As the audience walked in, the mood was already enthusiastic as hip-hoppers from around the world messed around onstage and competed genially with each other. Of course, messing around in this case meant showing off acrobatic twisting turns in the air and sweeping balances on one hand.
Founded in 1999 by Micaya, the three-day festival now attracts some of the best hip-hop crews in the world, but what's been the most impressive is to track the perceptible rise in level of groups who've long been part of it, such as Loose Change and the irrepressible New Style Motherlode.
In fact, the evening got off to a screaming hot start with New Style Motherlode's "Invasion Involved," a futuristic alien incursion - a sort of "Terminator - Rise of the Machines" tinged with bling. The Oakland company encompasses youth-oriented dance teams as well as an adult troupe, and for this effort multiple groups took the stage pulsating with an almost freakish energy. With densely interlocking choreography by, among others, co-directors Corey Action and Teela Shine-Ross, the ensemble's bag of tricks included tightly wound group work, a little bit of skateboarding and a stellar turn by martial artists James Solis and Richard Ines, who swiped through the air and tossed off corkscrewing double flips and 540-degree turns as if they were nothing.
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