Quest Crew Wows San Francisco Clubgoers
June 26, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO - Clad in purple, the seven cute and stylish members of Quest Crew - the winners of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew season 3, strut on to the dance floor of Club NV eliciting a frenzy of flashes from the audience’s digital cameras and cell phones.
The boys sprawl on the ground and gracefully rise at the sound of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” kicking off an energetic five minute hip hop routine full of head spins, handstands, and other highlights from the show.
Quest Crew’s special performance was organized by CenterStage, a new promotions company focused on providing unique, upscale ages 18 and up events within the Bay Area.
“Quest Crew is the hottest performance crew in the U.S., and as CenterStage is gunning for the title of best 18+ entertainment group in San Francisco, it was a natural pairing,” said Kingston Wu, CenterStage founder.
Prior to their performance the popular group from one of TV’s hottest shows, hosted a meet and greet, signing autographs and posing for pictures with adoring fans on June 19.
While previous America’s Best Dance Crew winners - JabbaWockeeZ and Super CR3W featured Asian members, Quest Crew on Mar. 5, became the first dance group to feature all members of Asian descent. Hokuto “Hok” Konishi and Steve Terada are Japanese, Ryan Feng is Taiwanese, Victor Kim is Korean, Ryan Conferrido is Filipino, Brian Hirano is Korean, Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese, Dominic “D-Trix” Sandoval is Filipino, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese.
Formed in 2005, the crew has been working together with Quest Learning Center, a community facility located in Artesia, CA. Out of their desire to represent and promote the multi-purpose center which provides tutoring sessions, music lessons, dance classes, and social events, the group decided to name themselves Quest, says Feng.
The boys of Quest are no strangers to television. Conferrido, Konishi, Terada, Kim, and Sandoval all appeared on FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance, with Conferrido becoming a finalist in season one and Konishi and Sandoval reaching the finals in the third season. Crew members each have substantial dance experience and have appeared on music videos, stage shows, movies, and television. Terada, notably, is an internationally acclaimed martial artist with nearly 30 world titles and says a lot of martial arts elements are relevant dance.
“We all have worked as dancers individually and it was always a dream for us to work together on a show like America’s Best Dance Crew,” said Feng, in an interview at Horizon Restaurant and Lounge prior to their club performance.
That dream came true this past January. During the two month competition, the crew consistently did well garnering praise from judges JC Chasez, Lil’ Mama, and Shane Sparks.
“When [host] Mario Lopez announced our names as the winners it was an out of body experience,” recalls Kim. “It was definitely one of the highlights of my life.”
Terada says that Asian males have long been portrayed in mainstream media as being “nerdy” and he is glad that the success of America’s Best Dance Crew has helped created a positive and “cool” image of Asian Americans.
Since winning the competition and the $100,000 grand prize, the group has been performing throughout the country and the entire crew is set to appear in the film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, due to be released on Christmas 2009. Konishi and Kim are also set to appear in the upcoming film Boogie Town.
For those aspiring to be dancers, Konishi advises, “if you love what you’re doing, never give up, keep going and you’ll get there.”
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