Kaba Modern

Kaba Modern

KABA Modern is a street dance group established in 1992 by a group of "kababayans", headed by Arnel Calvario, at the University of California, Irvine. Originally put together to perform as "The Modern Suite" at their Filipino Culture Night (PCN), the group has evolved from being a PCN suite to becoming one of the most well known hip hop groups in California. They helped choreograph the "dance battle" scene in The Debut.

Members

2008 New Members and Current Roster

Females	Males
'**Allison Vicencio Angela Taca Chelle Ann Pereira Yuri Tag* Kristina Bui Cindy Kim Hikari Murakami Joyce Manipis Aakriti Kainth Angela Lee Juli Yamanaka Amy Chang Thuy Anh Choi Darina Littleton Dana Roy Jenny Valles Karen Song Kelli Kaku Stephanie Takeshita	'**Andrew Simbol '**Geo Lee '*Tony Tran Andrew James Deyo Forteza Daniel Casis Jay McDaniel Paul Tiu Yosuke Murakami Shawn Duong Darren Wong Jonah Aki Josh Espinosa Jon Aldanese Jason Saenkhampong Phillip Alfonso Tim Neri

'* One of the six members that represented Kaba Modern in America's Best Dance Crew
'**Denotes Kaba Modern Coordinator

Competition History

The group has competed and placed in regional, national and international dance competitions including:

• Vibe
• Body Rock
• Fusion
• Hip Hop International
• America's Best Dance Crew
• Prelude

Notable performances

Vibe X

Vibe, in its 13th year, and always hosted by Lambda Theta Delta Fraternity at Kaba Modern's home school, University of California-Irvine, is one of the most respected dance competitions in the dance community. Well respected groups, such as Funkanometry, Team Millennia, and PAC Modern, compete in this competition. At Vibe XIII in 2008, Team Millennia placed first while Kaba Modern placed second.

Kaba Modern's performance at Vibe X is one of the most watched performances yet. The video was uploaded to the internet and the video quickly became viral.

America's Best Dance Crew

A 6-person segment of their team auditioned for, and succeeded in, the right to compete as one of 12 dance crews in the first season of Randy Jackson's interactive reality show, America's Best Dance Crew broadcast on MTV in early 2008. Ironically, none of the Kaba members on America's Best Dance crew were Filipino. Although the group made it to the top 3, they were eliminated in week 7.

Live Auditions Special

Aired on January 26, 2008.

The crews danced to a Master Mix made by DJ Rashida.

Week 1

Aired on February 7, 2008.

To kick the show off, each crew performed to songs of their own choosing.

Kaba Modern chose "Technologic" by Daft Punk.

Week 2

Aired on February 14, 2008.

Each crew was given a music video with a different dance component to emulate while keeping their own style as a crew.

Kaba Modern were given the music video for "Wall to Wall" by Chris Brown. The judges gave the group high marks.

Week 3

Aired on February 21, 2008.

Each crew performed to a popular dance, also known as a "dance craze", and were required to add their own style to it as a crew. Since the dances were very simple, there were certain challenges each team had to meet while performing.

Kaba Modern were assigned Lil Mama's own G-Slide from her hit single "G-Slide (Tour Bus)". The challenge was to include a lift into the routine.

To meet the challenge, each guy teamed up with a girl and flipped her backwards. Though the judges felt the lift challenge was met, they expressed that the team's execution was lacking. Nevertheless, the dance became one of Kaba Modern's best and most popular performances of the show.

Week 4

Aired on February 28, 2008.

Each crew had to create a story through dance in the movie challenge. Every crew had to dance on the same set, which was set up as a street in an urban neighborhood. They were assigned characters and asked to create a story for those characters.

Kaba Modern's guys were made to be nerds, while the girls were to portray popular girls. The crew danced to Snoop Dogg's Sensual Seduction. The crew acted as if the nerds had created these beautiful, virtual girls.

Week 5

Aired on March 6, 2008.

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album, each crew was assigned a Michael Jackson song from the album "Thriller" and was given a DVD compilation of some of the Michael Jackson's dancing. They then had to perform to the song and demonstrate how much they knew about Michael Jackson's moves in their performance.

Kaba Modern randomly selected Michael Jackson's Thriller.

The crew changed the theme from undead zombies to a futuristic setting. They incorporated much on their hands, and included Tutting into the routine, which judge Shane Sparks "waited to see." Sparks stated they are the future of dance. Judge Lil Mama stated that she liked how they did not copy the video exactly like most crews were doing. She appreciated the fact that they "made it their [Kaba Modern's] own." Lil Mama stated it was a video a "3-year old would want to watch for the first time." Judge JC Chasez praised their footwork and intricate movement. He liked it "Kaba's Way."

Week 6

Aired on March 13, 2008.

Kaba Modern was voted in the bottom 2 in week 6 despite having high marks from the judges for their Thriller routine. They went into the elimination round against Break Sk8, ultimately, Kaba Modern was saved by the judges.

Each crew was given a song and dance from a Broadway musical and were required to make it hip-hop while retaining the essence of Broadway. Broadway style dancers performed for the crews and taught them the dances. Each group also had to reinterpret the classic Broadway moves into the hip-hop routine.

Kaba Modern were given a remix of "You're the One That I Want" from the musical Grease. The Broadway move challenge was the Knee Slide.

Yuri Tag was singled out for making a mistake during the performance. Mike Song stated that at 10 PM, the night before the show, the song was changed, forcing the crew to change parts of their choreography.

Week 7

Aired on March 20, 2008.

Kaba Modern was voted in the bottom 2 for the second consecutive week after their Grease routine. They were up for elimination once again. The other crew in the elimination round was the JabbaWockeeZ. They were sent home by the judges at the end of the show.

The last challenge was for the crews to illustrate the evolution of hip-hop using the same music. The final three crews had to perform to these songs using classic hip-hop moves such as Popping, Locking and Breakdancing. The crews were also to dance to Pop and The New Jack Swing.

Song
Funkytown by Lipps Inc
It's Like That by Run DMC
It's Just Begun by Jimmy Castor
Push It by Salt-n-Pepa
Bye Bye Bye by *NSYNC
Get Buck in Here by DJ Felli Fel

The saved crew was Status Quo, though the decision was argued by the live crowd. The edited televised showing on Thursday night, changed the crowd's reaction into cheers, instead of many boos and chants of a recount. Both the JabbaWockeeZ and Kaba Modern performances garnered praise from the judges, with the crowd cheering to keep both crews, and eliminate Status Quo instead. JC Chasez said that seeing those two crews go against each other was the biggest and greatest competition on the show yet, maybe even surpassing what Status Quo and JabbaWockeeZ might do in the finals. Though many wanted these two crews in the finals, only one could stay, and the judges sent Kaba Modern home.

Before the crew left the studio at the end of the show, the crowd cheered for the crew, wanting them to dance again. Kaba Modern was also able to create a track and dance routine, like JabbaWockeeZ and Status Quo's Encore Do or Die round. The crew dressed in a new attire, and performed to the track but the routine was never taped. Only the live audience was able to see the performance. On KTLA 5, judge Shane Sparks was interviewed about the show, giving high praise to Kaba Modern. The crew was in the studio, and performed the encore on the show.[1]

Week 8 Season Finale

The live season finale aired live on March 27, 2008.

All crews returned to perform, each representing their side of the United States. Kaba Modern joined Fysh N Chicks and JabbaWockeeZ, representing the West Coast.

JabbaWockeeZ were crowned America's Best Dance Crew.

KABA Modern - The Encore?

Just after being eliminated from America's Best Dance Crew, Shane Sparks had an interview at KTLA on the CW. With him was KABA Modern, who performed a routine (this routine would have been the encore if they weren't elminated). It contained parts of their Gunshots routine as well as their G-Slide and Sensual Seduction routines. A different version of the encore was performed at the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards with clips of their Gunshots, Technologic and Thriller routines. A third extended version, which they performed at the Northwestern University KASA show, included the full Gunshots routine, a slightly extended clip of the G-Slide routine, the Technologic routine and the Thriller routine. The fourth and most recent version performed was at the NYC Mansion party on May 25th where KABA Modern performed the full, yet somewhat modified, version of the Gunshot routine, including the shows Knock 'em Dead routine, the G-Slide, the full routine of Technologic, the Funkytown part of the Hip Hop Evolution routine, a longer version of Thriller, and a longer version of Sensual Seduction. To this day, KABA Modern has not used Wall to Wall and You're the one that I want routines in their Encore and has used the 4th version of the routine in their appearances since the NYC Mansion Party.

• Note: KABA Modern's routine has been the only one with multiple versions as the first part of the song is easily editable.

External links

Official web site: http://www.kabamodern.com

References

9. ^. Michelle Choi Fan Group http://www.crunchyroll.com/group/Kaba_Modern