W!cked dance crew continues to make history as the group, Suffolk’s first and only hip-hop dance team, hosted their first dance competition last Thursday. The competition featured several acts from the group as well as a performance from SUDC, the Suffolk University Dance Company. Outside of Suffolk, Boston schools Bridgewater State, Wheelock, Brandeis, and MIT competed for the $200 dollar prize. Scattered throughout the competing acts were exhibition performances by local hip-hop dance groups Beat ConnXtionz, Pro Nails, and solo act Darnell “Snoopy” Brown.
Taking first place was the Mocha Moves of MIT, followed by the Kaos Kids of Brandeis in second, and Suffolk’s own SUDC in third. The winning group was determined by three judges, all of whom are prominent figures in the hip-hop dance scene of greater Boston. Courtney Halas, who founded W!cked in 2008, was among them.
Although the theme for the competition was, “Throwback Thursday,” each group embraced both old-school and modern hip hop in their acts. W!cked opened the show sporting Nickelodeon’s “All That” t-shirts and stereotypical ‘90’s style attire while grooving to classic hip-hop tunes. The Mocha Moves from MIT embraced back to back Missy Elliot tracks during their set while the Xclusive girls of Wheelock donned neon as they grooved to Whitney Houston and Beyoncé tracks. Wheelock freshman Caitlin Kelleher shared her experience at the competition stating, “Suffolk’s hip hop team did a great job planning the competition and recruiting teams to compete. My team would definitely attend the competition again”
Along with captivating the audience with their outrageous performances and classic music, the hosts of the competition played their role in keeping the audience wildly entertained. Hosts Elton and Cheetah embraced a similar classic hip-hop style to the performers and their comical banter kept the audience engaged between acts. They also kept the audience involved by mimicking events from the Academy Awards that took place several days before the competition. They “ordered pizza” which was really a pizza box full of candy for the younger viewers in the audience, and even took a “selfie” with a group of audience members, challenging the remainder of the audience to get the picture more retweets than Ellen DeGeneres’ famous Oscar “selife”. They went on to invite audience members up on stage to challenge each other to a dance off while the judges deliberated the winner.
The show was both engaging for the audience and a great way to showcase the hard work that W!cked has put in this year. Group member Nikki Perry commented on the group’s work saying,” We’ve worked extremely hard this year and it’s is so satisfying for all of to be able to show how hard we’ve worked. The show wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing e-board and team all together”. She went on to say,” We work so well together and that’s why we are able to put on a great show for our friends am family… Being a part of wicked has truly been an amazing experience and I can’t wait to create more memories with the team.”
