This past Sunday, Break EFX's Cameron Hobbs was rehearsing his crew's routine when - SNAP - his knee bent awkwardly and caused him to hobble off the ABDC stage. Unsure of the seriousness of his injury, he had his knee wrapped tightly underneath a metal brace for the next two days.
All was going well until mere hours before the show's taping on Tuesday night. Cameron went down again during rehearsals, writhing in pain. "It feels like my knee socket is loose or something," he told us backstage. "I'll get an MRI tomorrow on it because I have no choice but to push forward."
Check out Cameron and his crew hit the stage tomorrow night at 10/9c to see if/how the injury affects their performance.
Tomorrow night (10/9c) we'll all find out which three West Coast crews get to advance to the ABDC Nationals! But before you tune in for the final regional showdown, why not see a little sample of the dancers who'll be tearing up the stage? G'head, check it out:
Tomorrow night marks the final round of ABDC's preliminary coastal face-offs -- and you can be sure the West is gonna go out with a bang! Here's a look at the crews' music selections:
THE BLENDED PROJEKT - Ginuwine "Get Involved"
POREOTICS - Kid Sister "Right Hand Hi"
HEAVY IMPACT - Jeremiah "Raindrops"
BREAK EFX - Clipse "All Eyes On Me"
THE HYPE 5-0 - Ester Dean "Drop It Low"
And for the final battle of the evening, the bottom three crews will be grooving to:
Just when you thought you'd seen everything the world of clogging had to offer ABDC (see: Dynamic Edition), The Blended Projekt come bursting through the hip-hop doors with a new take on an old style.
"Dynamic Edition were a more tradition take on clogging, and they're amazing at what they do, but we're more of a West Coast-style of clogging," the lone male in the crew Jeremy Stoddard told us yesterday. "We try and blend that traditional footwork with more hip-hop moves -- it becomes more of a groove with us, something the audience can really get into."
And although it would be hella-easy to make the obvious comparison between DE's Brandon Norris and Jeremy, he warns to not be so quick to judge. "I learned clogging but I didn't want to stop there ... I wanted to attempt to perfect my art, which is dance as a whole. Brandon is truly amazing at [clogging], but the past few years I've been additionally training in more breakin' and hip-hip moves so it comes out on the stage. I'm more versatile on stage because I can throw in the flips and I can do freezes," he added. "But I don't want to tell you what else I can do to keep some stuff a surprise for the stage!"
When asked what the hardest part about blending hip-hop and clogging is, he told us, "The biggest thing that could hold us back is our traction. Wearing taps is extremely slippery on stage. Normal clogging is on your toes and very centered ... but we do full body movements that throw off our balance, so with taps it's just super slippery."
After last week's ABDC, backstage correspondent Layla Kayleigh sat down with most of the members of Season Two's Fanny Pak (Tiffany and Phil were MIA). Still going strong after finishing in third place, the Dance Crew alum shared their thoughts on the future of the show and what dance moves they really don't want to see anymore. Check it out:
During Sunday's Super Bowl madness, a bunch of the newly arrived West Coast crews were sweating it up at ABDC rehearsals. But not Hype 5-0. They were gettin' their football on!
Fear not 'cause the Hawaiian dancers haven't been slacking. In fact, they had already put in more than five hours of rehearsal by the time kickoff was underway, which is why they took a break by a TV in the hotel restaurant to watch the game go down along with over a 100 million other fans. Needless to say, it was straight back to the hotel rehearsal room when the game ended.
The Saints have been celebrating since Sunday ... Which West Coast crews do you think will be doing the same come Thursday night?
While the boys from Legendary Seven were heartbroken after being eliminated in last night's East Coast regional final, one crew member was feeling the exact the opposite.
At taping, Javier Perez, Jr. confessed he had a schoolyard crush on Season Four champion Hiroka Mcrae, who just happened to be in the audience that evening -- and we caught the pair chatting in a corner backstage after the competition. Of course, we interrupted their flirting session to take the above pic. (We have no shame, people!)
The next day, Javier admitted to snaking Hiroka's digits. Homeboy is crushing hard, and lucky for him, the feeling seems to be mutual. Hiro told us she had an early flight to catch the next morning so she couldn't hang out ... but is hoping to run into him sooner than later.
In the meantime, Valentine's Day is coming up so maybe a certain somebody will send a certain someone some flowers from across the country. (Hint hint!)
Static Noyze had a roller coaster of a ride on last night's episode of ABDC but ultimately walked away ready to dance another day! Even Omarion's tough critique hasn't swayed their confidence -- if anything, it seems to have fueled their fire. Listen to the crew's plan of attack for the next time they hit the stage:
Last night's Static Noyze scurmuffle between judges Omarion and JC Chasez went a little something like this:
OMARION: It doesn't look like the feeling is there ... it's like you're trained to move your arms like this (motions his hands upward). I thought it was okay.
JC: With all due respect, I completely disagree with you.
OMARION: That's fine.
JC: You cared about doing the steps your way, and I would say, not imitating so many other styles. To Omarion: There's nothing wrong with being trained, by the way.
Maybe the best ABDC judge-to-judge disagreement we've witnessed in a long time! So whose side were you on? Take the poll!