‘America’s Best Dance Crew’ holds Season 2 L.A. auditions

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We have ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ but do either of them really address the kids that are out there actually dancing? A show that does, and has been flying a bit under the radar is MTV’s ‘Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew.’

Visiting the L.A. auditions for the show, a competition that has become one of the most popular audience-vote shows on TV (more than 38 million votes for the finale), you don’t get the sense that there’s much ... competing.

Rival crews hug, competitors teach each other dance steps, and all try to entertain with styles as varied as dance itself. Hip-hop, modern, jazz all fuse together as dancers adapt to music and make the music adapt to them.

The holding room at the audition site meshed dance crews that may have known each other, or may have known of each other, or may have been total strangers to each other. A group from Seattle laughed with a group from Hollywood. A crew of female dancers in leotards watched a b-boy breakdance, then emulated it. Though they are all here to advance and eventually win the battles, they will tell you that they are there for the love of dancing. And, on the surface, it sure seems that way.

This being an audition, there were bound to be winners and losers. Vintage, a group of male dancers from the ‘old school,’ ranged in age from 28 to 37 -- even the youngest was years older than most other crews. Entice traveled all the way down from Seattle for its chance to move on to the televised competition. Super Crew was a troupe of hip-hoppers created from some of the most talented battle crews around. And many others, all of whom competed, but not all of whom moved on. You guess which. Here’s Super Crew and Vintage to help you out:

Sample Plate, a crew mixing hip-hop, reggae, krumping, modern, etc. came out from the IE. Their schtick? One is named Hot Sauce (providing the spice), one is Gumbo (mixing it all together), one is Peach Cobbler (because she’s so sweet) ... you get the picture. It’s not just dancing that catapults a team. It’s also personality, originality and backstory, according to the group and the show’s creators, Howard and Karen Schwartz.

Last year’s winners, JabbaWockeeZ, brought a theatrical hip-hop style to each of the ‘dance tasks’ they were assigned (movie challenge, Broadway musical, etc.) using masks and creative choreography. This year’s winner, and the show itself, will have a lot to live up to in the second season as more eyes turn toward it.

But it’s not a competition.

-- Jevon Phillips