Hip Hop Competition
It’s just past 3:00 on a Friday afternoon in August at the Red Rock Resort, a well-known hotel in the city of Las Vegas that is just a few miles off the border of California and Nevada. The air conditioner spat outbursts of algid air that circulated throughout the entire room in the motion of a current. Meanwhile, different colors and patterns from lighting equipment flashed before the audience’s eyes and onto the stage. The room was overwhelmed with noises from the crowd’s screaming and cheering, which echoed across the room. Clouds of smoked fog carried itself across the stage. Under the spotlight, my crewmembers and I stood before the anticipated audience, perfectly in formation, waiting patiently for the song to start. Petrified from stage fright, my body began to shake sporadically from anxiety and distress. Words could not even describe how consumed I felt from nervousness and before I even knew it, the music began to start.
Give it your all. You can do this, I whispered to myself.
In the center of our triangle formation was a dancer named Eddie Moon, a 24-year-old experienced dancer who competes in competitions, stood before the audience with the confidence that I had lacked. It was because of him that I had started dancing and it was him who informed me about the competition.
Unlike most competitions that take place within local cities, Hip Hop International annually takes place in the city of Las Vegas. Las Vegas, “America’s Playground” or “the Entertainment Capital of the World”, attracts millions of visitors each year across the world. Once known as a mob-controlled gambling town to a corporate gambling mecca that offers numerous unique entertainment experiences, Las Vegas today offers visitors a glittering array of things to do and see. Among all the different perspectives on “sin city”, there is one thing that all visitors can agree on and that is that “Las Vegas is one-of-a-kind”. Due to the fact that the renowned city of...