“When I was watching one of the episodes and Lil Mama called Philly a "state" I really wanted one of you guys to cut her off and correct her, but I understand you don't talk back to the judges.”

~ Catzie

By Catzie Vilayphonh  |  Send to Friend

This interview has been long overdue. Literally. A couple weeks ago I spoke on the phone with these 5 B-boy from Philly about their experience on being on America’s Best Dance Crew. They were nice enough to let me interrupt their daily dance practice and were very open with how they felt about the judges, their fellow dancers as well as representing for the City of Brotherly Love on the West Coast. Despite being on television for so many weeks, and rubbing elbows in Los Angeles, Phresh Select remains humble about their ABDC experience after being eliminated in Week 4, even promoting votes for fellow competitors afterwards.

Of course after all that interviewing, I didn’t check the recorder to see if it was plugged in all the way, so what was supposed to be a lengthy one on five was actually 30 minutes if dead air. But fortunately for me Phresh Select hasn’t gone Hollywood, and member Rukkus was gracious enough to grant me an email interview on behalf of his crew. Granted it's not the same as the original conversation but who cares?

Catzie: Please tell me everyone in the crew, and what other crews they are part of and what styles of dance is their specialty.

Rukkus: Jay "Rukkus" Jao, Bboy Lor "Blao" Song, Bboy Mark "Smart Mark" Boston Jr., Krumper Virgil "Lil-O" Gadson, All Around Andrew "Riot Tha Virus" Ramsey, Locker John "Poppin Jon" Bulack

Catzie: You guys formed Phresh Select specifically to audition for America’s Best Dance Crew. How did that all happen?

Rukkus: We created this crew for the auditions to represent Philly properly so we selected a few of the best dancers throughout Philly... Hence the name Phresh Select. Some of the freshest selected....

Catzie: Shane said that because you guys are so newly formed the chemistry, or lack of, is obvious. Do you agree?

Rukkus: I agree, because as a crew we haven’t been together to long and we were still getting to know each other... We have danced with each other several times, but not to the point where we can finish each others sentences....

Catzie: When I was watching one of the episodes and Lil Mama called Philly a "state" I really wanted one of you guys to cut her off and correct her, but I understand you don't talk back to the judges. Now that you're no longer on the show how do you really feel about your judges and their criticisms, as well as their credibility to judge you?

Rukkus: Watching the show, what I noticed is that they were really hard on us.... Not to sound cocky or conceited but other crews comments were sort of softened up at times, but with us they were kind of hard. They said at times we were sloppy which in my opinion we weren’t as sloppy as some other crews... Our dance moves were easy?! Sometimes our moves are raw, so it can easily be mistaken for easy... Our dance style is different from all the other crews.

Catzie: What was it like having to come up with new dance moves as a group every week for the first time? Who thought of the outfits?

Rukkus: Coming up with ideas was easy, considering we are good at each of our crafts... The hardest part was chosing the ideas, ‘cause each person wanted to use their ideas and sometimes that created conflict. The outfits were based on what can wardrobe got us and what is the theme of our challenge. We pretty much all decide on what we want to wear.

 

Catzie: Is it true your song got changed at the last minute, for Episode 4? If so did that happen to everyone else, and do you think that's fair?

Rukkus: Yes, our song was changed... It didn’t really affect us cause we knew we still had to do our thing no matter what... We didn’t like the song that it was changed to but what can we do? We had to try to overcome the challenge...

Catzie: So you guys are rooting for Supreme Soul to win ABDC, and they wore Phillies hats in honor of your friendships (they were unfortunately voted off last episode). Was there really that much comraderie amongst all the contestant?

Rukkus: We share that with all the other teams, but with Supreme Soul, we are like brothers! They from the West we from the East! But soooo similar in sooo many aspects! We developed a tight bond cause of all our similarities...

Catzie: Growing up and watching dance competitions I NEVER saw any Asian people participating. But ABDC last year had a couple All-Asian crews, including the Jabbawockeez who won, but with this year's dance crew it was damn near like a requirement to have an Asian in your group. Is anyone else surprised by this phenomenon?

Rukkus: No, we not that surprised. Everyone loves to dance, no matter the color... Art is art, we don’t look at it as a color thing, if you can dance, you can dance!

Catzie: You've mentioned that some of you teach dance workshops to kids, as a way of providing an alternative hobby to hanging out in the streets, especially due to the violence in Philly. How exactly do they workshops work? In other words, explain what it is you do in each workshop.

Rukkus: Some of us do workshops and teach... We start of by learning the history first because with out basic knowledge and foundation then you can’t build a strong building. We each have a different craft so we start teaching some of the foundations to our crafts... For instance with breaking, you start up top with your toprock which is the dancing. We would show them basic top-rock foundation and work our way to the floor.

Catzie: Since you had to rep the city, is there anything unique about the way Philly people dance that you don't see elsewhere?

Rukkus: Philly has some of the best all around dancers. For instance most dancers in Philly can do more then one style very good. We are all not just one styled... We might excel in our specialty but we can also do other styles pretty damn good. We are really raw and funky as well. What I have noticed is that Philly always dances with heart, win or lose!

Catzie: So what is Phresh Select doing now that you're back home? Where can we see you guys dancin’ nowadays?

Rukkus: Well, we are working on a press packet. We have been offered to do a couple gigs, and waiting for school to start so we can focus on influencing the youth with lecture demonstrations. You can see us around [individually]. We all dance for the love and bound to see us share our love all over...

Check out Rukkus and the rest of the Phresh Select dancers when they return for the Finale of America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV.