Antony’s Russian diary – part 3

Vlad, the speaker of Move&Prove with the famous throphy
Vlad, the speaker of Move&Prove with the famous throphy

Finally, the most attended day of the year arrived. Was a little bit strange to say that after years and years, where the most important day was the Vertifight World in Paris, but time flies and things can change.

The day 3 of Move&Prove World Finals featured the last stage of all the Electro categories (that here are called nominations), starting as always with the fabulous kids, little e-humans with a really nice and fresh joy of doing electro moves inside the circle, sure an happy way to start the day.

The beginner’s category joined after the young stars and it was spectacular: I always enjoyed a lot this kind of electro-dancers because they are in the middle of the path of their dance career when you have a lot of enthusiasm and less pressure blocking you. In Italy, we call them the “Freshmen”, thanks to Reno who setted-up this category in 2010, and one of the best moments as Vertifight Staff was when in a contest we had 84 of them competing in a national championship. I remember that I had to stop myself during that tournament just to watch all of them concentrating on the preliminary battles, thinking about how lucky we were during that time to have so many juniors involved in our electro culture.

Turning back to the Move&Prove 2017, I had the pleasure to meet and spend some time with one of the beginner’s finalists, Diagnoz, who told me his story of difficulties as a Ukrainian dancer travelling to Russia, because of the political issues between their nations and the war that still devastating Ukraine’s people.

Coming to the E-Girls, the category still in good shape and Russia really have a strong roster of dancers who helped the title to come back to their homeland after 2016 Alicia’s victory. Eva, apart from the interesting phenomenon by the male dancers, is really a good e-girl who developed a lot her style in the past 12 months, also Baklazhanina, Villdy and Ann Mouse. Considering the Kid’s winner was an e-girl, Malina, the future for the female side of Russian electro is in good hands.

The Profi and the 3×3 tournament were, of course, the top part of the day. In Russia, as I already said in the former parts of my diary, the cypher it’s completely different from Europe and the attitude and energy of the dancers is at his maximum level. You can really enjoy every single beat and never get bored, you don’t want to see the end but in spectacular events like these, unfortunately, the end comes very early.

I am always amazed by the Electro of Loony Boy, a real showman for our culture, and it was really nice to see him battling against Myax for the 3×3 final, a dancer with an incredible energy and as he said to me “with unreal moves”.

Eva, winner of E-girls championship
Eva, winner of E-girls championship

What to say about Singa? I have a moment I appreciate to talk about: him talking to all his collaborators at the end of the Selection’s day, everyone listening to him like a real head-coach of the staff. He made Move&Prove the most professional Electro organization on Earth, he talks to the key people of the movement, he travels in the World to know the culture in all the aspects from Americas to Europe. In less than 10 years he learned a lot and made a new reality with his own mind, we should wish every Nation to have a person with his same determination.

As a dancer, he deserved the win in this edition, maybe with fewer electro-stars then 2016, but you don’t win LRC International and the year after Move&Prove World Finals if you are not one of the best e-boys of the moment.

Singa during Move&Prove World Finals
Singa during Move&Prove World Finals

In conclusion, I want to end this Russian diary with an advice to all the e-dancers: You should come to Move&Prove in Saint Petersburg at least one time in your life and see how good, professional and comfortable an electro dance festival can be.

See you soon e-people !

Photos credit by CH and Move&Prove

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