The 16 finalists of the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final competition were announced at Montecasino on Friday ahead of the finals on Saturday.
Earlier eight dancers from across four continents battled it out against more than 60 National Winners from across the globe to secure the final spots in the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final 2022.
They are: Humuzza (hip-hop/popping) from Canada, Verb (krumping) from South Africa, Mr Popkorn (popping) from India, Mikyboo (popping) from Italy, Kate (hip-hop) from Portugal, Hector Frisken (hip-hop, popping, house) from Denmark, The Crown (hip-hop/freestyle) from the US and King Davinci (Afro) from Nigeria.
The highly anticipated second-only Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final will take place on December 10 at Montecasino in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Hailing from Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and the US the ages of the dancers range from 19 to 48 years. All the dancers seemed to be in agreement that they would be focusing on having fun and not the nerves at the finale .
The room was buzzing with excitement as the street dancers came out one-by-one as Afrika revealed who would be competing with who.
With a unique one-on-one battle format where dancers are challenged with unpredictable music hits from funk, pop, rock, rap, old school classics and more, the competitors must conquer the audience as they are ultimately deciding who will rule the dance floor.
This year’s invited wild cards include Krumpers JR Game from Germany and Outrage from the US, along with Yoshie (locking/waacking) from Japan and Inxi (voguing/popping) from Sweden.
Bad Gyal Cassie (Afro) from France will also take the stage, together with house and hip-hop dancer Perla Perlson from Switzerland and Sbujwa dancer, SB, and Krumper, Verb representing Mzansi.
Verb has been trying to make it to the finales since 2020 and now his dream has come true. He has always been on a mission to show how good krump is and has made it a challenge to make krump look good to any kind of music.
The krumper has been preparing by perfecting his technique and he is excited and happy to have made it to the finale. Verb runs a dance academy in KwaZulu-Natal, this helps him pass knowledge to the younger generation and inspire them.
He says the good thing about the Red Bull Dance Your Style competition is that it focuses on street dancers giving them a platform to battle it out with people from across the world.
“I think the best way to prepare for this is by staying calm and experiencing the moments on stage because once both dancers are enjoying the process, we will have an exchange through music and movement and that makes it all worthwhile,” he shared.
Also representing Mzansi is sbujwa dancer SB who he wants people to know stands for “Sbujwa Bars. The lyrics of sbujwa through movement”.
He also shared that he was excited to be participating in the finale and was feeling blessed to represent the culture that comes from Soweto and for people to believe that sbujwa was meant to be seen by the world.
“It’s so amazing to such an extent to reach to the point where we are going to compete against international dancers, it’s amazing and opening up for the future generations,” he said.
He acknowledges that the moment is a life-changing moment and the Red Bull Dance Your Style competition is a platform to showcase how sbujwa has evolved.
For the finals he will also be looking to have fun and staying calm on the stage and will be ready for anything as on Dance Your Style you don’t choose your own music.
“I think the best way to prepare for this is by staying calm and experiencing the moments on stage because once both dancers are enjoying the process, we will have an exchange through music and movement and that makes it all worthwhile,” he shared.
Canadian dancer Humuzza, who’s niche is hip -hop and popping,will be looking to be comfortable on stage and striving to be his most authentic as that’s when he is at his best.
He shares that as a hip-hop dancer if his outfit doesn’t feel or look right on his body it does affect his performance. During his pre-final performance he even had a shirt change and who knows what tricks he will pull out this time.
The event will be broadcast live worldwide on the Red Bull South Africa TikTok platform at 9.00pm CET.