“Four of us founded the crew back in 2015, and all of us were
based out of Puri. We are not a dance group, but a crew, in which all of us
have our own individuality, dance style and recognition. We started as a completely
underground hip-hop crew, training together with raw knowledge, without any
limelight. During the establishment of the crew, Android phones played a crucial
role in getting together a lot of underprivileged dancers into the chain, and
hence the name ‘The Android Crew’.
Initially, we lost a lot of competitions that we
participated in, but in CET, Bhubaneswar, we won our first underground street
dance battle. We travelled to Bangalore to participate in a big hip-hop jam,
called ‘Freeze’, and got along with a lot of other dancers. Though we were
losing a lot of such competitions, we kept on training, and kept on travelling
to various places.
In 2017, the global street dancing competition, ‘Keep On
Dancing’ qualifiers happened in India, and only 15 dancers were to be selected
to represent India on the global stage. 4 of us from the crew went, trained day
and night, won the event in Delhi, and got sponsored to South Korea. Though we
lost in the quarter-finals, it was a moment of pride and happiness to host the
name of Odisha on the International stage! We also represented Odisha on ‘Breezer
Vivid Shuffle’, but lost to Team Delhi in the semi-finals.
Due to lack of opportunities in Odisha, we hosted our own events, and invited the best artists from all around India. We brought in people like Prosenjit Kundu and Sambo, who are pioneers of hip-hop in India. We, along with several other dancers, learnt a lot from them through the workshops that we conducted.
We have established our own dance studio, ‘The Grooveyard Dance Studio’, which is the best in Odisha. We still host events, we take the street dance styles to schools and colleges, and we try our best to create opportunities for new dancers to take on the Indian and global stage.” – The Android Crew
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