Edmonton x Artist's Emerge

So the past weekend I had the dope opportunity to come along side Sikat (which nezzy and serts are in lol) to Edmonton for a competition called Artists Emerge. It was big eye opener for me in a lot of ways.


BUS RIDE WAS BUNK! LOL okay so not really, it was pretty fun considering all we had was two ipods and a belkin 5-way splitter. Props to Wayne and Nezzy for making the dopest mixes along the way to keep the bus entertained. You guys just about killed me with the slow jams.


Sikat.. much respect to you guys. You guys go hard all day. Practice til 3 in the morning, only to wake up at 9 to practice again. Talk about commitment, something I could use (i'm laaaaazzzzyyyy). Shout out to Karen, Kris, and Jeff for champing it out for your team, who were all injured in the process.


So the competition was dope. Watching Edmonton's dance community I found so many similarities but at the same time it was really new to me. These guys are on a totally different level of dance. Choreography was off the hook, but it's not what stood out to me. Just the stage presence that all the crews had was intense. Crowd favorites like White Chocolate & Fly Girls had the audience applauding before they even appeared on stage. Sikat and PDX repped Winnipeg to the fullest, Sikat getting gold status in their professional category, while PDX got platinum, adjudicators choice all while Rowin their lead choreographer got props directly from Megan Lawson from FANNY PAK. While the Fly Girls took home the $1800 prize and the judges were handing out their specialty awards, another thing stood out to me. Whenever someone won an award, it was like everyone won it. Everyone on stage congratulated that person and gave mad props, even the people from rival crews. Three main choreographers which stood out to me, had the "Choreographer of the Year" award up for grabs, and when one of them had won it the other two were so happy for him they cried for him. Being in the Winnipeg dance community, I think that's something we need. Not so much the crying (lol), but I mean support from everyone even when in competition.