America's Best Dance Crew - Week 6

As MTV celebrated the return of the Video Music Awards to New York City, the crews of “America’s Best Dance Crew” kicked things off in Los Angeles with the VMA Dance challenge by paying homage to some of the most iconic routines in the 25 year history of the VMA’s.

The show, which aired at 7pm eastern time in order to make way for the Video Music Awards, opened with a group number that had all four crews strutting their stuff to “Smooth Criminal” by Michael JacksonMichael Jackson. The dance even had a silhouette of a dancer to portray Jackson.

With only four crews remaining half of the dance groups would end up in the bottom. The first saved group were the girls of We Are Heroes who were given the challenge to take MadonnaMadonna’s performance of “Vogue” and make it their own. Dance choreographer Shane Sparks said that he loved groups who used concepts and thought out of the box. Shane called the performance a good job. Lil Mama said that she though the performance was excellent and wonderful saying the dance had stunts and glamour. JC felt that the performance was OK but acknowledged that the girls’ fan work was a breakout moment.

The Latin dancers of Afroborike were the other saved group and were given “I’m a Slave for You” by Brittney Spears. Lil Mama said the routine was the most exciting choreography she had seen from the group adding that there were so many amazing parts to the dance. JC noted that the group owned their prop – a snake – and while he said it wasn’t the best choreography he’d seen the group did sell the performance. Shane called it their best performance by far adding that the choreography was perfect for the song.

The bottom two set up an east meets west battle with Rhythm City and Massive Monkeys. The boys of Seattle – Massive Monkeys – drew first performance and were given “Tearin’ Up My Heart” by N’Sync, judge JC’s former band. JC made note that the crew had done their homework adding movements from other N’Sync videos. He told the crew that they picked a good show to have their best performance adding that the dance had energy and excitement. Shane noting the enthusiasm from the audience thought that the Monkeys had the biggest applause on the show adding that the boys had put on one of their best performances. Lil Mama called it incredible and noted that on the biggest night of MTV and the MVA’s the crew took things a step further by using their bodies as props – one dancer used another for his microphone.

Rhythm city finished out the night with “Wall to Wall” by Chris Brown. Shane said that he loved the performance noting that it was clean, tight, and great for a show but not a competition. Lil Mama said that it was cool and fun but not what she wanted. When JC disagreed with his fellow judges a debate ensued that would ensure a lively discussion over which group would remain. JC called their performance amazing and the cleanest performance of the night.

JC’s thoughts failed to sway the other judges and Rhythm City was eliminated from the competition.

Next week “America’s Best Dance Crew” will return to its normal 9pm time slot where the three remaining crews will face their toughest challenges and compete for the finals and the $100,000 prize.