Saturday Video Break: Jabbawockeez Style

February 21, 2014

Move over, LXD, there’s a new sci-fi hip-hop series on the web. The Jabbawockeez—”America’s Best Dance Crew” Season 1 winners—have their own short film on YouTube, and its cliff-hanger ending most certainly calls for a sequel. Directed by Kevin Tancharoen (who also directed Fame and Glee: The 3D Concert Movie), “Regenerate” is set in a “grim new world,” where, according to the film’s description, “art and culture have been outlawed and freedom is a thing of the past.” Eerie, right?

The film premiered earlier this week before Jabbawockeez’ regularly scheduled show, “PRiSM” at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. And while we at DS are game for anything new that feeds our inner dance-geeks, there are a few things in “Regenerate” that stick out as especially clever:

1.  The code that Alison plays to awaken the crew is written in notes that correspond to a keyboard.

2. The vestibules holding the Jabbawockeez look a lot like tanks wearing headphones.

3. Alison recites a pretty powerful verse to help control the Jabbawockeez. SPOILER: Twenty standing-Os to you if you guessed that it was part of Lewis Carrolls’ “The Jabberwocky” from Through the Looking-Glass. (OK, so it wasn’t word for word. Close enough, I say.)

It does take a little while for the dancing to get started—it seems like they’re trying to build up the plot (which is also not the easiest to follow). But my advice is to get comfy, sit back and enjoy the Jabbawockeez’ amazing skillz: