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by KELSEY OHLEGER
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
In 2008, MTV debuted the first season of “America’s Best Dance Crew,” a television show inviting the best dance groups across the United States to compete.
Status Quo, a crew from Boston who used dance as an escape from the bad neighborhoods, won second place in the first season competition.
 The group Status Quo performs during halftime of the Appalachian State University men's basketball game against Samford University Saturday afternoon. Photo by Sherese Taylor |
The group performed at the halftime show during the men’s basketball game Saturday and at Legend’s later that night.
The Appalachian: How did each of you meet and become involved in dance?
Status Quo: We wanted to be different and that’s how we came together.
Everyone one else was playing basketball and we wanted to be different
and make it to the top of the charts. We are kind of the first ones to
work together and make it out of Boston, now we’re trying to take it
across the world.
TA: Where did the name “Status Quo” come from?
SQ:
While going through the dictionary, it said Status Quo meant what is in
for the year. And if we could be in for the year, we could be in every
year. Now we’re maintaining status quo and we’re going to change and
keep entertaining. So that is how we took it and ran with it. Now we
realize that status quo has a lot of different meanings.
TA: You won second place on America’s Best Dance Crew, how was the experience?
SQ: It
was good. We didn’t expect to make it that far, but we got to meet a
lot of good people like the Jabbawockeez who were a lot like our style,
and Break Skate, those are our boys. It was just a good experience.
TA: What has changed since you were on America’s Best Dance Crew?
SQ: We
grew a lot. When we started we were kids and after going through this
process we’re grown men. Now we know more about entertainment and the
industry. We know what not do and there is a time and place for
everything. We’ve grown up and our passion to entertain the world is a
lot stronger than what it was when we were on the show. We have more of
an ambition to get out goals.
TA: What was it like watching yourself on television?
SQ: It
was weird. And now people know us. We went to Six Flags and a group
from Africa recognized us. That was crazy. We always said that we
wanted to make sure everyone knows Status Quo around the world. Yeah,
we said it but not thinking it was really going to happen, maybe in
some years, but that happened the next summer. It is just crazy.
TA: What are your goals for the future?
SQ:
Other than taking over the world, we want to make our own movie about
hardcore street dancing, real grimy in the streets. We are also like
guardians to the youth and we are trying to be role models because we
are from a bad area, from a bad neighborhood where you are either
dancing or you’re in a gang. We are trying to get more dancers into the
world than more people in gangs because a lot of young kids are dying.
TA: When you are not touring and performing as a group, what are you doing?
SQ:
Trying to survive and working. We are trying to perform at any show and
we’re trying to get out of Boston and we are still waiting for that big
break.
TA: What do you do to prepare yourselves for a performance?
SQ: We
feed off each other and if one of us is nervous, we will all be
nervous. But once we get out there we’ll compete with each other. If
one of us lands a flip we’ve never done before, someone else will try
to do [the flip] and add a twist or something. And we’ve gotten hooked
on energy drinks. But we just go out there and do what we do. Go hard
or go home.
TA: What would I find under the “recently played” section of each of your iTunes?
SQ:
R&B, hip-hop, reggae and even Opera. Opera is peaceful and
different and we want to work to add different dimensions to our dance.
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