Les Twins Vs. Kida the Great and Jabari Timmons
Something interesting to think about: How much preparation goes into a freestyle dance battle? A lot, a lot, a lot. As the first video above says, when going into a dance battle the dancer needs to be mentally and physically prepared to do their best. Even in the first original dance battles, a lot of though was put into how one could show off their skills the best. Dancers whose whole life is battling they need to be experts at preparing. They need to be able to adapt and dance well to any song that plays, they need to be in shape so that they can have a high amount of energy for the whole battle. They need to make sure that they brush up on all the moves they’re best at, and perfect those that they need to work on. They also need to be prepared to dance with a partner or solo, have knowledge of their component and be aware of who is judging their battle.
The second video is a dance battle which is 2 vs. 2. These pair of dancers take turns in rounds. I was really really entertained by this battle, the dancers movements are so fluid. The way that the Les Twins move together is amazing. It’s obvious that through so much practice they’ve really been able to figure out how to work best together in a dance battle. Kida the Great is also amazing, he was only 14 years old in this video, which is insane. This battle was called an “exhibition battle”, which I think means that there was no declared winner. I really like this video though because I can see that the dancers are having lots of fun with each other while also being really serious about their dance skills. The dancers aren’t in any way malicious towards each other rather they’re having lots of fun. At the end of the video they hug each other and congratulate them. This is a part of what the hip hop dance community looks like, although it’s called a “battle”, it’s also a way for dancers to connect through a sort of collaboration.
