About 1 and half month ago I went to Kaohsiung and Taipei for launching Invasian Magazine #6 in Taiwan. I was lucky enough that while I was in Taipei the event "World of Dance" Taiwan 2019 was happening. I had even more luck that Jimmy from Citymarx (who supports the hip hip especially graffiti scene very much, and also runs couple grilled bars in Ximending, should really check it if you are there) arranged a few seats for us, so that we could check the WOD (World of Dance) show together at NTPC Government Multi-purpose Auditorium.
World of Dance began in California in 2008. It is the world's largest international urban dance battle that includes many different street dance styles, and first time hosted in Taiwan on 24th of March in 2019. Twenty four dance groups won their places to join the final dance battles in order to fight for the crowns. I was truly honored to witness this hot-blooded show and feel the emotions and passion from the dancers.
The WOD competition Taiwan 2019 was divided into 3 ranges including "Upper" (18 years old or above, 1-4 person(s)), "Team" (all age, 5 persons or more) and "Junior Team" (17 years old or below, 5 persons or more). I have to say that I was impressed by how bold and expressive the dancers are in Taiwan, it has been a while since I watched the last live battle with Taiwanese teams. The kid-dancers were even more surprising, hard to believe they could dance so well when they are so young. What can I say? Our future is full of surprises.
Saw some tear dropped from the winners also from those who lost in the competition, the results are not matter, all the dancers are fantastic and I guess everyone did their best, it is only one chapter in our life and our exciting journey of catching dreams. Hope the dancer(s) who couldn't join because of injury accidentally will recover soon and be able to join the next battle.
You can watch as many dance videos as you want with their WOD YouTube channel. Or discover new dance music through them.
Judges:
Lyle Beniga (USA)
Angyil (USA)
Po-Cheng Tsai (Taiwan / B. Dance)
Lil P (Taiwan)
Nike Chen (Taiwan / MoveOn)
Special Showcase:
Aboriginal Unity (Taiwan)
MC:
P Wang (Taiwan)
World of Dance Taiwan 2019 Winners:
Team Champion - HRC Hybrid Crew
Team 2nd Place - IP Lockers
Team 3rd Place - Freshmen X
Junior Team Champion - HRC CONCRETE KiDS
Junior Team 2nd Place - MINI DSDJ
Junior Team 3rd Place - HRC BEAST KiDS Upper Champion - Improvisation
Upper 2nd Place - Una
Upper 3rd Place - Ares & Lynn
Thanks Tim from HRC Dance Studio for sharing the information and organizing this amazing show together with the WOD Taiwan team and the others. Thanks Jimmy again.