A fashionable showdown

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s grandest teen dance competition — The Crissa Digital Dance Synergy — lived up to the hype as 19 high school and college dance crews battled to a thrilling finish recently at the Henry Lee Irwin Theater at the Ateneo de Manila University. Talented teen dancers from all over the nation showcased their stuff in front of screaming fans and cameras that live-streamed the highly anticipated face-off to millions of viewers from all over the world.

And what a finale it was! The performances were nothing short of spectacular. In fact, the battle for the title could not have been any closer, that when the dust finally settled, a mere 0.1 difference in tallied scores stood between the new college champs from the first runner-up. 

University of Mindanao’s Makabayan Dance Artist Ensemble edged out De La Salle University’s La Salle Dance Company Street by the slimmest of margins for the coveted college title. Polytechnic University of the Philippines’ Power Impact Dancers was second runner-up.

The championship was extra sweet for the girls from University of Mindanao, who had to be flown in by Crissa all the way from Davao twice for the semi-finals and the epic grand finals two weeks later. “Our team went through rigid training for the competition. For one month, we went through a workshop of the different genres of hip-hop. We sacrificed a lot!” exclaimed the newly-crowned national college dance queens. “We dedicate our victory to God! We still can’t believe we performed almost flawlessly during the finals!” the new college champs added.

Equally celebratory were the new Crissa Synergy high school dance champs — Saint Pedro Poveda’s Enciende. “We danced our hearts out, gave the best that we could and worked together as one team. We dedicate our victory to God, above all. Without Him, we wouldn’t have made it this far,” shared the ecstatic victors. Last year’s high school champs, Colegio de Sta. Rosa-Makati’s Phat Gurlz Crew, emerged first runner-up. Second runner-up was Colegio San Agustin’s CSA Dance Troupe.

The champions for both high school and college categories each received P150,000 in cash prize, and more importantly, bragging rights as the undisputed best teen dance crews in the country. The first runners-up each got P75,000 and the second runners-up won P50,000 each. All finalists competed in superb-fitting jeans courtesy of Crissa.

(The Crissa Digital Dance Synergy — Year 8’s exclusive TV broadcast airs for five episodes on Studio 23, Saturdays at 6 p.m. from Nov. 16 to Dec. 14. For more photos, visit Crissa’s Facebook fanpage.)