [performances], and then they‘re gone. But this show, there‘s so much of it, so everybody‘s really getting into it.”
And though it is an all-hip-hop show, each of the final four crews brings something very unique to the table. Says judge J.C. Chasez: “JabbaWockeeZ, they tend to use their sense of humor, and their personality comes across in their dancing. Kaba [Modern]’s got a lot of personality too, but they‘re also very clean and efficient and technically sound. Status Quo is just larger than life, big and acrobatic and superathletic. And BreakSk8, they possess a skill [dancing on skates] that none of the other groups would dare even try.”
For those of you who have seen the competition series and don’t need to be convinced of its merit, I have a little scoop: Tonight, the top four teams hit the stage together in an opening dance number for the very first time, and it will blow you away. To be honest, I actually got a little teary watching these kids kill it, collectively. So please tune in at 10 p.m. for that and their hot, young take on Broadway, this week‘s theme. You may be surprised by the crews that fall in the bottom two...
—By Korbi Ghosh