A brand new act is coming to Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, one that Management hopes will have guest dancing in the aisles when they aren’t screaming in the park. Jabbawockeez, winners of America’s Best Dance Crew in 2008, are bringing their trademark brand of street dancing, pop-locking, and break dancing to the Hollywood Hauntfest in an all new show.
Hailing from San Diego, Jabbawockeez is a dance crew with a solid group work ethic. There is no leader, no front man. The trademark masks and gloves on each performer re-enforce the faceless unity maintained. We had the chance to meet up with the Jabbawockeez team in between rehearsals to talk about what the new show is, where they came from, and where they are headed. Kevin Brewer, who goes by “KB”, and Jeff Nguyen, “Phi”, two of the nicest guys you could meet, and two of the founding members of the crew, approach us and immediately sit down, eager to chat.
“We began in 2003 and we wanted to do something different,” says KB on their origins. “There would be 30, 40 dancers on a stage at one time. What we wanted to do is to take away the identities of each dancer and make a unified force appear on stage. We use music to draw out these emotions and paint these pictures, and that’s really what it was about.”
“Why is assimilation so important to you?”
Phi chimes in saying, “We just want to move as a unit. There is no ‘Michael Jackson’ in our ‘Jackson 5’. We are all together as one family.” KB adds, “Think of it as a huge mural and we are each there tackling a piece.”
Jabbawockeez, whose name was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky creature in his book Through the Looking Glass, pull inspiration from the literary work’s whimsy. “We love the musicality of the words in that book. We thought the name Jabberwocky had such a great feel to it,” explained KB. “We gave it our own spin and took it as the name.”
As the group grew in popularity, it also had to grow in size. The core, original team remains the same as it did in 2008. However, to fill the stage out, they have hired on additional cast members. The show here at Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood requires 15 performers.
Change has been in the air for the group too. They are finishing up a successful run of having their own show at the Las Vegas Luxor hotel and will be moving to another venue of the strip. The MGM Grand will be their new home beginning November 2015. It seems only fitting that this dynamic dance ensemble would try to stretch themselves by staging yet another original show, in another state, during the move.
“When the idea officially came through from Universal Hollywood we immediately thought, ‘Cirque Du Soleil or ‘Blue Man Group’.” Referring to the budding relationship with Universal, KB ruminated, “I think that for both parties, it’s kind of a beta test on what could be.”
Coming in to replace the gap left for live entertainment at Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights was certainly a task that gave Jabbawockeez pause. However KB simply states, “We had to not think of it that way. We had to stay true to who we are and what we do.” A wise decision since the former show in that space was in a completely different vein so to speak.
“We got so much help from the Universal team, on what works here, what people like, the crowd that comes to the event,” KB explained. “We literally made a customer show for this venue (The Special Effects Stage),”
Not a compressed version of the Vegas show, this is a fully original production from the ground up. “We started with the music, the flow of the songs, ” Phi interjected, “It was a really collaborative effort between Jabbawockeez and Universal. We held hands the whole way.” KB added. Going further, the group praised the in-park venue as something far better than their Luxor home in Vegas.
“This stage was designed for a special effects show. It was designed for this,” KB enthused.
“We got pyro now, we have lighting trusses that are moving all over the place,” Phi said in awe of the new stage, following up by saying, “Now don’t get us wrong, what we have at Luxor is great. But this is on a whole other level. We got a brand new toy here”
Jabbawockeez show will run every night of the Halloween Horror Nights event.
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