11th of April 2010 turned out to be a great day, when International Dance Event M357 Battlezone 2010 celebrated it’s 5th anniversary in 1Rock club. This celebration bash rocked whole Moscow city and became the most explosion event of the year! Started on 8th of April with student preselection and judges workshops in Model-357 Taganskaya, the event was finished by afterparty on 12th in the morning. For M357 Battlezone version 2010 there were announced 15 dance stars with Hip Hop, House and Krump workshops, 9 judges in these nominations and 4 international showcases. iDance and the head organizer and Modle-357 Lab. owner Alexander Azymov tell you all about this epic event.

If you were lucky enough to become the witness or participant of this great event, you are permitted to put your name to the Chronic of M357 Battlezone International Dance Competition. It started on Thursday, the 8th of April, when there was student preselection in Model-357 Lab. Taganskaya. It was judged by Model-357 teachers: Boris Zavaritskiy (Dance Idea), Valentina Ryhlinskaya (Island Dance), Eugene Yushkov (Doberman), Eugene Chausov (Jacks Garret), Ivan Krishtoforenko (White Dogs) – they have chosen the dancers for the final student battles in 1 Rock club.

During the next three days on 9, 10, 11th of April there were M357 Grand Workshops of 15 invited stars. Organizers did their best to arrange a schedule and blocks of classes by American pioneers of Hip Hop (Buddha Stretch, Bobby Mileage, Henry Link – Elite Force; Caleaf & Sekou Heru sub. Marjory Smarth – Dance Fusion, NYC) and House (Brooklyn Terry, Ejoe Wilson – Elite Force, Tony McGregor, ShanS – Dance Fusion). Among the krumpers this year we had Tight Eyez & BDash (Street Kigdom, LA), who worked it out crazily even despite of the fact that Mijo hasn’t come because of his football career. They were late to their flight and to their first workshops as a result, but they were forgiven by Russian and Ukrainian krump community and so pleased by the dancers, that literally didn’t want to leave Moscow.

Nobody wants to leave Moscow though. Dancers from all over Russia and abroad, who has been living in Model-357 Taganskaya during the Battlezone event, were united like real family. All classes were full, but the excitement wasn’t reduced, and all three-day long marathon of M357 Grand Workshop 2010 turned out to be the most mass and comparing only with dance camp. Don’t forget also about Model-357 workshop bonus: Les Twins (France) – Twinstyle and Justina Ninja (NYC) – Voguing!

In the evening of 10th of April there were Hip Hop, House, Krump preselections for Profi that took place in Model-357 Taganskaya. Dj Renegade (UK) played Hip Hop and dj Shan S (USA) played House. There were a lot of people who came to take part in preselection round, that’s why they were separated by groups and it was forbidden to watch from outside. But it can’t protect Hip Hop preselection results to be unexpected: instead of 32 participants there were chosen 39. But there were missing Alexandra Stepanova (Saint Petersburg) and Maxim Orobets (Kiev), who were added finally right before the battles. We will go back to this story and to the fortune of Maxim later. Now there’s the time to enter 1 Rock Club, decorated in recognizable Battlezone ‘fire & chains’ style…

Final part was opened by Model-357 students’ shows leading by Model-357 Lab. choreographers: Kirill Zakharov, Alexander Tronov, Oleg Abyshev, Alexey Arapov, Anna Deltsova, Sergey Zaborshikov, Valentina Rykhlinskaya and Viktoria Blinnikova. And right after student showcase there were special mega-show by the one of the best Russian teams called Jack’s Garret, made on official Battlezone soundtrack. The M357 Battlezone 2010 flag, impressive drums music, military outfits – all these made the hearts and blood get freezing!

And then student Hip Hop battle started. 16 participants was judged by Buddha Stretch, Link and Bobby Mileage from Elite Force Crew, turntables spinned Dj Renegade (UK). Before the final there were psychedelic and very creative contemporary/.jazz funk performance with bandages by Angels’ Dust team. And then – final: Max Malikov vs. Pogos Tsayryan, but he winner will be announced only on awards ceremony at the end of event. It’s the annual rule of M357 Battzone.

And next – one more Jack’s Garret show – the winner of Nordic Moves 2010 (Finland), Super Mario theme. Then House battles got started, judged by Tony McGregor (Dance Fusion), Ejoe Wilson and Brooklyn Terry (Elite Force) and played by Dj Shans (USA). The battles as well as the preselection were very positive and exchanging, as well as the last year. It’s funny but all the well-known house dancers lost in first two rounds, but others moved forward and showed real feeling and level technique! The heroes of the day were Yuriy Mishin, Kerry, Lera Sidorenko and Evgenia Li (Saint-Petersburg), who met Washington (Brazil) in the final round. Before it there was rap performance by Mop Top Crew – the musical association of Elite Force & Dance Fusion members.

And after the most truly expected and important moment began: iDance Awards! This is the first annual dance award ceremony, established this year especially for the 5th M357 Battlezone Anniversary. It was very exciting moment for the whole dance community. The awards have gone to Anna Deltsova (the best Hip Hop dancer), Vovan Gudim (the best House dancer), Washington (the best House dancer), Eugene Gribov (the best Krump dancer) and Jack’s Garret (the best team). Congratulations!

Following were the profi battles on Hip Hop, the jury were consisted of legendary Hip Hop pioneers: Henry Link, Bobby Mileage & Buddha Stretch. How was it? Sometimes: very impressive – sometimes not, sometimes really strong – sometimes not, and awesome though. More participants, triple battles, mistakes, changes – all these surprises made the event more fascinating. There were a lot of sensations, for instance: Larry (Les Twins) lost in the battle with Nastya Goncharenko from Ukraine. And then triple final: two girls – Anya Deltsova, Nastya and Maxim Orobets aka Maximus, who didn’t even made the preselection round according to the first list! But this error was changed and he’s got opportunity to show all his best! But results – a bit later. Before the final – unreal and insane show by Les Twins, who killed with their musicality, synchronism and technique…. That was definitely the best performance of the day!!!

And next there was the show by krumpers from Street Kingdom before craziest krump battles ever! Despite of it took six hours to wait for the battles, all the dancers and judges either shower their best. If to mention some the strongest battles: Kid B Dash vs J Slam, 88 Stones (Mag) vs Jay Beef vs Muravey… And unexpected final: Muravey (Yaroslavl) vs. the winner of M357 Battlezone 2009 Anton Pashulya!

Attention, please: award ceremony! The winner of student Hip Hop battles – Max Malikov. He’s got card for the year to the both Model-357 Labs., 400 euros money prize, (кубок) and Model-357 souvenirs.

The winner of Hip Hop profi battles is Max Orobets (Live 4.1, Kiev), the partner of last year Battlezone winner – Zulu. House winner – Jenya Li (Saint-Petersburg, Impress), who impressed the judges and audience as well with her creativity and shiny smile. Krump winner stayed the same that in last year – Anton Pashulya (Slamz Fam, Street Kingdom). All the winners in Profi category have got 1000 euros money prize, (кубок) and M357 souvenirs, and non-citizens were payed the round tickets to Moscow.

After the end of the main M357 Battlezone part all the fun moved to the ground floor for the after party, where Dj Brooklyn Terry and Dj Buddha Stretch played their sets.

Caleaf: It was good, I had fun! I thought the event went well, it was fast, I like the way you guys made it run smooth, I really had a good time at the after party being with my boys and all my friends from Russia, I would like to thank Model-357 for bringing me out!

Stretch: My impression was the dancers actually improved greatly over last year! They listened when told to stop thinking and they stepped it up when they had to! Overall it was great, but I think you guys need to have the Krump either at the beginning, or somewhere in the middle, because at the end made everyone hit the exits.

Sekou: I had a marvelous time in Russia. It was such a beautiful experience, thank you so much with honoring as a guest in your country! I thought that the spirit of dance in Russia is strong and it is full of love and enjoyment and it’s good to see the youth with such vigor! Keep up the good work and hope to see you soon.

Shan S: I really enjoy the whole event, class, the people who works inside the studio and the nice hotel. Everything was nice to see in Russia, even the afterparty. It was so much fun to see the dancers ejoy the music Terry and Stretch played at the party. The only thing I was little confuse about the schedule. But everything work out fine. Thank you for inviting me to Russia, and I hope I can see you again.

Lets ask the head organizer of M357 Battlezone and the owner of Model-357 Lab. how it was everything in his opinion and how many efforts it took him and his team to organize such a grand event and a great party for the whole dance community.

iDance: This year Battlezone stroked everybody with it’s wide. Are you planning the same next year?

Alexander: This year I did my best to organize unforgettable event dedicated to M357 Battlezone 5th Anniversary. Next Battlezone preparation is starting in autumn, we are going to reach maximum again and will do our superbest to invite jury from the different countries, but we still don’t know how many judges we would have next year. We gonna make it over the top.

What international event you could mention and what place among them is taken by Battlezone?

What minuses did u precisely notices. Were there a lot of marks?

It wasn’t really smooth, but we tried to create an illusion of success and cover all the mistakes as soon as possible. For example, there are not so evident minuses. On preselection there were a lot of problems cause of participant fee, when people registered in two or three category could pay for one. That’s why next year I decided to split the fees and all registered people are going to be organized into groups.

One more minus – length of Hip Hop part, and it turned out to be forty dancers in the final list instead of thirty two! It was only because of judges will, but next year we unfortunately have to close the opportunity for more people to get into final part, otherwise it would go crazy. There would be 24 participants in each profi category and 12 in students.

What could you say about Elite Force & Dance Fusion show, that turned out to be a historical event. How did this idea come up and was it really worth it?

My idea was to organize Grand M357 Workshop comparing with dance camp and invite all the best and well-known judges ever and to introduce unique show of two legendary crews – Elite Force and Dance Fusion. By the way, we planned two shows separately, not all together performance. But I’ve finally got almost solo-performances, very interesting though, but it wasn’t that effect and influence I was looking for. That’s why I’m kind of disappointed about that.

How did you make a selection for the showcase?

All the shows had to pass the casting. That’s why there was no pre-announced Mochito Tricks show – cause of disconnection with M357 Battlezone targets and concept. We’ve got a lot of crews who would like to present their show on Battlezone this year, besides of I reduced the amount of Russian teams involved and added more foreign ones. I’m very serious about preparing showcase and I don’t accept making fun and irresponsibility during the rehearsals. By the way, all the dancers who would like to join M357 Battlezone 2010 showcase, could send their resumes to planet357@gmail.com. We are confirming the final list of team 2-3 month before the event.

What did the levels of the battles show up? Could we consider M357 Battlezone as the indicator of our dancers improvement?

No doubts. Battlezone is huge and recognizable event for the entire dance community where the level plays the main part finally. And the level of dancers and battles grows year by year, and thanks to such an events which helps to increase it and develop our dance culture.

My opinion is the same: Battlezone organization tooks a lot of efforts, but nobody from the outside sees and understands it. This year I could mention an appearance of so called ‘small mistakes’ which haven’t been noticed before… We always do our best to reduce and delete all the mistakes and minuses, but when they could be seen from outside it turns out to be a big pressure and stress for us. For instance, the krump dancers arrival, when they missed their flight and we had to bye them new tickets, or when Tony was late as well and we also had to change the schedule of the classes and so on… It’s really stressfull for us and when finally Shannon was stuck in the airport and we had to wait for him for a couple of hours, we’ve got a lot of grey hairs…

But on the other hand I’m glad that despite of all the troubles we did it and united everybody all together on this 5th annual Battlezone 2010. It’s a great experience and next time we will pay more attention to everything and everyone and to each other and everything is going to be better. I want to thank Buddha Stretch for his help and support.

You always provide for foreign dancers reasonable conditions of payment and accommodation, motivating their activity. Why this time dancers lived in Model-357 Taganskaya?

The reason was the construction of Model-357 Belorusskaya, where there were dusty work at the time free from classes. So in was impossible to offer such an uncomfortable conditions to dancers. And in Model-357 Taganka there are everything they need for the comfortable housing: showers, coolers, coffee-machines, couches and a lot of room, so all the dancers were satisfied and even became kind of family.

This time M357 Grand Wоrkshops reached the level of dance camp. Are you planning the organization of your own dance camp in nearest time?

Yes, this year we organized really huge and high-level M357 Grand Workshop, which has never happened before. The dancers have got a unique opportunity to see the pioneers of hip hop and house dance all together and the strongest krump dancers-founders of the style. It’s a pity that Mijo couldn’t come, but including sensation Twins and Justina Ninja it turned out to be 14 stars, 12 of which are Americans. It’s over the top level for Russia and CIS territory. I have being planning to organize the camp for a long time already, but this year it was unreal because of the Battlezone event. It took us so long to organize M357 Battlezone 2010, the same time we need for the dance camp organization. That’s why we decided not to do anything in a fuss and start our dance camp next year – it’s also going to be outstanding!

The grand opening should take place this summer, it has been delayed for a while because of content difficulties. But it’s on beta-testing now and content-filling is finishing. On 1dance.tv you could find a plenty of dance videos of different categories, live translations from the dance events, forum and groups of users.

What are your plans for other M357 Workshop series: are they going to be organized twice a year as before? How many stars should we expect next time?

My plans are very outgoing as always and no disappointings could stop me. Minuses will be changed into pluses and dissapointings – into positive moments. You are going to expect two times a year Grand Workshops, but with a huge impact for a next half of year. We are going to promote new dance styles and invite new stars, we promise a lot of surprises as well. Stay with Model-357!