Step It Up 2 the Streets Brings the Moves to Hollywood!

Step Up 2: The Streets hits the streets... well, the DVD and Blu-Ray shelves on July 15 and there was a big DVD launch party to celebrate the event. I was invited to this little soiree at The Avalon club in Hollywood and here's what all went down.

After hanging around the club for about an hour, watching some of the dance crews mix it up with the partygoers, J-Boog of B2K (a.k.a. Jarrell Houston), who played DJ Sands in the flick, came on stage to kick the night off. He was even dressed up in his same wardrobe from the club scene at the beginning of the flick. He introduced us to the film's director, Jon M. Chu, who, unbeknownced to him, was treated to a gag reel of his goofs in making the special features of the DVD. What an intro. In true directorial fashion, though, he was recording the reaction from the club via a viewfinder (no, not the little red things you had as a kid, the spendy ones directors use). After that display, he started out by thanking the fans for coming out to support this DVD and Blu-Ray release.

"It's finally here," Chu said. "After every wedding video, bar mitzvah video, in high school being so uncool on a Friday night, it's finally worth it, it's finally here and to have all of you here to celebrate that is fantastic."

Chu also added, "They say Disney makes dreams come true. I always thought it was a corporate logo, a saying, a motto, it's for real."

He went on to thank producers Adam Shankman, Jennifer Gigbot and Matthew Mizel who, "believed in me more than anybody," and he also thanked Disney who, "were on the front lines with me."

Chu then went into MC mode and started introducing the first dance crew to perform for us that night. It just so happened to be one of his own crews, ACDC, which stands for Adam/Chu Dance Crew, the Adam being Adam Sevani, who plays Moose in the flick. This crew has actually been engaged in a little online dance "feud" with Miley Cyrus. I heard she was apparently scheduled to show up, but I never heard if she had made it. Bummer...

Anyway, the crew came on stage and put on quite an insane performance. Now, I'm no dancer, never have been, never WILL be, but even I can appreciate talent like this. Probably because they all look like they're made of rubber to me. Insane, and quite amazing to watch, I must say. They have this guy, who I found out in watching those online dance feuds (they're pretty damn funny, actually; look it up on YouTube), is named Madd Chadd and he does probably the most incredible "robot" I or anyone else will likely see in their life. That seems to be mostly all he did though, so he must be a specialist. Still, it was quite a sight.

A few more crews followed such as SuperGalactic and a few actual dance-offs on the circled-off dancer floor. One dance-off between two crews dubbed World Famous and Fysh and Chicks actually got quite heated and was stopped early by J-Boog. The last of the crews to perform, aptly timed to right before the open bar time limit expired, was a crew called Breathe and while they provided a smashing finale for the main performances of the night, one guy stood out. You would think that most dancers are these cut specimens in prime physical condition, but this one dancer proved to be the exception. While he wasn't of sumo proportions, he was by far the biggest guy out there and he was just as talented as the rest. It was rather astounding. He's basically the Sammo Hung of dancing. Incredible.

After the main acts were done, some of the crews and many many other people flooded the small dance floor and got down, or so they say. I almost find myself flabbergasted that I was actually caught up in all of this, being the anti-dancer than I am, but it really was quite an amazing show and I'm glad I was able to take a part of it.

Well, that about sums it up for my night at The Avalon in Hollywood for the Step Up 2: The Streets DVD release party. Step Up 2: The Streets comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 15. If you're a dancing freak, this has some amazing dance sequences and will surely be a welcomed addition to your collection and even if you're an non-rhythmic person like myself, you can surely appreciate the amount of talent on display here. Peace in. Gallagher out!