The 8th edition of one of the largest dance competitions in the country, the Skechers Streetdance Battle, kicked off last Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall, with 21 high school teams competing to make it to the finals at the new SM Mall of Asia Arena. The following ten teams are the official finalists for the high school category:
Ateneo de Manila High School
Claret School of Quezon City
La Salle Greenhills
Marist School - Marikina
Miriam College
Xavier School
Colegio San Agustin
St. Mark's Institute
St. Paul College-Pasig
School of St. Anthony
All 10 high school teams will be getting ready to battle it out against each other at the finals at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on November 17, 2012.
Meanwhile, the college eliminations round will kick off this weekend, September 29, at SM City Fairview, and will be followed by more elimination rounds on September 30 (SM City Fairview), October 7 (SM City San Lazaro) and October 13 (SM City San Lazaro).
The Skechers Streetdance Battle, one of the country's largest inter-school dance competitions, will begin soon with the kick-off party happening on September 17 at the SM Mall of Asia. The top high school and college-level hip-hop/streetdance teams from various schools in Metro Manila (as well as nearby provinces) are expected to battle it out once again in the 7th year of this competition. Schedule of eliminations as well as the final battle are as follows:
September 17--Kick-off party and 1st elimination leg--SM Mall of Asia
September 24 & 25--Eliminations leg (SM Megamall)
October 2, 8 & 9--Eliminations leg (SM North Edsa)
November 12--Final battle (Araneta Coliseum)
This will most certainly be an exciting competition--the teams get better and better each year, and the competition gets more intense. Posted below are the videos of the dance performances of the winners for the Skechers Streetdance Battle year 6 held last year:
High School Category
Champion: Air Force (La Salle Greenhills)
2nd place: Hataw (Claret School of Quezon City)
3rd place: Terpsichore (St. Paul College Pasig)
College Category
Champion: Company of Ateneo Dancers (Ateneo de Manila University)
2nd place: UP Streetdance Club (University of the Philippines-Diliman)
3rd place: Indayog Dance Varsity (University of the Philippines-Manila)
I wonder who will win this year? For the high school category, Hataw (Claret School of Quezon City) would be the team to watch--they were the champions for the high school category for Year 5 of the competition, and ended up in 2nd last year--the first former champion to end up again in the top three the following year after winning. As you have seen in the video above, this team is very solid--their choreography is just amazing, which they also match with breathtaking stunts (which they manage to pull off). This team, too, by the way, was one of the Philippine representatives at the World Hip Hop Dance Championship held at Las Vegas, Nevada, last July and placed 10th out of at least 50 teams (in the Varsity Category), if I'm not mistaken. Another team to watch would be Air Force (La Salle Greenhills), a team known for incorporating a lot of humor and theatricality in their routine.
For the college category, the UP Streetdance Club of the UP-Diliman would be the one we would have to watch out for--this team has bagged the college-level championship for almost all editions of the Skechers Streetdance Battle (the only time they did not win was in Year 4 when they did not participate in the competition and last year, when they were beaten by Ateneo de Manila University).
There is a long list of hopefuls participating in the eliminations leg this year. Who are you supporting? Take your pick!
