This week, the remaining five crews gave their first performances for the judges. Unfortunately for them, they're competing for a slot in a hip-hop dancing competition to the music of Ke$ha. Not to slam Ke$ha (as I think she has a valid place in pop music right now), but you don't exactly breakdance to house-tinted pop music about getting drunk and partying. The group performance is not nearly as strong as last week's. Their song, "We R Who We R."
The crews will be performing in the following order: FootworKINGz (very clean footworking crew), 787 Crew (breakers from Puerto Rico), ICONic Boyz (the all boys class from season 1 finalist ICONic's dance academy), JAG6ED (hipster pole dancers), and Instant Noodles (very loose breakdancing).
Before I move on, can I just say I don't understand MTV's website. Last night, they had the full videos available to e-mail, embed, or share on social networking of every performance. Once voting closed, they pulled the page entirely and the videos are nowhere to be found. I don't want to embed off of YouTube because Viacom takes that stuff done within hours, but having the video there would make discussion a lot easier. It's frustrating, is all.
FootworKINGz performing to "Tik Tok"
Hit or Miss: Hit Why? FootworKINGz are not the first crew based on doing fast footwork on the show. They are, however, the largest and cleanest of the more house-oriented crews. Their formation changes were strong and they did something different with the cliched "everyone drops" ending. If you'd like to see a crew where the girl member hits as hard as the boy members, this is it. Very good first impression.
787 Crew performing to "Blow"
Hit or Miss: Hit Why? 787 Crew have a certain rigidity to their movements that is fascinating. They're doing some interesting twists on classic breaking moves, but with such precision that it almost feels like they're locking every step. If they're not careful, it can easily come across as cold and mechanical. This performance shows a lot of potential to do well on this show.
ICONic Boyz performing to "Your Love Is My Drug"
Hit or Miss: Miss Why? I understand that they're young children. There is a cuteness factor that is going to push them much further in this contest than they deserve to go. The problem is they are all technique, no style. They're the equivalent of the teenage pageant singers on American Idol: technically, they did nothing wrong. They just didn't actually do anything right, new, or interesting, either. And then there are the two taller boys who think they're the single greatest thing to ever walk the face of the Earth. Obnoxious. Points deducted from MTV for pushing a kid that young as a sex symbol, even as a joke, with The Situation gag. Not cool.
JAG6ED performing to "Sleazy"
Hit or Miss: Miss Why? To be blunt, they're not very good. MTV has a bad habit of pushing gimmicky dance crews through for interest that have no chance of winning. We've had roller skaters, cloggers, ballet dancers, and even jump ropers. Those weren't bad crews, though. Just not right for the contest. A pole dancing crew performing to a song called "Sleazy" is a gimmick. They didn't do anything worthwhile on the floor and their pole-work wasn't that much more advanced than what you could learn at a fitness class. There's no musicality, no excitement, and really no dancing.
Instant Noodles performing to "Dirty Picture" feat. Taio Cruz
Hit or Miss: Miss Why? Instant Noodles isn't a bad crew. They showed a good bit of potential here. It's just, like IaMmE last week, they played it way too safe. There's something to be said about their very loose and flexible breakdancing. It just wasn't used to do anything spectacular this week. My issue might even be we've had so many "funny" popping/breaking crews that the mugging really turned me off to them.
The judges mercifully cut JAG6ED before they make even bigger fools of themselves. That means they broke their streak of cutting the Puerto Rican crew every chance they could in the first week.
Next week is Black Eyed Peas week. Please let them stick to early songs, including work before Fergie was a member. I want a crew to kill it to "Request Line" feat. Macy Grey.