Local hip hop crew auditions for world stage

Rthm Ground hip hop can't dance their way out of this one. After months of hard work and training, they've put all their best steps into one video. That audition video is on it's way to the judges at World of Dance Canada.

World of Dance is an international competition with a qualifying round in Edmonton. From there, the top dancers are selected to represent Canada and compete in Los Angeles.

The senior girls hip hop crew of Rthm Ground competed in Edmonton last year, but they didn't make it to L.A.

Even just to qualify for Canada is tough, says Nessa Mcgrath. The 25-year-old choreographer led Rthm Ground to Edmonton last year and she's ready to do it again.

"Last year was our first year going so it was pretty exciting cause we were the first group from the Okanagan to ever make it into this competition," said Mcgrath.

But just because they got in last year, doesn't mean they're a shoe in this year. Every piece of their routine has to be brand new and must wow the top judges in the industry.

"I think one of the biggest things is this combo between athleticism and artistry. You need to show basically how athletic you are - keeping your stamina up, your cardio and your tricks - but you also need to show your artistic creativity. They don't want to see anything that has been done before in the hip hop world. They want to see innovation," she said.

Rthm Ground has about 40 dancers, comprised of boys, junior and senior girls. It's the senior girls that qualified for Edmonton last year and it's the senior girls that are auditioning again this year.

"There's Hundreds from all over Canada, It's pretty wild," said Mcgrath.

The crews have been practicing for months, several hours per week. They are hoping that hard work, and a new bag of tricks will be just what the judges see in their performance.

Mcgrath has been a choreographer in the Okanagan for the past nine years.

"It's the highest level of industry hip hop that there is and so it's super exciting for our youth to experience that and to make connections and to be introduced to the industry world."

The dance competition takes place on May 6th and the winners will then represent Canada the World of Dance finals in Los Angeles.

According to Mcgrath, the majority of dance instructors in the Okanagan are classically trained, which makes it difficult to improve their hip hop techniques.

"When you're competing here, there's not really hip hop judges that are assessing the dance. You have mostly classical instructors and adjudicators that are looking at your dance and giving you feedback," she said.

Mcgrath says they learned a lot from last year's audition and says they're ready to put their best foot forward.

"You actually get to hear from hip hop industry professionals, so the level and technique that they expect is so much more specific and so much higher, so we got a lot of good feedback on our hip hop technique and you know differentiating between all the different styles that you need to incorporate in order to make our piece competitive for this level," she said.

About 20 dance crews from across Canada are selected to in Edmonton based on their audition videos.

"So yeah it's a challenge for me as the choreographer because it's gotta be completely..no reinventing the wheel," she said.

Last year, Mcgrath won an Okanagan Arts Award for the dance category and has been nominated again this year.

For now, Rthm Ground continues to practice out of the Creator Arts Centre as they wait to hear their results.

The competition takes place in Edmonton on May 6th and Rthm Ground should hear if they qualified by early April.

World of Dance tours across more than 25 countries throughout North America, Europe, South America and Asia. More than 50,000 dancers will hit the stage to showcase their skills, along with dances from top stars in the industry. The World Finals take place in Pasadena on July 22nd.