Are You Watching?

Attention, obsessed So You Think You Can Dance fans! If you have not yet given MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew a shot at your undying love, you'd best reconsider. There’s a reason the show was picked up yesterday for a second season and why people like Hayden Panettiere, Miley Cyrus, The Hills’ Brody Jenner and Dancing with the Stars’ Karina Smirnoff flock to the audience week after week: It is sick.

“I was into my work and my music before,” rapper and judge Lil Mama told me when I swung by the set this week, “but these crews, they’ve truly inspired me.” Former SYTYCD choreographer Shane Sparks, who joined Dance Crew as a judge, explained its draw: “Honestly, hip-hop is something people here and around the world enjoy watching more [than other forms of dance]. Some people watch So You Think You Can Dance just for the hip-hop [performances], and then they‘re gone. But this show, there‘s so much of it, so everybody‘s really getting into it.”

And though it is an all-hip-hop show, each of the final four crews brings something very unique to the table. Says judge J.C. Chasez: “JabbaWockeeZ, they tend to use their sense of humor, and their personality comes across in their dancing. Kaba [Modern]’s got a lot of personality too, but they‘re also very clean and efficient and technically sound. Status Quo is just larger than life, big and acrobatic and superathletic. And BreakSk8, they possess a skill [dancing on skates] that none of the other groups would dare even try.”

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