BENGALURU: Three Bengaluru girls feature in the hip-hop contingent that will be representing India at the International Hip-hop Championship 2017 in the Megacrew Division. The contest will have participants from over 50 countries and will be held at Phoenix, Arizona in the US, from
August 7 to 12.
Shobhana Mohanty, Nishtha Sharma and Meghna Mathew pursuing BA in Media and Communication, from the School of Communication, Manipal University have been preparing from March for the international contest. The rest of the crew hails from Faridabad, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kolkata, Bhilai, Bhubaneswar and Delhi and they are all aged between 18 and 26 years.
The youngest is 18 while the oldest, 26. However, the trio is also worried over the cost of participating in the contest.
The 15-member crew has initiated a crowdfunding campaign on Milaap to raise `35 lakh for the trip and other contest expenditures including visa, food, costume and stay.
“We’ve invested about `1.5 lakh each so far,” says 20-year-old Shobhana. She adds that her institute has contributed a significant amount to their campaign.
Nishtha’s first love was contemporary, but that was until she watched Step Up 3. “That’s when I fell in love with hip hop and started trying its different forms,” says the 18-year-old. Meghana took to learning hip hop in class seven and was hooked immediately. “Hip hop doesn’t have boundaries and complements other dance forms too,” says the 19-year-old.
In the past, the crew reached the semifinals of India’s Got Talent and were the finalists of Boogie Woogie.
The crew won a bronze in the national contest, but as the gold and silver medalists opted out of the international contest, they took up the challenge.The competition in Arizona will have three rounds – pre-eliminations, semifinals and final.
Shobhana considers her competitors to be an inspiration. “We’ve grown as dancers watching them. It’s insane that we’ll even be on the same stage as them,” she says.
Right now, the aim is to go up there and put up a performance people will remember, she adds.
“We want their respect, it’s not even about beating them anymore”. Despite confessing to battling against the best professional crews in the world, Shobhana says that her crew is committed to winning the final.