PUP’s POSH (Power of Student Hoppers) dance crew brought down the house and eventually  brought home the bacon in the College Division of the Hip-Hop National Interschool. The FEU FERN Dance Troupe on the other hand bagged the highest honor in the High School Division.

“Appropriately, the winning dance crew’s name, Power of Student Hoppers, embodies and pays tribute to what this competition is all about,” project coordinator Nash Anggahan told DancePinoy.com. “Hip-Hop National Interschool is all about empowering the student dancers, bringing the power to all the campus-based dance crews out there.”

Joining PUP’s POSH as College Division champs were 1^st Runner-Up PAGFA Dance Troupe of Our Lady of Fatima University QC and 2^nd Runner-Up Cyberkz of Arellano University. And rounding off the winners for the High School Division after FEU FERN High School’s FEU FERN Dance Troupe were 1^st Runner-Up Resurrection Crew of Eastern Bacoor National High School and 2^nd Runner-up Pusong Pinoy Crew of Pulong Buhangin High School.

Like any start-up project, organizers DancePinoy.com and Obra Inc. braved out much hurdles before the first ever Hip-Hop Nationals  Interschool was finally staged on Nov.6, 2009 at the UP Film Institute. Co-presented by Infinit’ Ready-to-Drink Cocktail, the dance competition’s final line-up consisted of 5 high school and 13 college dance crews.

The show started with a playful showdown between the 18 competing dance crews. Soon after, everyone got down to business as the competition started with the High School Division. The participating high school dance crews, in order of performance, were FEU Fern High School’s FEU Fern Dance Troupe, Pulong Buhangin High School’s Pusong Pinoy Crew, Good Shepherd Academy of Taguig’s GSATI Movers, Letran High School’s Letran Squires Dance Troupe, and Eastern Bacoor National High School’s Resurrection Crew.

Taking the competition into a more intense level, the College Division followed, a visual feast of breathtaking moves which, in more than one occassion garnered awed responses from the audience. The participating college dance crews were AMA Computer University’s AMA Dance Troupe, Our Lady of Fatima University – QC’s PAGFA Dance Troupe,  De La Salle University – Dasmarinas’ D Vibrant Beat, University of Perpetual Help – Laguna’s UPHL Dance Troupe, Pamantasan ng Montalban’s Element’z, Polytechnic University of the Philippines – Sta. Mesa’s Power of Student Hoppers, Philippine State College of Aeronautics’ God’s Crew, University of Manila’s UMDT, University of the East’s U-Exist, Taguig City University’s New Project Crew, Arellano University’s Cyberkz, Technological Institute of the Philippines’ TIP Talents Guild, and Lyceum Manila’s Lyceum Pirates.

In typical TV talent show fashion, the dance crews received comments from the judges immediately right after the performance. The board of judges included breakdance master Jay Mastah, Ms.Shirley Halili-Cruz of the Halili-Cruz School of Ballet, and Hazel “Khel” Parina from G-Force.

As in any dance competition, the evening wouldn’t be complete without the spontaneous one-on-one freestyle showdown. The eager  b-boys and freestylers kept the audience at the edge of their seats for a few good several minutes, until it was eventually decided that TIP’s Benedict Ramos was the best freestyler of the night.

A spectacular number from Team Vibe Philippines featuring Jay Mastah elicited a whooping response from everyone, dancers and non-dancers alike.  Jay Mastah  responded back to the audience’s enthusiastic reception with an inspirational message especially to the student dancers. In an unexpected twist of the evening’s events, the audience provided the beat to a song intermission number of Obra Inc.’s talent John Kenneth Reodique, proving that the beat goes on wherever the dancer goes.

The event was hosted by NCAA and FEU cheerleader Jaemie Lopez and DancePinoy.com’s resident writer Nel Estuya. Both hosts also represent the corporate dance crew Shifters.

The Hip-Hop National Interschool was presented by Philippine Dance Network  or DancePinoy.com, Obra Inc., and Infinit’ Ready-to-Drink Cocktail; together with 103.5 Max FM, Business Mirror, Circuit Magazine, Inquirer.net, Mellow 94.7, National Youth Commission, NCCA, PhilStar.com, The Daily Tribune, UNTV, UR 105.9 Underground Radio and XFM 92.3.

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PUP

ADT

TIP