JabbaWockeeZ is an all-male modern dance/hip hop crew from San Diego who won the first season of the reality dance competition America's Best Dance Crew. Since winning, the group has gained greater exposure by appearing in various music videos and commercials, touring internationally, and performing with Shaquille O' Neal at the 2009 NBA All-Star Game. They are known for wearing plain white masks and gloves in order to encourage audiences to focus on their movements as a group instead of on individual dancers. Their name is derived from the Lewis Carroll poem "Jabberwocky" about the eponymous mythical dragon. Phil "Swaggerboy" Tayag, Kevin "KB" Brewer, and Joe "Emajoenation" Larot began performing as a trio called "Three Musky" while wearing white masks and gloves. The mask and glove motif was adopted as a tribute to the 1960s San Francisco strutting crew Medea Sirkas.
Established in 2003 in San Diego, California, the idea of the Jabbawockeez is the brainchild of the “Three Musky” who wanted to showcase freestyle dance.The name "Jabbawockeez", coined by Joe Larot, was inspired by the fantastical monster from the Lewis Carroll nonsense poem. The white masks and gloves from Phil, Kevin, and Joe's performances as Three Musky were adopted as the visual signature of the group. In San Diego, through Gary's connections, the Jabbawockeez added b-boys Rynan "Kid Rainen" Paguio and Chris "Cristyle" Gatdula to the group. The original seven-member iteration of Jabbawockeez began performing as a group in 2004. This lineup consisted of Gary, Randy, Phil, Kevin, Joe, Rainen, and Chris.
Jabbawockeez rounded out their numbers with additional members, bringing their total to eleven. PhoenixLos Angeles area auditions imaryand performances, and earned a spot in the Jabbawockeez by battling Kevin Brewer. The Jabbawockeez also brought Kaba Modern alumnus Ben "B-Tek" Chung and b-boys Eddie "Eddiestyles" Gutierrez and Saso "Saso Fresh" Jimenez into the fold. native Jeff "Phi" Nguyen had met Rynan Paguio at various
Members of the Jabbawockeez also formed their own hip-hop dance groups in the California area. Phil Tayag founded Boogie Monstarz in 2003, Kevin Brewer founded SuperGalacticBeatManipulators in 2005, and Joe Larot founded Press P.L.A.Y. in 2006. These three groups became part of a larger dance collective with JabbaWockeeZ called Family Royale.
In 2007, the Jabbawockeez appeared on the second season of America's Got Talent. Performing with nine members, the group was eliminated in the Las Vegas callbacks episode. Gary Kendall died from complications from pneumonia and meningitis on December 14, 2007, shortly before the group was to begin auditions for the first season of America's Best Dance Crew. As the mentor figure of the group, Kendall had advocated for the Jabbawockeez to seek national exposure by auditioning for reality dance competition shows like America's Got Talent and America's Best Dance Crew.
The JabbaWockeeZ auditioned a seven-member contingent for the first season of America's Best Dance Crew, because of crew member limits imposed by the show. Originally, the ABDC group was supposed to consist of Gary Kendall, Phil Tayag, Kevin Brewer, Joe Larot, Rynan Paguio, Chris Gatdula, and Phi Nguyen. However, Gary had died that year, and Joe suffered a knee injury during the audition rounds. The group chose Ben Chung to replace Joe on the show and left Gary's spot vacant, proceeding with six members.
In a deliberate decision to portray their performances on the show as a cohesive whole, all of the JabbaWockeeZ' performances on America's Best Dance Crew began in the same formation in which the previous week's performance had ended. The Evolution of Street Dance performance in week seven and the group performances with other crews were the only exceptions.
credits to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabbawokeez
