07 Jun Asian Americans abound in second season of ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’

We happened upon a two-hour special tonight for the final auditions before the second season debut of “America’s Best Dance Crew,” and got entranced by the amazing moves by the groups from all over the country that tried out for the series. These crews compete with incredible, acrobatic break-dancing and hip-hop popping, spins, leaps and tumbles. (The video above is from MTV.com, on its page of bonus videos from the auditions.)

This is the show that ended its first season by crowning JabbaWockeeZ, a mostly APA group from San Francisco, as the champions. One of the other first-season finalists, Kaba Modern was also APA.

This season’s groups feature several that are all or mostly Asian American. And most of the rest have at least one Asian member. One of the Asian crews, SoReal Cru, shown above, which unfortunately didn’t make it past the auditions to the June 19 season premiere, spoke about how their parents wanted them to be lawyers and doctors, but they wanted to pursue their passions. One of the group’s members talked about being Filipino, and the values her culture gave her.

Kristy Yamaguchi winning “Dancing with the Stars,” JabbaWockeeZ taking top honors in “Dance Crew” with more APAs following this year…. It’s cool that Asian Americans are finding a venue where they can excel in the spotlight (instead of being tops at academics).