Hip Hop International
Aug. 3-11.
Arizona Grand Resort, Baseline Road and Interstate 10, Phoenix. 6:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at Grand Canyon University Arena, 3300 W. Camelback Road, Phoenix. Individual event prices vary; $200 for all-event pass. hiphopinternational.com. showdowns in popping and locking.
“It’s a pretty big deal, man,” says Phoenix choreographer Luis Egurrola, aka “Weezy,” who leads the Phoenix Mercury Hip Hop Squad and brings hiphop to the concert-dance arena with EPIK Dance Company.
“The megacrews are like 40 to 100 people, which is insanity.”
The Schwartzes may seem like unlikely candidates to have become key figures in the hip-hop dance scene. They got their start in the 1980s with an aerobics competition, and it took some time to convince the hip-hop dance community that they were in it for the long haul.
But the success of Hip Hop International led the couple to produce the MTV reality series “America’s Best Dance Crew” from 2008 to 2015. Winners included JabbaWockeeZ — now an entertainment staple in Las Vegas — and Gilbert, Arizona’s own Elektrolytes.
Despite recent debates about cultural appropriation in the arts, Egurrola says the dance world has embraced the global expansion of hip-hop.
“They’re not mocking hip-hop culture, they’re embracing it, and they’re evolving it to their style,” he says. “You could say they stole it from the originators, but I don’t see it that way, especially if they’re following the foundation . ...
“We’re speaking the same language, the movement of bodies. You’ll have your competition attitudes and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, it’s all love.”