America's Best Dance Crew Wiki
Kaba Modern

Kaba

From
Orange County, CA
Region
West
Season
Season 1
Members
Cindy Minowa

Lawrence Kao

Jia Huang

Tony Tran

Yuri Tag

Mike Song
Style
Tutting, Waving, Hip-Hop
Eliminated
The Evolution of Hip-Hop (Season 1, Episode 7)
Placed
3rd

Kaba Modern is a dance crew that appeared in Season 1 of America's Best Dance Crew. They finished 3rd place overall in the contest.

Performances[]



A 6-person segment of their team auditioned for, and succeeded in, the right to compete as one of 12 dance crews in the first season of Randy Jackson's interactive reality show, America's Best Dance Crew broadcast on MTV in early 2008. Although the group made it to the top 3, they were eliminated in week 7; the two remaining crews, JabbaWockeeZ and Status Quo, advanced to the finale.

[edit] Live Auditions Special[]

  • Aired on January 26, 2008.

The crews danced to a Master Mix made by District 78. A powerful comment came from Shane Sparks stating that "It was like y'all took elements from every group, made y'all own crew, and did it better than everyone else!"

[edit] Week 1[]

  • Aired on February 7, 2008.

To kick the show off, each crew performed to songs of their own choosing. Kaba Modern chose to perform to the beat of "Grown Apart" by Lisa Shaw Lyrics by MTV and "Technologic" by Daft Punk. They were one of the crews to be saved by the judges.

[edit] Week 2[]

  • Aired on February 14, 2008.

Each crew was given a music video with a different dance component to emulate while keeping their own style as a crew. Kaba Modern were given the music video for "Wall to Wall" by Chris Brown. The judges gave the group high marks.

[edit] Week 3[]

  • Aired on February 21, 2008.

Each crew performed to a popular dance, also known as a "dance craze", and were required to add their own style to it as a crew. Since the dances were very simple, there were certain challenges each team had to meet while performing.

Kaba Modern were assigned Lil Mama's own G-Slide from her hit single "G-Slide (Tour Bus)". The challenge was to include a lift into the routine. To meet the challenge, each guy teamed up with a girl and flipped her backwards. Though the judges felt the lift challenge was met, they expressed that the team's execution was lacking.

[edit] Week 4[]

  • Aired on February 28, 2008.

Each crew had to create a story through dance in the movie challenge. Every crew had to dance on the same set, which was set up as a street in an urban neighborhood. They were assigned characters and asked to create a story for those characters.

Kaba Modern's guys were made to be nerds, while the girls were to portray popular girls. The crew danced to Snoop Dogg's Sensual Seduction and 'I Would' by A. Witherspoon produced by District 78. The crew acted as if the nerds had created these beautiful, virtual girls.

J.C concluded that the girls' hip thrust was hot and mentioned how impressive the crew's attention to detail was, singling out an intricate hand isolation by Tony Tran. Lil Mama also said they got into character. Shane Sparks commented last week how the girls smashed the guys, and mentioned this week how the guys smashed the girls from Kaba Modern this week.

[edit] Week 5[]

  • Aired on March 6, 2008.

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album, each crew was assigned a Michael Jackson song from the album "Thriller" and was given a DVD compilation of some of the Michael Jackson's dancing. They then had to perform to the song and demonstrate how much they knew about Michael Jackson's moves in their performance. Kaba Modern randomly selected Michael Jackson's Thriller.

The crew changed the theme from undead zombies to a futuristic setting. They incorporated much on their hands, and included Tutting into the routine, which judge Shane Sparks "waited to see." Sparks stated they are the future of dance. Judge Lil Mama stated that she liked how they did not copy the video exactly like most crews were doing. She appreciated the fact that they "made it their [Kaba Modern's] own." Lil Mama stated it was a video a "3-year old would want to watch for the first time." Judge JC Chasez praised their footwork and intricate movement. He liked it "Kaba's Way."

[edit] Week 6[]

  • Aired on March 13, 2008.

Kaba Modern was voted in the bottom 2 in week 6. They went into the elimination round against Break Sk8. Ultimately, Kaba Modern was saved by the judges. Each crew was given a song and dance from a Broadway musical and were required to make it hip-hop while retaining the essence of Broadway. Broadway style dancers performed for the crews and taught them the dances. Each group also had to reinterpret the classic Broadway moves into the hip-hop routine. Kaba Modern were given a remix of "You're the One That I Want" from the musical Grease. The Broadway move challenge was the Knee Slide.

Yuri Tag was singled out for making a mistake during the performance. Mike Song stated that at 10 PM, the night before the show, the song was changed, forcing the crew to change parts of their choreography. [7]

[edit] Week 7[]

  • Aired on March 20, 2008.

This week Status Quo received the most votes over JabbaWockeeZ and Kaba Modern. The last challenge was for the crews to illustrate the evolution of hip-hop using the same music. The final three crews had to perform to these songs using classic hip-hop moves such as Popping, Locking and Breakdancing. The crews were also to dance to Pop and The New Jack Swing.


Song Artist
Funkytown Lipps Inc
It's Like That Run DMC
Push It Salt-n-Pepa
Bye Bye Bye *NSYNC
Get Buck in Here DJ Felli Fel

The saved crew was Status Quo. JC Chasez said that seeing JabaWockeeZ and Kaba Modern go against each other was the biggest and greatest competition on the show yet, maybe even surpassing what Status Quo and JabbaWockeeZ might do in the finals. In the end, Kaba Modern was sent home.

Before the crew left the studio at the end of the show, the crowd cheered for the crew, wanting them to dance again. Kaba Modern was also able to create a track and dance routine, like JabbaWockeeZ and Status Quo's Encore Do or Die round. The crew dressed in a new attire, and performed to the track but the routine was never taped. Only the live audience was able to see the performance.

[edit] Week 8 Season Finale[]

  • The live season finale aired live on March 27, 2008.

All crews returned to perform, each representing their region of the United States. Kaba Modern joined Fysh N Chicks and JabbaWockeeZ to represent the West Coast and performed to E-40's Tell Me When to Go. JabbaWockeeZ was crowned America's Best Dance Crew.

[edit] Encore[]

Following the episode of Kaba Modern's elimination, Shane Sparks had an interview at KTLA on the CW. With him was KABA Modern, who performed a routine (this routine would have been the encore if they weren't elminated). It contained parts of their Gunshots routine as well as their G-Slide and Sensual Seduction routines. A different version of the encore was performed at the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards with clips of their Gunshots, Technologic and Thriller (song) routines. A third extended version, which they performed at the Northwestern University KASA show, included the full Gunshots routine, a slightly extended clip of the G-Slide routine, the Technologic routine and the Thriller routine. The fourth and most recent version performed was at the NYC Mansion party on May 25th where KABA Modern performed the full, yet somewhat modified, version of the Gunshot routine, including the shows Knock 'em Dead routine, the G-Slide, the full routine of Technologic, the Funkytown part of the Hip Hop Evolution routine, a longer version of Thriller, and a longer version of Sensual Seduction. To this day, Kaba Modern has not used Wall to Wall and You're the one that I want routines in their Encore and has used the 4th version of the routine in their appearances since the NYC Mansion Party.

  • Note: Kaba Modern's routine has been the only one with multiple versions as the first part of the song is easily editable.