Radikal Forze To Represent Singapore in Bangkok

Since then, the event has grown from having just 9 crews and 400 visitors in 1990, to being a worldwide breakdancing competition that includes countries from all corners of the globe, which will culminate in a final showdown at the Volkswagenhalle Arena in Braunschweig, Germany on Oct 18.

“When we founded the event, breakdancing was almost dead. Our vision was to build up a forum for b-boys all over the world to exchange knowledge. The competition builds emphasis on choreography to give kids a perspective on the future of breakdancing as a career,” Hergenröther said in his address to the audience.

Making A Break For It

Even before the competition proper began, circles of contestants were forming as they began battling each other in mini-danceoffs while waiting for the competition to begin. Others were practising at just about any open space wide enough for some action.

Finally, with DJ DSK at the console, BOTY took off with a bang with the explosive showcases of the 3 guest judges: B-boys Gino from Taiwan, Surprize from Denmark and Bruce Lee from South Korea. The trio showed the crowd why they deserved to be judges with a whole series of toprocking, power moves and freezes which simply blew everyone away.

Each of the 5 crews vying for top spot started off the competition with a breakdancing routine showcase. They had to put up performances involving the whole crew and were judged based on their choreography, stage presence, synchronicity, music choice and theme selection.

Motley groups took to the stage in a whole wardrobe of outfits ranging from army fatigues to school uniforms to colour-coordinated streetwear. But one thing remained constant throughout all the showcase performances – each crew gave its performance its all.

Synchronising headspins, air-freezes, windmills, six-steps and almost every breakdance move in the book, the crews went all out to impress the judges, integrating power moves with some of the basic elements of hip-hop dancing, like popping and locking, to sync with the mish-mash of sound effects, beats and music woven into their mixed tracks, which lasted a maximum of 6 minutes each.

Based on the scoring of the judges, 4 crews went on to the semi-finals, fighting it out in 2 battles onstage in a raw style of competitive breakdance.

In a breakdance battle, 2 crews face-off and take turns to send representatives to participate in a danceoff in the space between them. The 2 crews compete to by showing off their best dance tricks, ability to improvise and serve cheeky digs at each other in their dance moves. Though this practice has its roots from the streets in informal and rowdy competitions between hip-hop dancers, it took to the stage in a more controlled manner in a move to preserve the authenticity of the competition.

The crowd went wild with every insult hurled at the opposing team through dance as each B-boy showed off his individual breaking ability in a true test of individual creativity and dance vocabulary. It was a galore of complicated freezes, back-breaking suicide moves and high-energy power moves made to an unpredictable lineup of music tracks woven together by DJ DSK.

Radikal Forze Wins!

After a highly entertaining final battle between the winners of each semi-final battle, the incumbent champions of BOTY 2007, Radikal Forze, retained their title by beating their opponents, the Break Force Crew .

Parlimentary Secretary of National Development, Dr. Maliki Osman was duly impressed by the performances, just like anyone who’d watched his fellow Members of Parliment dance hip-hop would have been.

“I think I just realized how talented Singaporeans are,” the event’s Guest-of-Honour said to the rousing cheers of the crowd.

Radikal Forze will be representing Singapore on Jul 5 at BOTY Asia to be held in Bangkok, Thailand.