I walked down the stairs, heard the blaring music, saw the bright light at the bottom, and reached the end of the stairs. I saw the basement filled with people and everyone of them freestyling to the music.
I’ve begun freestyling in August of 2021. I joined my college’s freestyling group and learned the basics of krump, locking, breaking, and popping. In addition to what freestyling is. It’s dancing to music you’ve never before or letting the music tell you what to do. After honing my skills for a couple of months, learning and performing both freestyle and choreography. I had the chance to see what the community was like outside of Pennsylvania. We traveled to New York and signed up to the battle.
How do Dance Battles Work
There were two main phases to the battle there was pre-lims and the battles. Pre-lims were where you had to impress the judges within a minute to music you’ve never heard before. After seeing what everyone had to bring the top 32 were chosen. Then the true battle began, In this phase of the event you went 1 vs 1. You had to show that you were better not only in technique, showmanship, and embodiment of the music. These battles are split in where one person dances first followed by the second. The judges then narrowed down the winners until it came down to semifinals and finals.
My Experience
Then came my turn to show what I had to show. I danced as hard as I could hearing my friends support from the crowd and feeling the rush of the music. My minute ended and I felt the adrenaline slowly begin leaving my body. After losing in the pre-lims, I saw the variety of dancers and saw moves that I didn’t even know were possible. I learned how little I actually knew about freestyling and what the community was like. For example, I saw in between the phases dancers began to dance with one another inside the circle where people flowed in and out and how friendly everyone was outside of the competition.