My thoughts on Looze Control 2008
September 2nd 2008 10:39
There's always controversy regarding the results of a Hip Hop dance competition in Australia - the most recent being Looze Control, Grand Finals which were held last Saturday 30th August in Sydney. Being one of eight judges, a quarter of the Artistic judges, our critera comprised 60% of the total score, while the other four Technical judges were worth 40%.
The results were:
1st Place - Seapuuog (South East Asian Poppers United Under One Group)
2nd Place - Doppelgangers (A German word meaning "a ghostly counterpart of a living person")
3rd Place - Random Select
Now I've heard and seen so many ignorant comments related to this competition, and I felt like I had to get this off my chest to get over it and move on, and so I don't have to keep repeating and justifying my judging to other people.
Many people believed Doppelgangers should have won and Limited Edition should have scored a place. That's the main controversy, so let me break it down for those still reeling from the results.
The main things that separated DG and SPG were: technique and narrative.
Technique: This falls under both Artistic and Technical criteria. In the Artistic realm, it comes down to the "Old School/New School" section which favours a variety of styles as long as they are ALL done true to form and proper technique is shown. Many groups forget that in order to score for their variety of styles, they have to be able to do them properly at the very least, otherwise it doesn't count.
SEAPUUOG
One of the videos of SPG on Youtube had a comment stating that the person didn't realise Looze Control was a Popping competition and I've heard many similar things. Well they obviously don't realise Popping is a style on its own under the umbrella term of Hip Hop dance. They used other styles like the scarecrow, robot, animation, strobing, boogaloo, waving and snaking. Not only did they use a variety of styles, they did them really well, their technique was strong and consistent throughout all styles and within their group.
SPG also told a narrative that made their show extremely engaging. This narrative incorporated their routines seamlessly and transitions were smooth. It wasn't just, do a few moves then run into next formation, then some more moves then run to another formation. They were all in character throughout the whole time they were on stage, and the showcase evoked different emotions throughout, so it had a great use of dynamics.
They really played on the Wizard of Oz theme; the Scarecrow doing the Scarecrow style, Tin Man doing Robot and Animation, etc I thought that was very clever, although most people didn't get it.
DOPPELGANGERS
The opening of the show was a great way to start, and the ending was CRAZY! It would've been better if there were some sort of storyline to take the audience through and keep consistency of the theme. The narrative is like a thread that strings all the routines together - that would've made it a bit more engaging.
There were some routines that were marked down I suppose for the lack of technique. It comes down to being able to do styles properly.
Limited Edition
These guys had a great show too, but there were a couple of mistakes and times they were out of sync, which is hard to do with so many people. I think the biggest drawback was the lack of consistency in the show with the theme and routines - the costumes and the opening scene set a mood for that 1920-40s cabaret style atmosphere but some of the songs and styles didn't really fit that mood, like "dance too much booty in your pants" kinda threw me off. There were a lot of random bits, which made us feel like the show was kinda all over the place.
So that's all I'm gonna say about that, I was just one judge out of 8 and I hope that brought some insight to those who wanted it. People can say whatever they want to make themselves feel better but those are the types who will always lose out because they don't ask why, and learn from what happened, they just shut out reality and continue to make the same mistakes again.
Goodnight.
1st - SEAPUUOG
2nd - Doppelgangers
3rd - Random Select
Limited Edition
The results were:
1st Place - Seapuuog (South East Asian Poppers United Under One Group)
2nd Place - Doppelgangers (A German word meaning "a ghostly counterpart of a living person")
3rd Place - Random Select
Now I've heard and seen so many ignorant comments related to this competition, and I felt like I had to get this off my chest to get over it and move on, and so I don't have to keep repeating and justifying my judging to other people.
Many people believed Doppelgangers should have won and Limited Edition should have scored a place. That's the main controversy, so let me break it down for those still reeling from the results.
The main things that separated DG and SPG were: technique and narrative.
Technique: This falls under both Artistic and Technical criteria. In the Artistic realm, it comes down to the "Old School/New School" section which favours a variety of styles as long as they are ALL done true to form and proper technique is shown. Many groups forget that in order to score for their variety of styles, they have to be able to do them properly at the very least, otherwise it doesn't count.
SEAPUUOG
One of the videos of SPG on Youtube had a comment stating that the person didn't realise Looze Control was a Popping competition and I've heard many similar things. Well they obviously don't realise Popping is a style on its own under the umbrella term of Hip Hop dance. They used other styles like the scarecrow, robot, animation, strobing, boogaloo, waving and snaking. Not only did they use a variety of styles, they did them really well, their technique was strong and consistent throughout all styles and within their group.
SPG also told a narrative that made their show extremely engaging. This narrative incorporated their routines seamlessly and transitions were smooth. It wasn't just, do a few moves then run into next formation, then some more moves then run to another formation. They were all in character throughout the whole time they were on stage, and the showcase evoked different emotions throughout, so it had a great use of dynamics.
They really played on the Wizard of Oz theme; the Scarecrow doing the Scarecrow style, Tin Man doing Robot and Animation, etc I thought that was very clever, although most people didn't get it.
DOPPELGANGERS
The opening of the show was a great way to start, and the ending was CRAZY! It would've been better if there were some sort of storyline to take the audience through and keep consistency of the theme. The narrative is like a thread that strings all the routines together - that would've made it a bit more engaging.
There were some routines that were marked down I suppose for the lack of technique. It comes down to being able to do styles properly.
Limited Edition
These guys had a great show too, but there were a couple of mistakes and times they were out of sync, which is hard to do with so many people. I think the biggest drawback was the lack of consistency in the show with the theme and routines - the costumes and the opening scene set a mood for that 1920-40s cabaret style atmosphere but some of the songs and styles didn't really fit that mood, like "dance too much booty in your pants" kinda threw me off. There were a lot of random bits, which made us feel like the show was kinda all over the place.
So that's all I'm gonna say about that, I was just one judge out of 8 and I hope that brought some insight to those who wanted it. People can say whatever they want to make themselves feel better but those are the types who will always lose out because they don't ask why, and learn from what happened, they just shut out reality and continue to make the same mistakes again.
Goodnight.
1st - SEAPUUOG
2nd - Doppelgangers
3rd - Random Select
Limited Edition
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