New Season of America’s Best Dance Crew Features Montreal Group

February 19th, 2010

abdc

For the first time in the history of “Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew,” a Canadian group has made it onto the show.

ABDC’s producers had sought out Montreal’s Blueprint Cru after hearing of the group’s performances at two of Hip Hop International’s World Championships. Last year, the seven-person crew was invited to audition in New York for Season 6 of ABDC. At the time, the group’s members thought it was a long-shot.

“We just went for the experience. We never thought that we’d be able to be part of the show,” Thien-Linh Truong, one of the group’s members told MuchMusic. “We thought we were gonna go and let them see what we can do and just go home and keep doing our thing. But then after that, they called us and said ‘we really want you on the show!’”

Thien-Linh says that she’s heard some disagreement about whether or not a Canadian crew should be featured on ABDC, but that their fellow dancers and the show’s producers have been very supportive.

”Everyone is really nice to us,” she said, “There’s not really any hate. Just on the blogs here and there, but everyone’s treating us really well and we’re just loving the experience.”

Two of the group’s members, Vincent Noiseux and Nicholas Begin have appeared on “So You Think You Can Dance Canada” which Vincent says prepared them for the stress of a competitive dance show like ABDC.

“We were part of a TV show, we kinda know how it goes,” said Vincent. “We know the intensity of the schedules and everything, because obviously ‘So You Think’ was really intense on our bodies. Rehearsal schedules were really intense.”

According to Vincent, the main difference between being on SYTYCD and ABDC is the fact that the crews have to come up with their own routines.

“On ‘So You Think,’ we learned them and we (had) to perform them, but (on ABDC) we also have to create them on a really short amount of time, and it makes it really enjoyable, because we can share this experience between the seven of us. It’s just an amazing feeling to be able to live that as a crew.”

With the exception of an east coast jump-rope crew, all of the groups this season, including Blueprint, specialize in Hip Hop, and Lorena Liebman says the competition is fierce.

“The competition in the U.S is definitely something we’ve never seen before,” she says. “We’ve never been up against so many crews that do this for a living. There are just so many crews here that have some serious, serious talent.”

But she adds that the judges’ comments have definitely helped them up their game.

“(R&B singer) Omarion told us that the guys were maybe too much in the back. They weren’t seen enough. So that was really, really helpful,” she says. “We know J.C (Chasez) doesn’t just like (us) walking into place, so we make sure that none of our formation changes are walking; everything is always dance. So yeah, everyone here gives us great advice.”

In the meantime, as the premiere for Season 6 of ABCD draws nearer, Lorena says they have been overwhelmed by the support they’ve received from fans on Blueprint’s myspace and facebook pages.

“It’s just so amazing that we’re getting all this great response,” she says. “We just want to tell all the dancers in Canada, all the Canadians and everyone not to stop. If you have any passion, not to stop believing and going for your goals, because we never thought this could happen.”

Tags: America's Best Dance Crew, Randy Jackson