I have never been to a dance battle.
I have watched them on television. I have
seen them in movies. I am a dancer and in our small inexperienced ways, my
friends and I have had dance battles. I have played imaginary dance battles
across my closed eyes at night, trying to feel what it must feel like to be in the space.
Never before, however, have I actually been
in the cypha[1],
cheering, watching and appreciating the dancers in front of us.
On the 26th of May 2012 I went
to my first dance battle. And like the first ballet that I ever watched, the
catalyst for me to study dance, I will remember it always – the emotions, the
colours, the sounds, the dancers names, the feeling of being their physically
and emotionally.
I have studied dance, I have theorised
dance, and I have written a thesis on break dancing, the body and the use of
the body to identify oneself as an entity. No words however, can really do
justice to what the body does when confronted with music.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), the winners
of last year’s battle, took to the stage to defend their title. Added to the
mix, Vintage (semi-finalists on eTV’s Step
Up or Step Out), Phly Nation (the only All-bgirl/freestyle crew and the
only representation from Pretoria), Ninja Turtles (old skool bboy’s from Cape
Town), two Patsula crews representing old skool Mzanzi, iSbujwa and many other
freesyle, krumping, pop ‘n locking and hip hop. There were eight crews in total,
battling for one prize – the top crew, and a spot in the Red Bull Beat Battle
finals in Brazil.
Not at any moment throughout the night was
the audience disappointed, or bored, or uninvolved with the
event. Crews brought their A-game, with Vintage knocking AI out of the running
for this year’s title. Reptilz, fairly consistent in their performances, blew
the roof off in the final. Or it could have been the fairly disappointing performance of Vintage. Strong throughout the
battle, Vintage gave it their all in their battle against AI, yet their final piece
could not hold against Reptilz. In the end it was “Reptilz!” that was being
chanted by the crowd.
MC for the night, AKA, kept the crowd
entertained during and between rounds, and the various DJs and performers,
including Pro, had us dance, dance, dancing to their sounds. After
the show, who takes over the stage but TKZEE, keeping us jamming until long
into the early morning.
The next step? Brazil!
I could not have asked for a better first
dance battle experience as I got that night.
[1] The Hip
Hop/street/dance work for a circle of people who form around either a dance
battle or a beat/rap battle.
PS - pictures to follow shortly, thanks for all the interest and demand to see the pics - camera malfunction soon to be remedied.
Attention all lovers of dance: this is a link to watch a video of the night - take a gander, it gives you a good idea of the vibe of the night, and then talent of the dancers:
http://mg.co.za/multimedia/2012-05-31-centre-stage-urban-beats
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