To let you get creative with your choreography, we have made sure that the rules for SuperCrews are a little different from team judging criteria. With a SuperCrew, you can have 18-40 dancers on stage and there are no age or ability categories. For SuperCrews, rather than marking purely on technique, we have opted to mark on choices of choreography, execution and creativity.
With this new category, we want you to tell a story, convey a theme, and/or showcase different characters throughout your routine. As long as your choreography takes inspiration from hip hop – needless to say, you can’t enter and perform the corps de ballet from Swan Lake– you are good to go.
Inspiring SuperCrew Storylines
In terms of inspiration, there are some incredible performance pieces out there that demonstrate how to convey a theme or tell a story through street dance. Back in 2007, ZooNation’s show ‘Into the Hoods’ took a rag-tag cast of traditional fairytale characters and transported them into an inner-city world of street dance style. This allowed the choreographers to experiment with narrative, costumes, and characterisation, bringing their story to life. It went on to be the longest running dance show in the West End, presenting a new take on fairytale-inspired choreo.
More recently, Diversity’s UK tour ‘Ignite’ tells the story of a young boy who runs away with the circus, and their execution is second to none. Dubbed ‘the street dance circus spectacular’, it certainly delivers; the routines are tight, energy is high, and above all, the story is clear. They used costumes effecively, never letting outfits detract from the quality of the street dance choreography, and the whole cast commited to creating a sensational show.
Both troupes used a clear storyline to convey characters and to invoke emotion in their audience, and each showcase how successful an effective theme can be.
Choosing your Theme
This is not to say that the most successful SuperCrews will now base every routine on songs from the Greatest Showman, or include a mis-matched collection of fairytale characters in crazy costumes. Your theme should be unique to your group, but that doesn’t mean it must be completely original: why not base your street dance routine on your favourite film? Is there a famous individual from history, or a monumental event that you could showcase through dance? Or maybe, you go for places and times: 1920s gangsters, modern-day American high schools, 60s mods and rockers. It's entirely up to you how you go about highlighting your theme, as long as there's creative flair to the set.
If you're really stuck for ideas, asking your members can be a great help. The littlest SuperCrew dancers might have their heart set on an ode to Disney, or the older ones may have some creative, insightful plans for unique choreography. Getting the whole squad involved will not only bring more diverse ideas, it will help to unite the team. Whatever you go for, just make sure that it’s a unique, exciting, interesting performance. We can’t wait to see how you bring your stories to life through our SuperCrew category!
In the rules, we state that "your choreography must tell a story, or be based upon a clear, creative theme...You must perform choreography in an authentic street style: the posture, attitude and energy should reflect strong hip hop influences."
To read through the full criteria in our rules, just click here.