BYU students got their groove on at Wednesday night’s BYU’s Best Dance Crew competition.
PB&J, Knu Fellaz, Royal Shades, The Syncopated Sisters, Seven + 1 and the country dance club performed for a crowd of energetic students.
The crews were from the break dance, hip hop, country dance and ballroom dance clubs.
Adam Heimbigner, third place winner and judge’s pick of BYU’s Got Talent, hosted the event. Judges included members of the Cougarettes, as well as ballroom and folk dance teams.
Each crew competed and got the judges’ feedback. After all of the performances and judges’ comments, each crew came out to remind the crowd of their style with a short dance.
The Student Activities Board, who sponsored the event, measured the crowd’s reaction to each crew.
After the top three crews were chosen, the judges deliberated and hip hop crew Royal Shades came out on top.
The judges said Royal Shades had their favorite choreography, kept their face and character throughout the performance and hit their formations on cue.
The groups put in time every week to prepare.
Deanna Crespo, 19, a member of Royal Shades, said the team practiced for two hours a week for the last four weeks.
Winning the competition felt like the culmination to all of their hard work, said Michael Eddington, 19, another member of Royal Shades.
The seven members of the group brought a variety of different dancing styles to the competition.
Kira Barker, 19, has been dancing since she was 8 years old, but she danced primarily ballet so this is something new for her.
“I love getting out of my comfort zone and this does that,” she said.
Crespo, who has been dancing for 16 years, had a different reason for joining the crew.
“I’m the gangster among my friends,” she said, and thought this would be a good way to represent.
Despite the different dance styles, Barker said the group was unified. They used their love of music to bring them together. Their music for the night included some dupstep and hits by Katy Perry and Mike Posner.
“I can express myself and how I feel through dance in a way that I can’t through words,” Eddington said.
Crespo had similar feelings.
“I just love the music and when it gets into my body, it is how I express whatever I feel,” she said. “It makes me so happy.”
