Sunday, February 12, 2012

Poreotics


Known for their popping and robotic choreography and crowned champions of season five MTV’s America’s Best Dance CrewPoreotics 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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