Known
for their popping and robotic choreography and crowned champions of season five
MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew, Poreotics has started to take the dancing
world by storm. This dance crew of six
Asian-Americans, three Vietnamese and three Filipinos, have had the opportunity
to work with many well known celebrities.
These celebrities included Justin Bieber, for his music video with Usher
and his My World Tour in Manila, Philippines, Bruno Mars, and Ganesh Hedge, a
Bollywood choreographer and international celebrity. Poroetics has also been featured on Disney’s Shake It Up and a video with NigaHiga (poreotics.com).
In
their first television performance on ABDC, Poreotics did a first by creating a
dance routine to Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.”
Before the performance, Mario Lopez asked one of the members, Can
Nguyen, why they wear sunglasses while they perform. Can answered, “Well, because we the Asian, we
have the small eye, and we like robot,” in a Vietnamese accent (1:14-1:30). Now, they included a couple of Asian
stereotypes when describing themselves, small eyes and accent but in no way do they discriminate the
Asian culture. During their time on ABDC, while creating a routine, Poreotics have mentions that they had ABD: Asian Booty Disease, because they had a hard time shaking their hips for a specific challenge. While
traveling the world, the Vietnamese members of Poreotics made a dance video to
a Vietnamese song. This shows that they
do embrace their ethnicity of coming from Vietnam. They have also performed at Kababayan Fest, a
Filipino event, as their fame started to grow.
In fact, they do have fans that are not Asian-Americans. This dance crew has inspired many to follow
their passion, especially if it is dance.
They teach dance workshops that attract dancers from all walks of
life. During the holiday season of 2010
and 2011, Poreotics performed at Disney’s California Adventure Park’s
ElecTRONica. I was lucky enough to see
my favorite dance crew live multiple times at this place. While waiting for them to perform, the
audience was not full of Asians; there were Caucasians in the crowd
cheering for them.
Since
working with celebrities, the mainstream media has recognized Poroetics for
their talent. Poreotics have been
nominated for MTV’s Music Video Awards for “Best Choreography in a Music
Video,” for Bruno Mars’ “Lazy Song” and performed on the Teen Choice Awards. One of the members is even in the new Step
Up movie. Many fans, like myself, were
disappointed to see their performance on the award show to be cut off by
commercial. Soon after this has happened,
the Poreotics team went to Facebook and Twitter to reassure their fans that
their performances were supposed to be a minute long. One of the Poreotics member, Can Nguyen, went
to Twitter stating how he feels that dancers do not get recognition in the
industry like musicians and actors because they work just as hard.
Poreotics
is an Asian-American dance crew that has been noticed by the industry and has
fans who are Asian and who are not. They
are proud of their heritage as they show it in their dance videos and
how they portray themselves. They have
traveled the world sharing their love of dance with others; inspiring people
and being inspired by people. This dance
crew has proved that with hard work and a passion for what they love to do
shows that you can make it in industry, even if you’re Asian.
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