Keep on Dancing is an international event that originally started out in China. Over the last 10 years the event has grown significantly and in 2016 the organizer announced a full world tour for the event. It was also announced that Canada would have its own qualifier with the winners being flown out to LA in April for the world finals. The event consists of crew battles for breaking, popping, hip hop and locking.
This was the first time a locking crew battle would be taking place in Canada, giving our country a chance to rep locking on an international level. Without hesitation the Montreal lockers began to prepare for this event! We assembled two teams: LockUnity & Ingenious Split to participate in the big battle.
The Canadian qualifier took place in Toronto so we planned a weekend road trip and stayed in an amazing house in a great neighborhood in Little Portugal.
There were 4 teams that entered and the other two were teams from Toronto: Soul Twisters and Funk Lives On
Each team had to showcase and the top 4 were supposed to battle in semi-final eliminations. For some strange reason there was no semi-final battle which was unfortunate because all 4 teams should have had the right to battle as we all had been preparing for several months. I believe that was an organizational issue because the other categories had semi-final battles.
LockUnity
Ingenious Split
Funk Lives On
Twisted Shifters
The judges for the battle were Mr Wiggles, Suga Pop & Tash. Tash is one of Canada’s earliest lockers so it was an honour to have her on the judge panel for the first locking crew battle in Canada.
The final battle was exciting and both sides brought it. Training the last few months with Boombeast, Treklock & Quantalock was exciting and fun. We were fully prepared for the battle and we gave it our all.
Here is the video of the final battle: LockUnity vs Twisted Shifters
To be honest, I was surprised by the final judge decision but Twisted Shifters won the battle and will now be repping Canada at the world finals in LA this April. I wish them all the best and really hope they represent Canadian locking in a strong and powerful way!
I believe all the lockers from FUNKTREAL did an amazing job and we accomplished many goals. It was an honour to compete and train with Boom, Trek & Quanta. It has been a dream of mine for over 10 years to enter a crew locking battle and to do that with some of my closest friends was better than any prize.
A special shoutout to Little Shao for all the amazing photos. Also a big thank you to ALL the Montreal dancers who were at KOD repping in the other styles or there just to support our city. I’m proud to be part of the Montreal scene and knowing we have the entire city supporting one another is a wonderful feeling. I hope to see more Canadian locking crew battles and more Canadian locking crews in the years to come. In the meantime, back to training!