Congratulations SUPER CR3W!!!! On Thursday August 21, Super Cr3w took the gold at the season finale of the second season of America’s Best Dance Crew. Yet again, the west coast won the whole thing. I guess California (many of Super Cr3w’s members are from southern CA) is a breeding ground for amazing crews. What really made Super Cr3w stand apart from everyone else was their unique bboy style and mind blowing stunts. They gave America a huge peek into the break dancing world and developed their choreography skills into a force to be reckoned with. Out of all the crews, Super Cr3w showed the most diversity and definitely deserved the champion title.

Before we get into the dancing, let’s take a brief look at what they wore on this season of ABDC. Although they dressed up as different characters each week, Super Cr3w still managed to infuse their personal style in their clothes. For the “Rock the Title Challenge,” they took the idea of Superman (quite fitting for Super Cr3w) and used the theme to bring “We Fly High” to  a whole new level.  For the most part, Super Cr3w was like many other hip hop crews and wore great sneakers. Although they definitely wore some great dunks (particularly the ones they wore on episode 2 that were multi-colored in the front), my favorite ensemble of theirs was the ninja outfits they wore on the first episode. There is no better way to grab the attention of America than by wearing gray and red ninja attire. For many of their performances, they almost always had on some sort of hat, whether it was a baseball cap or a beanie. In general, their clothes tended to have more of an athletic feel to them, including the green Mexico Adidas track jackets they wore on the Championship Showdown. (Quick note on their wardrobe, during one of the packages on the Championship Showdown, one of the members was wearing the White Reflection T-Shirt. Look for a Kallusive exclusive on Jetcomx soon!)

One of their hottest performances was the Missy Elliot challenge. Their performance started off with a standing tower that one of the guys flipped through and ended with them dangling one of their members off the stage. To get down from the tower, a member actually had to jump down off the shoulders of two guys, which JC pointed out was one and a half stories. Wow. Missy even said, “Ya’ll make my video look wack.” These boys constantly took risks and performed a number of gravity defying and athletic stunts that I can only begin to describe here. Just watch the videos below, my writing won’t do their tricks justice.

Super Cr3w came onto ABDC to represent the break dancing community. Although bboying is recognized overseas, especially in Asia, many people in the United States are unfamiliar with the culture. Since people don’t realize that the stunts and toprocking are just another type of dancing, they don’t appreciate bboying as an art form. However, throughout this competition, Super Cr3w dominated week after week and proved to America that Bboys are dancers too. Hopefully Super Cr3w will go on the ABDC tour, and those of us lucky enough will be able to see them live.

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WHY DOES AMERICA’S BEST DANCE CREWKEEP DOING THIS TO ME!?!? For the second season in a row, ABDC has eliminated my favorite crew on the second to last episode. They are so close and I am so excited for them, then BAMM! They are in the bottom two. I love Fanny Pak. Their creativity is out of this world. Who else can embody toy soldiers, cannibals, and sexual P.E. nerds so well? In their final performance on the show, they impersonated the judges and did an amazing remake of flash dance.

Now that I got out that little rant, let’s talk about the clothes. The first thing that stood out to me, were the Afrika Printed Cotton Spandex Jersey High-Waisted Leggings from American Apparel that Glenda from Fanny Pak wore in their first dance. I actually have those leggings in my shopping bag on the online store. Even though the leggings only have a basic black and white color scheme, they have an ethnic look that gives that little extra oomph. Plus, they are high-waisted, which can be more flattering than typical low-waisted leggings because they hold in any extra bulge and make your legs look longer. Score.

With Fanny Pak gone, I guess I’ll have to vote for SoReal Cru who happened to feature my second favorite item of clothing after those leggings. One of the guys wore this white puffy jacket with neon and black designs all over it. It reminds me of the Insight Breakdance Cami from KarmaLoop that is pictured here. The random neon block words intermingled with the white ones give this cami a retro edge. The print has an 80s feel but it is modern to easily fit in with style today. If you want to get this top from KarmaLoop.com don’t forget to use the code AI23807 to get 20% off of your order! To conclude this mini tribute to Fanny Pak (even though Boni is happy they are gone), I encourage all of you to check out some of the Fanny Pak performances below.

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Despite having an out of sync performance last week when Joey lost his hearing aid, ASIID still remained on topin the audience’s hearts. The crew really stepped up to the speed up challenge. They killed both the slow and fast sections, and told a story through their dancing. ASIID set themselves apart from the other crews when they incorporated ballet in their hip hop routine. It was definitely refreshing to see a fusion of classical with modern dancing. I also have to commend them for how hard they always dance and how well they work together especially in light of Joey’s disability. During the background segment of the show, Joey mentioned he was having difficulty with the fast section because he couldn’t hear the music as well, but I didn’t notice any problems in his dancing. Even though I can’t stand Lil Mama, I have to admit that she was right in saying that Joey goes harder than anyone else in the crew.

Okay onto the fashion! Maybe it was the Rasta color theme, but ASIID had my favorite outfits out of all the crews. The knee-high, red, lace-up, high tops were amazing. I would buy those in a heartbeat, so please let me know if you know where to get shoes similar. On top of that, the ballet dancer had GOLD ballet shoes…enough said. The girls’ petticoat like skirts brought me back to my childhood when I used to play dress-up with dresses like that. Now the boys…their shirts were simply red with a gold design on the front that added some flash to their ensembles. The gold really made the shirts pop and stand out. The fedora hats looked great on the guys, but then again I am bias toward fedoras right now. Regardless, ASIID looked fly and I can’t wait to see the dance they put together for next week’s challenge.

Here’s the segment of this week’s ABDC on ASIID. Skip to 0:53 if you only want to see their performance.

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The hardest part of this week’s America’s Best Dance Crew speed-up challenge was figuring out a creativetransition to blend together the two sections. By far the most creative transition was Fanny Pak’s. They performed to Mariah Carey’s Touch My Body where they went back to a 1980s prom. It starts off with everyone dancing in pairs except for the blonde girl who acted like a rocker anti-prom chick. In order to get the party started, she poisons the punch and suddenly the prom gets a little crazy. Who would have ever thought that an idea as ridiculous as drinking spiked punch would actually make a great transition? My favorite part was when the white boys started shaking their booty. It was unexpected and entertaining.

Also, I have to highlight the prom dresses the girls wore. The pink and purple ruffles were the epitome of what you go scrimmaging for at thrift stores when you need a Halloween costume or outfit for a “Tacky Prom.” But you know what? The dresses actually worked. I loved how they threw in the all pink high tops. I would love to get my hands on a pair of those. People have not been giving Fanny Pak enough credit for their depth and ability of this group. Fanny Pak makes things work that would be corny in any other context.

If you haven’t seen Fanny Pak’s 80s prom performance, you need to watch it below. Otherwise, just watch it again. To watch their performance, skip to to 0:50.

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I have six words for you: America’s Best Dance Crew is back. The live auditions of season 2 premiered on Saturday June 6, and let me say, the West Coast DOMINATED. So in celebration of the return of this amazing show, I put together a breakdown on the styles seen on the auditions. Check out the gallery to see styles featured on the show that you can buy.

Let’s start with the girls. Pretty much all the girls EXCEPT the ones form the west coast wore knee-high tube socks and booty shorts (Distorted X is pictured above). Personally, I prefer when the girls wear something other than the typical booty shorts. Maybe this is only because I am a girl, but it just seems like you can really appreciate the girl crews when it’s just about their dancing, not their dancing AND sex appeal. Tube socks can be cute though, so if you want a pair, Skatersocks has a huge selection. My favorite pairs are the ones with Rasta stripes.

American Apparel was also extremely popular. Distorted X wore the deep V-necks, and Fanny Pack decided to look like an explosion of American Apparel ads. Fanny Pack was a medley of bright leggings, a one-piece, v-necks, and plenty of other pieces you can find at American Apparel.

Surprisingly, two of the groups wore track jackets for their auditions, Soreal Cru and Boogie Bots. You can find track jackets at stores such as H&M, Adidas, Puma, and even American Apparel. Adidas has a sportier look than the track jackets worn on the show, but they still look good.

Finally, I loved the flannel that Team Millenia wore. Even though they didn’t end up making the cut to be on the show, they still looked fly. (Being from Orange County also added some bonus points in my book.) Flannel was popular during the grunge era, but that doesn’t mean it has to look like you just rolled out of bed when you wear it. Team Millenia had shirts in bright colors so it looked fun, not grungey. You can find flannel shirts at many urban, street inspired stores such as Urban Outfitters.

There is a lot in store on ABDC from the jaw-dropping dancing and the amazing street fashion. I can’t wait to see how all the groups end up doing. It’s too early for me to have a favorite yet, but I’m going to leave you with a video of one of the groups I thought was pretty good: SoReal Cru.

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