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Show What U Got: It's More Than Just a Dance-Off

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It’s a Saturday evening late in January. The Southern Regional Technology and Recreation Complex is hopping with teenage dance groups, alive with energy and pulsing with some of the best hip-hop beats. To some, it might sound like the average dance, but to the extraordinarily-talented teens at the Show What U Got: Teen Style ’14 dance challenge, it was anything but!
The event was a battle of epic proportions for the top prize of $1000, with a runner-up prize of $500, and the crews certainly fought hard to win it all! And although dance crews from all over the Southern Region and of all different experience levels came out to contest the others for the prize, in the end, it wasn’t solely about the prize money—it was about the sense of community and family fostered by each and every group that hit the floor.
Among the crews were the girls in XPDC Xtra Productions, managed by 16-year-old Angelita. She says, “These kinds of competitions are a good way for us to bond and to stay together. The whole reason the group was created was to maintain sisterhood and to maintain a positive environment for girls to come and dance. It’s a support group. It’s a physical support group where we all work to stay fit together, and a mental support group where we can all be there for each other when things aren’t going so well.”
A panel of three of Prince George’s County’s finest dancers adjudicated the showdown. The judges evaluated the groups’ performances on four different categories: originality—which included creativity and song choice; synchronization, or uniformity of the group; energy—which asked the question, “How pumped was the audience during the performance?”; and stage presence, including elements down to the groups’ facial expressions and use of space.
The $1000 first prize went to EnKore, led by DeMarcko Price, who said, “I expect greatness from them all.” Everyone in the crew supports each other through daily physical training and encouraging each other to push their limits in order to succeed, from their youngest, 11-year-old member up to their oldest, 24-year-old Choreographer. They have been doing so for nearly five years, and the hope is that one day, members of this family of dancers may become professionals and masters of their craft.
A new crew, however, took the stage by storm to earn the $500 second place prize. Their name? Electrick Riot. This group of 15-through-21-year-olds formed in July of 2013, and in this, their debut large-scale performance, proved they are one of the most talented new groups out there. Their Manager and Costume Designer, who goes by the stage name Sketch, said, “Next, we’re just going to keep on going. We’ve got to keep on doing everything that we have to in order to be the best…Second place is good…and us being as young as we are, we know that we have a lot that we can accomplish in the future.”