Danz Arena Y2K8: Reviews

Danz Arena Y2K8

One of the most awaited Indian Dance Competitions held in Singapore Polytechnic every year. Seating capacity of over 1100 pax. And this year, they (GK Productions) are SO proud to present 18 groups all in 1 night. For some reason, we wern't as excited as the organizers on this one. We remember clearly last year, there were 15 groups in total. And we couldn't wait for it to end, not considering the fact that we were dead beat just screaming and cheering for the first few teams to perform. Tell me again, what were they thinking when they allowed 18 groups to participate? Or were they trying to follow the standard 'tamil padam' timings?

The show was due to start at 6pm and end at 11pm. Or so it was printed on the tickets. From my experiance and knowledge of being with fellow Indians, here is just SOMETHING with Indians and punctuality. They don't seem to gel together somehow. After the gates were opened at 6.30 the show only commenced at the 7.30 mark. Hmmm. Why were we not surprised?

But on a lighter note, the hosts that they got to emcee this years show was much better then last years selection. Vishnu (V1) is hilarious on his own, and we have always found Bharathi to be a very complimenting co host. Both their presence of mind during hosting definielty made watching 18 (+2 guest performers) groups a little better then we had expected. Even though, we have to say, quite a few of Vishnu's jokes were R21-ish! Haha. All in good fun we suppose.

Now, lets get on to the interesting part, the dances (AH DUH). Just a prenote, we wont be reviewing EVERY single group that made an appearance. Just the top 5 and a few others who deserve to be named for their efforts.

1. Agni Reloaded

From repeated bulletin alerts by Agni Reloaded, everyone would have learnt by now that they have topped as champions for Danz Arena Y2K8. Haha, jokeu boys, jokeu. Our hearfelt congratulations to them. They have done it again, but that dosent quite mean we had a blast watching them. What we are trying to say is, they have done a concept widely chosen as a safe option for Danz Arena.

Fusion.

Ever since AcidHouz revived fusion in Dhool06, it has been a famous way of dance for many groups. This includes our dear Agni Reloaded as well. We aren't saying that thats a bad thing, after all, they are good at what they do. But after watching AR's Navras performance a couple gazillion times at various competitions, we got 'jelak' of it. Too much of a good thing is bad, right? Right. So when we saw what they had for us, it was kind of a let down. We didn't find anything outstanding in it, simply because, it just reminds us of their previous routine. Its almost like its being overused / reused. But one thing that did catch our attention though, their costumes, make up and props. Those, unlike their dance, had the WOW factor in them. The heads of our AR dancers were shining gold sparkles on stage. Uber cool. And their energy on stage, what can we say? Its still up to par. A shout out to AR since we love them so much: Re Invent boys! Reinvent!

2. Killabeez

Enna beez? This group of boys have always awed audiences with every single performace of theirs. And this years Danz Arena Y2K8 performance was no difference! At first, when the dance began, we were surprised with their dance. It was so not them! And we all agree to the ingenious fact that, no one would have ever thought of dancing to such a song. But yet again, Killabeez have outdone themselves. Their chosen concept for the evening was Rain Warriors. We swear we didnt know what that was until we came back home and googled it up. Again, kudos to them for thinking out of the box yet again!

Their soft, fluid movements gave that extra 'lau' feeling to the dance. Haha. We also spotted a variety of new, innovative steps, making it all the more appealing to keep our eyes glued on them. As always, coordniation was pitch perfect. Sometimes I wonder if these boys are humans or clockwork robots...

3. RSR



A never heard of before, all girls troupe managed to clinch the 3rd prize for Danz Arena this year! Their choreography complimented the song (sei ethavuthu sei) very nicely. I think one if this groups biggest highlights were their props. Aluminium ladders drapped in cloth, swords and samsui hats. Interesting choice of props. For some reason the girls looked like a Japanese version of power rangers in their outfits with swords!

I think it's safe to say that RSR was a tough competitor for the other girl groups who participated that day. But then again, we would like to highlight the fact that even though the choreography was very well done, the girls expressions could not match up to standards. We are guessing that they girls were concentrating a little too much on their steps (which did seem quite tough at certain points) until their expressions jammed. You think?

One last thing. During RSR's performance, we noticed that one of their dancershad a leg injury and it was evident that she was bleeding or something to that effect. Even with that, she decided to go on with the dance and give it her all. Who ever she is, hats off to you. Must have hurt, but we are glad it paid off. =)

4. Mera Naam Jokers


Honestly, knowing that they were the 2nd last group to perform for that night really dampened our spirits. We heard that the former Nickeash Production group have revamped their identitly and were now named after an old hindustani flick! Their outlook and concept is from that movie (or so we are making a guess). We've also heard from 'insiders' that their performance for Dhool '08 was really refreshing and entertaining. It seems that these jokers dance to make us laugh! Well, after listening to all the hoo-haa about Mera Naam Joker, we were waiting in anticipation to watch their performance.

But lo and behold, we were extremely dissapointed by this years performance! Jokers! What happened?!

Nickeash Productions has always made and effort to be slightly different from the rest of the dance groups around. How? Well, if you have noticed closely in their dances, they always try to infuse something new into their routines. For example, Sangamam 07 Finals, they added in a little bit of malay/ balinese dance to their choreography. Its like, they always have something new to entertain us with. I mean, we appreciate the new notion of becoming comedians in dance, but there was no, what do we call it... ooomph? Yea, there was no OOMPH to the dance. And sad to say, their formations were a mess! Were they clowning around with that as well???

5. Ragazza
A fairly new all-girl group with about 2-3 performances on their hands so far, we think. We remember watching them during Chandralekha night last year. After watching their previous performance, we felt quite neutral about this group. No big excitment or anticipation. Thats, until we viewed thier dance for that night. We were seriously not expecting alot from them, but they have proved us wrong! We think that the thing we have to really mention here is their concept. One of their dancer on stage might have said that it was Jazz Infusion, but along with that we saw a little resemblance to Broadway performances as well. This, just like the rain warriors, was something totally niche. By the time they were up (11th to perform) we had already seen 6 - 7 fusion performances. So watching them was definetly refreshing. And reviving.

And also, some of us didnt even know that the 2 'guys' were actually girls until someone pointed it out to us! Yes, we were sitting that far back! Haha. But great job girls. Right there, we had a gut feeling that they might have made it into top 5. And that was exactly what they did. Well done girls.

Special Shout Outs

Our special shout outs to these groups for we think that they should have landed in better positions. They have put in commendable effort and we think it's only fair if we name them.

Synchronix


We were super dissapointed that Synchronix did not make it to top 5! No words can describe our dissapointment on this. So what on earth went wrong?! We honestly and truly think that this group deserves to be in the top 5. Yes, we are aware that they did fusion, but somehow, there was an X factor to it. They made a connection to the audience (partially because of their selected song) and we think that is what matters. Their formations and coordinations were flawless. Their expressions and energy was unquestionable. Everthing blended in with the song so well. We took a double look at each other in disbelief when we heard their name being called out for the last consolation. If we the audience felt that way, then we can only imagine how Synchronix felt. Our hearts go out to them. Seriously, sad.

Devarnaz


A special shout out to this group as well. Initially, when their dance began, no one quite understood what the girl running loose on stage was doing. It was a few seconds of bizzareness on stage. The girl did not give a convincing act at all. But then the dance soon entered and all hell that broke loose was saved! The dance consisted of beautifully made up choreography and formations by their well known leader, Viky. The best part to this group was that the girl counterparts were dacing up to par with the boys! And we personally think that this group dominate in expressions. Another thing that impressed us was that the choreography was in line with the concept and the lyrics of the song. And their energy level, simply mindblowing.

It was another huge blow that they received the 10th prize. We seriously think that Devarnaz should have at least gotten top 5. They COULD have lost quite a bit of points on their opening act, but we felt that the dance made up (and even more) for it. Our hearts go out to them as well. All the best for your future, we have our eyes on you!

Now, here is Dance2This's ranking:

1. Killabeez
2. Agni Reloaded
3. Ragazza
4. Synchronix
5. Devarnaz

MEGA HIGHLIGHT:

We have come to learn that 1 of the 4 judges for Danz Arena had actually choreographed the dance of 1 of the 18 groups that took part that night. Now, how did the oraganizers let that person become a judge, we wonder? Do we smell politics in the air? We think that having such a situation is highly biased against the other 17 groups, irrelevant to whether they made the top 5 or not.

At this point, we would like to state that: Likes, Dislikes, Favouritisms, Biasness aside, be it your friends, boy/girl friend, juniors or seniors dancing. When it comes to competition, open yourself up to true talents. Appreciate real talents rather than supporting your own. In this kind of competitions ones passion, talent, hard work should be judged NOT by how much they are likeable or famous among fellow peers. We hope this message reaches out well to everyone on a good note.

With that, we close our very first review ever made in this blog. We certainly hope people reading out there took what they read with a pinch of salt.

Take care everyone, God Bless. =)