Dancers from all over the world gathered at the Arizona Grand Resort and Spa on Saturday to participate in Hip Hop International’s World Battles. The event featured various styles by 88 dancers who competed one-on-one in the opening round.
Viktor Manoel was a judge and spoke prior to the event.
"I’m going to be looking for sharing of talent. You know, I’m going to be telling the kids to strategize with their talent and not their ego because many times when, as dancers, we let our ego take over, it becomes a whole different energy exchange in movement," he said. "And for me, I’ve always liked to see the clarity of the vocabulary that I think someone has as a dancer when they’re interpreting whatever the music is or dancing to the music they’re hearing because it is freestyle."
Among the dancers included Miles Sabeeh from Phoenix.
"I’ve met people from Korea and from New Zealand that I’ve gotten, you know, very close to, and I think it’s really special that it’s an opportunity that you don’t get really at all outside of this event so," he said.
Maëva Jean-Baptiste lives in Portugal and shared her reaction after her performance.
"I feel very nervous because that’s a long time. I don’t know [how] to do battles. That’s [a] very long time. I’m very nervous because there’s a lot of beautiful dancers here," she said.
Only 16 advanced to the final round in the evening, and Bboy Vico from France won.
World Battles is part of the larger World Hip Hop Dance Championship and is also organized by Hip Hop International’s World Battles. The finals of that portion of the competition ended Sunday night.
