As teams from across the globe gear up to compete in one of hip-hop’s biggest events, eight finalists from Gilbert, Arizona, are set to represent U.S. hip-hop dancers as the finale takes hold of Phoenix over the weekend.
The Gilbert-Mesa area is home to champion dance studios and local talent that have the chance to once again land first place for Arizona. The World Hip Hop Dance Championship hosted by Hip Hop International, will take place at the Arizona Grand Resort & Spa with teams from over 55 countries.
Crews ranging from as small as three for the mini-crew divisions, to forty total members in their megacrew divisions, will compete for gold at the finale event held on Saturday, Aug. 10.
With so much at stake, dance crews are bringing the best of the best to Phoenix — and Gilbert is ready to represent.
“It’s just awesome that the hip-hop movement culture has grown here in the Gilbert area and that we’re representing it on a world stage,” said Nico Banuelos, co-founder of Elektro Dance Academy.
Local crews help expand hip-hop in the Valley
Hip Hop International was founded in 2002 after co-founders, Howard and Karen Schwartz, saw the potential that street dancing had to generate audiences. In 2008, they created the popular MTV show America’s Best Dance Crew.
After auditioning four times, a group of friends from Gilbert made their debut during the show’s seventh season.
“Everyone else on the team on the show were like professional dancers and paid choreographers,” said Banuelos, a member of the dance group Elektrolytes which he formed with his high school friends. They didn’t have any formal dancing training and they saw themselves as underdogs. “Some of them danced with Madonna and Britney Spears and (had) all these crazy resumes, and we had nothing. We were just from Gilbert.”
Elektrolytes were the season’s winners beating out nine other dance crews.
Furious Styles Crew, Elektro Dance Academy and The Jukebox Grounds, all studios based in Gilbert, have “had a lot of influence on the hip hop growth here,” said Andrew Palma, co-founder of Rhythmic Dance Complex in Mesa.
With so many teams in the Valley alone competing, practice has taken up many hours of dancer’s time all to prepare for a championship that promises to be the most difficult yet.
The week leading up to a global championship
“Every year it gets better and better and it’s a very difficult competition,” said Banuelos. In 2023, the closest Team USA got to gold was for the junior varsity megacrew, where the California team, Chapkidz, took home bronze.
Crews at Elektro Dance Academy start preparing during the fall before the competition when the dancers get assigned to their respective crews.
The week before the competition, called “hell week”, consists of practice, “every day for 4 or 5 hours a day,” said Banuelos. “It’s brutal on the body, on the mind, but (the dancers) love it.”
Griffin, competing under three different crews, practices Monday through Saturday for most of the summer with few days of rest in between. “There’s definitely been some moments where I’m ready for it to be over, but I’m very grateful that I got to do all of it.”
As the competition gets harder, Griffin finds solace with other local dancers. “I think we’re all very competitive, but there’s also a lot of support and a lot of like connections that come within it,” said Griffin, describing the dance scene as like being a part of “one big family”.
The competition offers an opportunity to spotlight local talent on a global stage and Gilbert dancers are here for it. It’s hard not to cheer for your competition when you are all trying to represent the same city, she said.
“What I personally find special about the Arizona dance scene is that we’re all rooting for each other. We all want Arizona on the map and we do have a lot of dancers who have worked hard and have shown their presence here,” said Palma.
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