Hyderabad : Ram’s Step Up Dance Company (RSUDC), Hyderabad based premier dance school organized the biggest Hip-Hop Festival of Hyderabad — Celestial Cyphers-2013 here in city on Sunday from 11am onwards. Second year in a row, the Festival and Competitions were held in various style of Hip-Hop which include Break Battles, House Battles, Beat Boxing Battles and All Styles Battles. It is an All India Competition with 80 participants from various places such as Mumbai, Delhi, Assam, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vizag, etc. competing in this unique competition, disclosed Ram, Artistic Director of RAM’s Step Up Dance Company, the organizer of this unique event. More than 300 dance lovers witnessed this unique and day long festival.

The atmosphere at the venue was filled with excitement and energy as the young ones danced enjoying the day. A three series of hip hop and street dance championships were conducted throughout the day to encourage the hip-hop culture largely. Back to back battles such as breaking, housing, all styles and beatboxing and special performances by Deaf way, Furor, Twist n Turns, etc. were held — making the event huge and fun filled with healthy competitive spirit.

The Judges of the Celestial Cyphers 2013 include Breaking — Bboy Bunny (ROC Fresh, Mumbai); House Battles —Yash Mhatre from Kundu’s house project, Mumbai. All Styles — Style E from Kundus house project Mumbai. Mr. Kundu is credited for introducing Hip-Hop Dance in India. Top rock, Foot work, Freezes and Power moves were the parameters for the judgement. The Judge for Beat Boxing will be Jaydeep Hora from Indore.  Another judge includes DJ Lethal A from Bangalore.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Celestial Cyphers, Elvis a.k.a. Style E, a House, Hip Hop and All Style Dancer and Trainer said that Hip-Hop culture is just taking off in India. First started in India in 2006, it has just started and is still in growing stage in Hyderabad. Based on the number of enthusiastic dancers that he has seen here, Hyderabad will grow much faster than Mumbai. It just needs more teachers. Elvis said that it is mostly guys who are coming forward, but even girls can too take up the dance form. Hip Hop is not just head-spins, but Top Rock, Foot work, etc. also count, he opined.

Judge for Beat Boxing Jaydeep Hora said that Beat Boxing is still new and has witnessed much growth in the last two years. It is very popular in Mumbai and Bangalore, he said.

The Judges Bboy Bunny, Yash Mahtre, Elvis (Style E) and Jaydeep Hora are the most sought after judges at the top most Championships all over India. They have come all the way from Mumbai and Indore respectively to judge and take a workshop, informed Ram. Apart from the competitions, there were several performances by Deaf Way, Furor, Twist n Turns, DJ Lethal A, DJ Kanna, etc. Even the Judges took to the stage much to the delight of the audience.

The objective of the Festival is to sweep differences and unite the hip hop lovers and artists all over the country. Ram’s Step Up Dance Company takes the pride in conduct the event on a national platform with the guest faculty and judges who are well known and respected artists in the field of HIP HOP, informed Ram.

The winners will get attractive cash prizes. The Winner of Break Battles will get a cash prize of Rs 20,000; House Battles Rs 3000/-, All Styles Battles Rs 5000/- and Beat Boxing Battles Rs 5000/-.  The names of the winners will be announced late in the evening.

A day before the festival i.e. on 28th Saturday a B-BOYing (also called break dancing) Workshop, which includes Dance, Dj-ing and Beatboxing were held 4pm to 9.30pm. Many young dancers underwent workshop. In these workshops dancers of all age groups got an opportunity to gain the technical and true knowledge about Hip Hop.

People around the world assume Hip–Hop to be just a music genre / dance style, but it is more than it. It is a culture to all the Hip-Hop pioneers with no limitations/boundaries for innovation. This culture has been evolving continuously ever since. Hip-Hop precisely has four strong pillars viz. B-boying / Breaking; Graffiti;     Djing; Beat boxing/Emceeing. Breaking / B-boying is the strongest pillar among the four. B-boying/Breaking and other styles like popping, locking, krumping, house dancing etc are the present day’s popular styles. There are many more styles like voguing, jerking, tutting etc. informed Ram of RSU DC, the organizers of the Celestial Cyphers 2013 Festival and Competition.

RSU DC (Ram’s Step Up Dance Company) established in 2005 has trained a large number of people and enabled them to progress and to reach a remarkable level of professional dancing. It gives training in different styles viz. Hip –hop, Latin-American styles, Bollywood, Modern Dance, Contemporary, Jazz, Theatre, Cuban Salsa and Freestyle. RSU DC has an aim to spread dance in the true sense, in this direction it celebrates the Birth Anniversary of the King of Pop Michael Jackson, conducts various workshops, contests, etc. RSU DC has also conducted various dance themed events for corporates. Dance is the best thing for fitness and RSU DC aspires to make refined dancing a preferred lifestyle in India and to take all forms of dance to heights that have not been previously imagined.