Streetdance and Parkour Dominates at Chosen Ground 8

The Philippine Streetdance community is continuously growing in quality and quantity. That’s why When in Manila , one must involve in such a community to experience Streetdance , self-expression and over-the-top energy. The best way to experience this is to attend Streetdance events much like UP Streetdance ‘s Chosen Ground 8: Dominate. Held in SM Marikina’s open parking last sept. 29, 2012 with the participation of 13 competing teams, Philippine Parkour Free Running Association, Hiphop International Phillippine teams and several commendable Streetdancers made it a Streetdance event to remember!

Chosen Ground 8: Dominate was a long Streetdance event. From 3pm all the way to 11pm was a list of battles, performances and demos from Streetdancers.

The 3pm show was a Streetdance battle, this is what you usually see in tv wherein there’s a group of Streetdancers showing off one by one what they’ve got. Usually it’s based on a certain “category” of Streetdance. In this case we have five: Locking, Bboying, Popping, Krumping and Hiphop. A dancer who competes under a certain category must maintain that style all throughout the battle.

They’re all given one minute to freestyle (or to dance that is NOT choreographed by anyone, it’s mainly based on how they “feel”) and will be judged accordingly. The judges were: Matt Padilla, Ian Villanueva and James Eric Wong.

These were the winners:

Locking: Mark Jim Callos Popping: Alexander dela Cruz

BBoy: Migs Kallos

Hip Hop: Vinz de Guzman

Krump: Phil Pamintuan

The final battle was between Locking and Hip Hop: Mark Jim Callos and Vinz de Guzman. The first of which was the one who dominated, Mark bagged 7,000 bucks!

Mark Callos Solo Battle Winner

After the Streetdance solo battle was a demo and crash course from Philippine Parkour Free Running Association.

Parkour is not a sport, but a discipline. It’s the ability to traverse from one obstacle to another.

This year’s Chosen Ground was a competition wherein the competing teams should have parkour in their routines. I personally believe that incorporating Parkour with Streetdance was such a unique and clever idea. Streetdance here in the Philippines is known for power choreography fused with stunts, so it’s just a great way to finally mix it all up in one routine with such intricacy and technique!

With that said, these were the teams that battled it out for the championship title:

1. X-Force Dance Crew

2. FMD Xtreme

3. Flickhoundz

4. Infini-G

5. Junior New System

6. Nocturnal Dance Company

7. Team Vibe

8. ACDT

9. Bacboyz

10. Vibelicious

11. P 3:6

12. IndaCKTors

13. M.Y. Crew

Based on the judging of Jason Imperio, Krista Roma, Jay “Masta” Cambay, Jungee Marcelo; out of the 13 crews that joined only Team vibe, Nocturnal Dance Company and Junior New System dominated and were awarded with 3rd 2nd and 1st place consecutively.

3rd Place: Team Vibe

2nd Place: Nocturnal Dance Company

1st Place: Junior New System

All the winning teams presented clean routine. They infused Parkour elements in their stunts but still managed to incorporate choreography resulting to unique Streetdance pieces. The technique, elements and blocking all jived together giving the judges and the audience routines to remember. Pinoys definitely know how to move!

In between the competition were performances from the organizers, UP Streetdance and other dance crews that represented our country in Hip Hop International competion.