Filipinos win Gold and Bronze Medals for HipHop

I’m so proud. A Filipino dance group called The Crew took home the gold medal at the 2012 World Hip Hop Championships adult division. Their “mother” crew called UPStreet  won bronze in the Megacrew division. For those of you that don’t know, UP Street is short for U.P. Street Dance Club hailing out of the University of the Philippines. The Crew is the smaller all-male crew of UPStreet.  To put it succinctly, they are incredibly good and they deserve to win.

This year, many Filipino teams flew to Las Vegas to compete in the World Hip Hop Championships. Other crews – The Philippine All-Stars (won in 2008),  Tha Project, A-team, Legit Status, Freshflow, Lsdc street also competed. Filipinos are so amazing at Hiphop and the number of entries we have is only a small portion of the talent that our country has to offer. I’m proud that all these teams represented us. We may not be good at the Olympics, but we can rock the hell out on a dance floor.

One of the members of the Crew, Xernan Alfonso, is a friend of mine. I used to take dance classes and he would teach us some incredible moves. I’m honored to have been able to dance with him even if I’m only 1/1000th of the dancer he is.  He and I used to talk about the championships and how he’s been wanting and praying to be able to compete and win. The dream has finally become a reality and they totally deserve it.

Congratulations to you Xernan, The Crew, UP Street and all of the Filipino dance crews that represented us. You did us so proud. Pilipinas Pataas!

Here’s a video of the winning performance. I can’t stop watching it. (Xernan is the guy who does the elevated moonwalk among many other gravity defying backflips)