Alright, the East is in the house on America’s Best Dance Crew, and it’s time to see if there are any crews that have the potential to be champs.

Legendary Seven
Kayode: Kind of funny to see a crew that has two members from Season One’s Status Quo being judged by a member of the crew that beat them in the finals! But I definitely like this new crew. Some of it was a bit too rigid with the step-like choreography, but the routine had a good progression into something a little more fluid.

Jon: I’m a little torn on E-Knock. He’s obviously skilled, but from what I remember seeing of their season, he seemed a little selfish — didn’t the other members say him and the other guy started forming another crew and still calling themselves Status Quo? Maybe at a reunion show, I don’t remember. Anyway, good to see a crew like L7 in the mix. And just to clarify: Kevin from Jabbawockeez was an audition judge and sent L7 through to Regionals, it wasn’t like he was one of the official judges — but if he did take Omarion’s place at the judges’ table that would be fine with me!

Draztik
Kayode: They’re okay, but they don’t seem very unique compared to some of the other boy/girl mixed crews we’ve seen so far. The energy was pretty high, but there wasn’t much complexity to their choreography.

Jon: Meh.

Blueprint Cru
Kayode: Isn’t this “AMERICA’S” Best Dance Crew? How we gonna have a crew from Canada? Oh, who cares! I’ma rep my peoples!! This was a pretty tight crew, and I loved their whole routine. I’d argue that they’re the best crew so far (including the advancing crews from the South) when it comes to synchronizing their choreography. It was also very fast-paced, and there were these great bursts of energy with every move they hit. The variety of the dance styles was appreciated, too.

Jon: I’d say they were definitely the best crew so far, including last week. Go Canada!

Static Noyze
Kayode: Shockingly, I actually agree with Omarion. It was a good performance, but I was honestly a little bored near the end. It’s great that they’re so varied in their styles, with ballet and hip-hop and cultural styles, but it didn’t come together at all for me. And again, where’s the difficulty?

Jon: Really? I’m with JC, I liked them a lot. Part of this may have to do with that compact little Asian. Not the prettiest, but hot.

Saltare
Kayode: They’ve definitely got the difficulty part down, especially the timing that’s required. Just that puts them ahead of most of the crews in general. It was very stunt-heavy, though, as JC pointed out. There was definitely some effort to include as much choreography as possible, but you do have to wonder how well they would do with more of it. I could see the jump-rope thing getting boring, though.

Jon: I agree all around. They definitely had the performance of the night, especially judging from the crowd’s reaction, but at the same time I am a little worried we may have just seen the best they have to offer. Another concern is that they smile too damn much, which was part of the appeal, and fall, of Dynamic Edition (another gimmicky but deserving crew of talented white kids).

Sudden Death
Kayode: Static Noyse, Draztik, and Legendary Seven battle it out for the last spot, with Static Noyse pulling a major upset, in my opinion. I thought Legendary Seven was head and shoulders above them and Draztik, and would have loved to see what else they could do. But the one thing I’ve always liked about ABDC is that even a crew I’m not initially impressed by, can prove themselves over the course of the competition.

Jon: If I had to think of a reason why L7 didn’t make it, it would be because all they did was stunts — in fact I watched this episode twice, and it almost felt like all they were doing at the end was a lot of flipping around.

Conclusion
Jon: I think Static Noyze has a lot of potential, and possibly in a similar vein of Fanny Pack as was mentioned, but with them making it in along with Saltare, I’m worried we have like, no traditional b-boying in this mix. But I suppose/hope/pray that’s what we’re gonna get with at least one West coast crew.

Kayode: Well, a West Coast crew always wins, so you never know. We may see some crews from the West that’ll give the other finalists a run for their money. But honestly, I’m kind of happy that there aren’t too many b-boying crews. I know that’s your heart and everything, and let’s face it, the b-boy crews are usually the ones that can ultimately evolve over the course of an ABDC season, to be a crew worthy of winning the competition. We shall see.