Hong Kong hip-hop crew got that feeling in their bodies that means all they want to do is just dance, dance, dance
- Southeastwood is new troupe mostly made up of members of city’s ethnic minorities
- Group of 31 dancers aged between 13 and 27 took to stage to compete at World of Dance Hong Kong
When the Filipino pop song Tala echoes across the stage of the World of Dance Hong Kong competition, performer Jhoshwa Ledesma Gomez gets goosebumps right away.
Dressed in black and white, the 23-year-old Filipino feels the urge to scream while dancing to the song, along with the other 30 members of his dance crew Southeastwood. And they do just that.
“So many teams from famous studios and brands came to the show, and we were just us, a bunch of kids who had been practising outside the MTR station. It was breathtaking,” Gomez says.
His teammate, 21-year-old Nishien Lien Valdejuezo, says that when they got off the stage it was “probably the best feeling of my life”.
The five-minute performance at the event, held by American television show World of Dance, was not just the team’s debut, but also marked the founding of Hong Kong’s first ethnic minority hip-hop dance crew.
Of the 31 members of Southeastwood, who are between 13 and 27, most have family roots in Southeast Asia, including in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal. Since the troupe began recruiting last December, four months before its first public performance, members have taken part in four shows and festivals, while exploring other dance genres such as K-pop and jazz funk.
