Thoughts on the 2009 World Hip Hop Championships
Written on August 8, 2009 – 4:46 am | by allstars3
Thoughts on the
2009 World Hip-hop Dance Championships
By: Chelo Aestrid
The Silent Defeat
August 2, 2009…Sometime a little before or after mid-night…
I stepped out of the dressing room the Philippines share with New Zealand and I bump into this tall, happy, black guy from the competition. He says something like, “Hey you know, the Allstars really makes this competition special.” I don’t really remember exactly what he said. But the feeling he gave me was that we already accomplished so much more than a gold medal. Right after that, I ran to my group to tell them what I just experienced as we all waited for the Final results of the World Hip-hop Championships.
It was all a blur really. It was hard to hear with all the commotion backstage and the faint house speakers of the Orleans Arena. The Junior and Varsity Division Medalists were announced. Allstars huddled in a circle and clasped each other’s shoulders tight in prayer. That alone is another accomplishment. Never has the group been this close. Never have we loved each other as much as now. After all the struggles since the 2008 win, we were still standing strong and back in Las Vegas to defend our title.
“In Third Place, from Singapore…”
“In Second Place, from Mexico…”
I practiced the Secret technique of envisioning the future to be what I want it to be, and I repeated in my head over and over again: “In First Place, from the Philippines… In First Place, from the Philippines… In First Place, from the Philippines…”
Then reality struck: “In First Place, the…New…World Hip-hop Dance Champions…from France…”
I felt the hearts of everyone around me sink. Besides my group-mates, there were cries of, “It should’ve been the Philippines!” We were not alone in thinking we deserved it. Many spectators walked out before the French National Anthem even finished playing. From fans, to co-competitors, to our families to strangers, many seemed to feel that it was “an incredible upset” like the Hiphop International’s Twitter says.
I walked around in a daze. We worked our bodies to the bone. Some of us were burned by the Henna costume. The competing team practiced around 16 hours most of the days prior to the competition, including staying up to get the Henna design done. Maya had nightmares about the “Angel Toss” even when he was awake. I personally dropped everything in my life just so I can do whatever I can to take care of the group. What else did God want from us?
That was the angry side of me talking. After holding back tears of despair, I reminded myself, “Never question God.”
I found my immediate family eating at a café and immersed myself in their love. I don’t get to see them much since I live in Manila and they live in LA. I was recharged to take on the world again and returned back to the Loews Hotel where everyone from the competition was attending the After-Party.
I found some of the Allstars in our hotel room. Mixed vibes covered the air. But I knew they were trying hard to stay positive. Sheena tells me, ‘Girl, you weren’t around, but when we exited the venue, we could see the French team celebrating in some convertible. But then, everyone else around us started chanting, “Filipino! Filipino! Filipino!”’ That was when it dawned on me…we didn’t win the competition, but we won the hearts of the competitors and spectators. I even thought we no longer would be able to sell our merchandise and make back some of the money we spent on traveling to the competition, but from the time I arrived at that hotel till the next day when we were checking out, there were still people coming to buy our gear.
Amazing! People didn’t stop loving us even though we were no longer World Champs! On YouTube alone, so many have commented that they think we should have gotten the gold and even stick up for us to the haters! Maybe this loss is really to show who is going to keep supporting us through the losses; who really believes in us and who is just riding the bandwagon of our successes.
There’s three types of people we’ve personally encountered: 1) the true supporters, 2) the absolute haters, 3) the wishy-washy fans. The first group will always be dear to and are a great source of inspiration for us. The second group we welcome, because they shed a light on our flaws. The third are the most dangerous, because they are only there for the hot minute. When you are flying high, they are holding on to your wings and sharing the joy of the heights you reach, but when you are down, they will be the first to step on you and clip your wings.
And this time around, in 2009, though we encountered some people from the second or third group, a majority of the people was from the first group. I would say 90% still reached out to Allstars and still made sure we were okay; They still knocked on our hotel room till the very last minute we were there to buy shirts; They still watched by the millions and stuck up for us all over YouTube; They still called and texted how proud they were of us; They still created personal tributes to us; They still picked us up and made sure we are taken cared of in the US; And most importantly, they still prayed for us.
Seeing what group people belong to is a greater Gift from God than a gold-plated medal. Like Jab Buhay says, “There’s a difference between winning and success. Winning (at the World Hip-hop Championships) is getting a medal. But you guys (Allstars) succeeded (in the hearts of the people).” So yes, we lost this time around, but we really did not hear much about it.
The 2010 Dilemma
Is Allstars going to go through all of this again in 2010? We don’t know. It was honestly heartbreaking to hear so many people think we should have won and we did not even place in the Top 3. WHHDC is not the end game for us. We’ve got two more international competitions coming up and many awesome plans and opportunities lined up in the Philippines and other countries.
WHHDC was the reason why the group was started in 2005 and it is always great to see old and new friends ever year at the competition. I even got to meet Locking Legends this year. All of us learned new things about the world and dance. But is that enough to keep us coming?
Every year is brutal for Allstars. From the hardcore training of dance, performance, jogging, gymnastics, and military drills to the huge amount of effort to pay for everyone’s plane tickets, transportation, food, and accommodation. Ken has to pray for days just to come up with the choreography and music. The B-boys have to psych themselves out to pull-off their unbelievable blow-ups. The girls run around like mad women trying to get sponsors, taking care of merchandise and video production, managing the group, getting the costumes together, and still dancing!
We have a lot to think about. We have a lot to reconsider. It’s hard to try to reach for a goal again when you know whatever effort you put out might not even count if things are not judged the way they should be. Big dance competitions are making dancers everywhere famous but at the same time really jaded. Yes, they put the spotlight on dancers that have never been seen before. But are these competitions doing right by dancers or are just exploiting an underappreciated art form?
I don’t know. I don’t have enough information or the right to say. I’m just putting thoughts out there. But one thing is not a dilemma: we will carry on as Allstars stronger than ever. We are not the least bit phased by this defeat. We will still reach out to the dance and music communities. We will still proudly represent God and our country wherever we go. We will still spread the message of unity and love. We will still help the less fortunate through our talents. And we won’t stop trying to inspire others to be the best versions of themselves that they can be. We’ll always remember what Steve Bolton said to us, “The world watches you guys to be inspired.”
The Truth Is Out…
In the Preliminaries, 49 Adult teams from around the world performed before Allstars. By the time, it was time to perform at around 1A.M., the audience rushed to the front with their cameras, stood on their chairs, covered up all the aisles, and roared with a ferocity that was not heard for any other team. How did a team like this go from being in first place and dramatically drop to fourth place in the Finals?
After a couple of days of talking to different people, we’ve heard a few things that could be true…or not. Some people said that the competition is a business that needs to keep making money. In order to do that, they have to keep getting countries and more teams to come every year. That could be why 2/3 ranking countries of the Adult division are new countries. They want to encourage them to come back next year.
Some people said that the judges really did not look at Allstars fairly. They could have had higher expectations of us. One friend told us it’s like loving Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album so much that his succeeding albums, though they might be better music would never compare to what people fell in love with in the first place. For us, it could be the 2008 World Piece.
Another source informed us that the judges actually decided or were told to choose groups with not much stunts and to not get caught up in whatever hype they thought Allstars has. This is really not very fair, because Hip-Hop dance borrows from many sources including Acrobatics, which always adds entertainment value to every Allstars World Piece. As for the hype, I think that is mis–interpreted. What people feel for my group is love. We give them love by putting on the best show we can and in return the audience gives it back to us with their high energy.
The truth is out there. Whether we want to believe anything people say or not really doesn’t matter. People will deny it all and just call us sore losers. At the end of the day, many of our competitors did work hard and performed very well. They do deserve the wins they received.
The world is full of facades and it is really hard to believe what we hear or is in front of our eyes. Allstars goes by feel for the most part. We do feel a little wronged…somehow things don’t add up. The Finals performance was cleaner than the Pre-lims, but was scored much lower. In the Pre-lims, Laurence tripped and Maya landed on his knees, but the judges did not deduct anything. But they do switch around the judges in the Finals and have truncation, so who knows?
Anyway, we don’t want to dwell in the negative. Allstars is staying happy that we did everything we could have done for that routine. I have never been more proud of my group. From the hundreds of hours of rehearsal to everyone working well together, it was an amazing last two months to witness and experience. The only real truth we can depend on is that we have no regrets. We stayed true to ourselves and did everything humanly possible for this year’s World Piece.
My sadness is that people might not truly appreciate the most amazing routine Allstars has ever put together just because it is Fourth Place in the 2009 World Hip Hop Dance Championships. In my opinion, the choreography is the best Kenjhons has ever put together. The performance is the best I’ve ever seen of the Allstars. The costume is the most artistic effort the Allstars has ever undertaken. And, the stunts alone have taken “blow-ups” to a death-defying level that have never been dared by any other team.
I hope the world sees past the ranking and enjoys it for what it is: an incredible masterpiece.
I Love You Allstars! Your sister, Chelo
Allstars would like to thank: Brewing Point, Golds Gym, Meralco, Capital G, Q-York, His-Story Team, Jab Buhay and Family, the Mangubat Family, the Espina Family, the Calatravas and Donatos, the Delano Community, Bev Llorente and TFC, Dr. Aragon & Family, Josh & Jeremiah Baltazar, Gimik Lounge, Sports Unlimited, San Miguel, all the teams from around the world, everyone who supported us with our merchandise, and everyone (family, friends, fans) in the PI who loved us with no question. We love ya’ll! God Bless You. One UP to the Most High!
Tags: philippine allstars, World Hip Hop
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