Morning of Owl win The Dance in Zurich!

b>On Saturday 30 April 2016 the Hallenstadion in Zurich (Switzerland) was burning – „The Dance”, an amazing dance event took place in front of an incredible scenery with a lot of spectators. TOP groups from 12 countries and an interesting line-up of judges and guests from the entire world were present.

On the “Purple Carpet” dance crews from all over the world and judges consisting of legends such as Storm (Germany) or Salah (France) as well as „Streetdance 2“ actress Betty Style from Italy and the Swiss dance star Burim B-One Jusufi who has already worked together with Rihanna on stage marched in. But also faces we know from TV such as Carmen Geiss, the US-Model Angela Martini or DefJam founder Russel Simmons who all formed the "Lifestyle Jury" strutted together with musicians such as Sydney Youngblood over the carpet and posed for the photographers and reporters.

Punctually at 8:00 p.m. the doors of the Hallenstadion were opened and huge crowds of spectators rushed forward to their seats. Then time had come and the moderation duo consisting of Serap Yavuz (Switzerland) and John Agesilas (Netherlands) entered the walkway towards the main stage which was built up in the middle of the hall. In the audience space it was a fantastic mood and in the backstage motivated dancers couldn’t wait to come on stage to present their shows in front of nearly eight thousand spectators.
In cooperation with NoEasyProps the team of "The Dance" had invited 12 dance crews from all over the world to Zurich who delivered a high level of performance art and entertained the audience with their 2:30 minutes shows. All shows were evaluated with the brand-new system called "and8 Judge". After a short break the 4 finalists were announced by the judges "Storm" and "Russel Simmons".

Then it got very interesting. The first battle was between "The Ruggeds" (Netherlands) against "Enfants Prodiges" (France). Here the Dutch group prevailed clearly and won through an unanimous decision of the jury. Nevertheless the French got a great applause for a dynamic battle full of energy and fun. In the second showdown "Morning of Owl" from Korea met "Soul Mavericks" from London. It was a head-to-head race in which Soul Mavericks presented themselves with powerful and effective routines. The Koreans, however, were not impressed and always managed to go one better so that in the end they entered the final against The Ruggeds".

In the nerve-racking final between the "The Ruggeds" and "Morning of Owl" one highlight chased the other. Both crews offered breaking on the highest level and showed their skills and routines in the nearly 8 minutes battle time. The audiences was screaming and applauding loudly. Nobody could sit anymore and the whole hall flipped out with B-Boy Pocket from Korea took off his shirt during a very quick powermove combination and came to a stop in a freeze at the end. It was almost incredible. The winner was announced by the lifestyle judge Russel Simmons and this way "Morning of Owl" did not only win the first "The Dance" competition but also a prize money of 15,000 CHF.

Further highlights were the singer Sydney Youngblood and the French dance superstars "Les Twins". Sydney Youngblood was responsible for the great opening ceremony and was accompanied on stage by many young dancers from Switzerland. The show of the both brothers Larry and Laurent from Les Twins was like fireworks before the final battle.

The battles:
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The Ruggeds // Enfants Prodiges = 5:0
Morning of Owl // Soul Mavericks = 5:0
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The Ruggeds // Morning of Owl = 2:3
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Great event with a lot of opportunities for further development - this was the summary of many spectators and participants. For the first event in the history of the “The Dance” the organisers had done very well. Nevertheless there is a lot of need for improvement. The positioning of the jury for example was very unsuitable for this kind of event, to name but one. You can look forward and be excited about what will expect us in 2017. The fact is that the first “The Dance” competition has persuaded and all other things are a matter of experience and development!
Photos and videos:
www.joiz.ch
Show in the Livestream:
www.livestream.com
Official Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/thedanceofficial

Official results:
www.and8.dance/judge