If you’re a dance reality show fanatic like I am, then you’ve been watching World of Dance since it’s premier season in summer of 2017. Your eyes were glued to the screen as Eva Igo and Les Twins battled it out for first place, with Igo losing by .6 of a point and the French duo winning a well-deserved title in the nail-biting finale. During the first season, you would have also seen (and loved) The Lab, a junior division group who slayed every performance, until booted out of the competition in the aptly named round “The Cut”. These kids had everything: talent, personality, technique and creativity. The came back this year for season two, served looks, performed tricks, and finally won the title.
The Lab hails from a Los Angeles-based creative arts studio. Clearly experienced performers, they own the stage every time they dance. This group of multi-racial, talented dancers, diverse in age, height, and body size, already won the 2015 USA Hip Hop championship for their division. It’s very clear by watching them that they are trained to perform competitively and never hold back. This season, they won the judges over with their storytelling and creativity every time, a huge thanks to their choreographer: dancer Dominic “D-Trix” Sandoval, a two-time winner of America’s Best Dance Crew and member of nationally ranked Quest Crew.
Immediately from their qualifying performance, anyone could tell that The Lab were back to take the title that they did not get a chance to continue fighting for last season. Returning with more mature choreography, they were just as fierce with their performance and exceeded all expectations. Their “Duels” performance was equally as impressive, as they flipped around the stage and threw tricks to a remix of “Lean Back” by Terror Squad. In this performance, they wore completely matching costumes, something that they never do, and about thirty seconds through they pulled down the cloth that was covering their faces to reveal ferocious expressions.
The Lab’s performance in “The Cut” — the round that was their last in the first season — really set them apart from other groups as they opted for a more emotional performance, highlighting one of their female dancers and expressing unity, family, and love through their movements to Justin Bieber’s “Cold Water”. This performance in particular had the judges in tears and the audience wanting them to advance forward.
The Division Finals were another fantastic performance for The Lab as they danced a crazy competitive piece to “Lemon” by NERD and Rihanna. Up against crowd favorites The Fabulous Sisters and The Rock Company, The Lab showed just how easily they could take down their competition in this dance. Pulling out all the stunts and fierce looks they could, the easily won this Division Final and moved forward to compete in the finals against contemporary duo Charity and Andres, hip-hop group S-Rank, and emotional performer Michael Dameski. They had their work cut out for them.
In the Division Finals, they danced to judge Ne-Yo’s song choice “Work It” by Missy Elliot, and their own choice of John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change”. Of course, each performance was flawless, and The Lab beat perfect-scoring Charity and Andres and contender Michael Damaski for the title by 1.5 points, making them well-deserved champions of season two, winners of one million dollars, and the world’s best dancers.
Watch The Lab’s full performance here!