Show Your Skillz Battle in Linz (Austria) Review

And then time had come. The first battle event in 2016 called “Show Your Skillz Battle” was a good reason for many dancers to meet on Saturday 9 January in Linz (Austria). This event was organised by DANCEproject Linz and its director Markus Eggensperger and supported by Life Radio and Arkade Linz.

About 100 dancers from Austria, Germany, Hungary and Czech Republic came to compete against each other in different categories such as 2vs2 Hip Hop, 1vs1 Experimental, 1vs1 Breaking and 1vs1 Allstyle Kidz. The audience could enjoy exiting and spectacular battles and above all it were the little ones who got the most applause.

DJ Elwood from Graz (Austria), who as always was in good mood behind the turntables, delivered a great job by providing good music for dancers and spectators. Austrian Hip Hop head and man of action Mike Tike from Salzburg (Austria) led through the evening in his usual professional manner. The jury consisted of the Hip Hop legend Niels Robitzky aka Storm (Germany), Austria’s well known Valentin Kokalko aka Valo from Vienna (Austria) and Patrick Gutensohn aka Guti from the Prodigyy crew (Austria). Tobias Hanny aka Funky T from Innsbruck and Johannes Randolf from the Bruckner University in Linz rounded off the composition of the prestigious jury.

Due to high registration numbers and limited time frame a preselection before the battles was needed. 8 best dancers / crews qualified for Hip Hop and Experimental while for the Kidz battle there were only the TOP4 and for the B-Boying Battle the amazing TOP16 who went into the race. In the end of the 2vs2 Hip Hop battle Argi and Strizi from the Avengers from Vienna won against Tendo & Ataji from Innsbruck. In the Experimental battle Cat from Vienna shined with impressive interpretation of music and movement and prevailed against Tendo. Stepis from the Prague Breaking School danced himself with a great feeling for music and flow on the first place of the 1vs1 Allstyle Kidz Battle and left the second place to Alex from the Rize Rockaz from Linz who has been dancing for one year only. Despite the strong runs of Intus from Linz it was Honza from Pentiful from Prague who won the 1vs1 Breaking Battle. They both met on eye level and delivered a finale of high quality.

Freaky Phil from Salzburg was the one to get a special award that night – Cypher King is the title which he can be very proud of now. During the event him and many other dancers used the opportunity to dance in several cyphers which had formed around the main floor. Hip Hop in a mall – sounds strange, but nevertheless, for many people it was a good opportunity to meet and to exchange.

A big thank you goes to the organisers of “Show Your Skillz”, Markus Eggensperger, the team of DANCEproject, all sponsors and, of course, to all the dancers and spectators who came to be part. The next “Show Your Skillz” is supposed to take place during the EasterDanceDays in the end of March 2016.