By Peter Gonzaga,
Los Angeles – Hailing from Southern California, The Prototypes are known as an exhibition crew in the dance community. However, they have decided to make the 2012 Hip Hop International dance competition an exception as they vie for the gold in the megacrew division. Founder and co-artistic director, Nigel Cortez adds, “We are strictly an exhibition crew and most of us are retired from the competing scene. So what better way to satisfy our competition fix than to compete at Hip Hop International.”
Founded in 2011, this diverse group has members that have been or are part of such well known crews like Common Ground, Underground, Kaba Modern, CADC, MCIA, IVL, Beat Jerkeez, Barkada Modern, CSLA, Reality Check, S2K, and SGBM to name a few. Nigel Cortez explains further, “The crew was formed in October of 2011, for the Vibe Jrs Dance Competition. I founded the project with the help of Sonali Samarasena and Austin Fernando. The project later developed into a team and we have been dancing together ever since.“
The group is know for its fundamental funk style along the lines of waacking and popping but are open to all styles of dance.
Being their first year at Hip Hop International and a fairly new crew, they want to make a name for themselves. Cortez adds, “A lot of our teammates have never had the opportunity to compete on the HHI stage. Not only is this a good opportunity, dance wise, but it is an opportunity for ourselves as a team to bond and get closer.”
Getting ready to hit the HHI stage has come with some difficulties. Nigel says, “The most difficult part of preparing for HHI was probably overcoming the late nights. We would often practice from 9:00 PM to 3:00 or 4:00 AM. However, our delirium made up for those late practices. We always kept each other laughing. So in retrospect, our most difficult part of our journey to HHI, was actually our best.“
We’ll definitely have to wait and see if the international crews are ready to emulate The Prototypes.
For more information on The Prototypes, check them out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ThePrototypesLive , Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/theprototypes11 , Twitter @ThePrototypes01 and Tumblr at http://prototypesdanceteam.tumblr.com/
