Two UF dance teams face off in Atlanta competition

Annalisa Rodriguez has spent hours this week outside the Reitz Union practicing hip-hop moves for a regional competition Saturday.

She and about 12 other UF students have been practicing for the World of Dance Atlanta regional competition into the early morning hours, sometimes as late at 7 a.m., for about a week, she said. Her team, Anomaly Dance Crew, will compete against another UF team, Apocalypse Dance Crew.

Though both hip-hop crews have performed throughout UF’s campus and the state, this will mark their first time in the regional dance competition at the Rialto Center for the Arts. They will compete against anywhere from 10 to 20 other teams from across the country.

“It’s a big deal. Now-famous groups have gone through World of Dance,” said Rodriguez, the captain of the Anomaly Dance Crew.

Each group will perform one set, the UF applied physiology and kinesiology junior said.

To be considered for the competition, Anomaly Dance Crew submitted a video of their performance at PhilFest Revolution to the organization in September, the 20-year-old said.

If either group gets first, second or third place, it’ll advance to the national competition, she said.

Hae-Yang Chang, the president of Apocalypse Dance Crew, said he’ll be taking seven members to Atlanta.

“It’s a big deal, because World of Dance is an internationally known competition that some of the world’s best crews have competed in,” the 20-year-old UF digital arts and sciences junior said.

Where: Rialto Center for the Arts in Atlanta

When: Saturday at 2 p.m.

What: World of Dance is an international urban dance competition

Teams Competing: 10 to 20, including two from UF