a semblance of knowing.

My sister and I have been fans of Quest Crew ever since she sent me links to watch America’s Best Dance Crew. I have never been interested in dance all that much, but was won over by their ridiculously good coordination, gravity-defying stunts  and an innate ability to charm the crowd. They were in town last Sunday to perform at The Big Groove 2010, a hip-hop dance festival organized by local dance school O School. (All photos credit to Ning and Jiamin)

I know nothing about event production and went in with no expectations. The event was produced by O School and I must say I was suitably impressed by the level of production and their subtle methods of hyping up the crowd. It was so darn tight. A camera on a crane sweeping around zooming in on the audiences, showing videos of the performers rehearsing, was a great way to get the audience psyched up.

I especially liked the method of transition between acts: Right after each act finished, a video of the following act which showed them waxing lyrical about their craft, being a champion, how they felt about performing at the Big Groove etc. was shown. It was a great way to allow the next act to get ready as well as get audiences who know nothing about dance in tune with what is it about dancing that makes them tick. It gave the event a very positive and enjoyable note regardless of whether you are into dance or not.

The countdown after the interval was a great and subtle way to get audiences to come back to their seats and to get them psyched up again.

And though I don’t have a photo, I liked the videos they played when they rolled the credits at the end of random members of the different crews thanking the audience and saying goodbye. It was very cute and the audience absolutely loved it.

The only gripe I had was that the crowd control for the exits could be better and merchandise table better managed/placed- because we actually did want to buy merchandise but didn’t in the end because it was much too chaotic!

Production values aside, I was impressed with all the crews’ performances – they were the top crews from around Asia from places like Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Cambodia. I never realized how much talent there is in Asia, being too weaned on American television. I could sense that they really trained like crazy for this event and as an audience member, I felt respected for the effort they put in (I paid $38 for the ticket, which is a lot less than what I pay for solo international musical acts who may not try half as hard!)

Wrecking Crew Orchestra in the midst of their super long set

I also loved the randomness of the closing of the event. After the show was over the performers stayed on stage to take pictures with each other, take obligatory shot of back facing audience, and the audience basically meters away, waving and screaming, and the security between us. And then some performers (I blame Quest) gestured for the audience to come up and the stage got stormed. It was great squeezing around the stage trying to find a random Quest Crew member to take photos with. It’s been years since the *NSYNC days so being a fangirl was serious fun.

Hands up for all those who believe Quest won ABDC based entirely on their facial expressions

It was Hok’s birthday, and the audience sings for him

Us with Brian Hirano

Ning with Victor Kim, looking pleased as punch

Read more about Quest’s experiences in Singapore here and here.

Thank you O School <3