It appears that Kaba Modern is being built as a franchise to last for a long time. Most of America and the world is familiar with the six KM members who performed on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew: Jia Huang, Cindy Minokwa, Yuri Tag, Lawrence Kao, Tony Tran, and Mike Song. With the mentorship of KM founder Arnel Calvario, the Kaba Six have gone on to be the public face for the larger family which includes Kreative Movement, the UCI collegiate Kaba Modern, and the alum group KM Legacy. This last group staged an impressive performance at VIBE XV, playing with a storyline about a simple-minded young man stumbling through various misadventures on his life’s journey. Or at least that’s what it appeared to be.
You can see a clip of Kaba Modern Legacy’s performance here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT4xKGmRMpM
Humorous, crowd-pleasing, and chock full of the now trademark precision expected from their choreography; KM Legacy was playing to their hometown crowd at VIBE. Maybe the more interesting question is not how their performance turned out but what the future has in store for them. Are they positioning themselves to be a professional dance company, now independent of any ties with the ABDC label? What can the group offer to the hip hop choreo world that will be groundbreaking? It’s interesting to see what kind of creative work this group will generate in the next few years, especially with a cast of post-college age dancers who can bring a maturity that’s unique to their collected experience. There are dance communities outside of Los Angeles in the U.S., and even around the world, who still look to the Kaba Modern name for inspiration. So now, the question becomes can this alum group fill those big shoes?
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