Judges and International Competitions

Abstract

This chapter continues to emphasize embodied critiques against liberal multiculturalism and post-raciality by turning to large-scale commercial competitions and their increasing role in rejuvenating street dance globally. The chapter focuses on the World Hip-Hop Dance Championships (HHI), which enlists judges to watch more than 3,500 dancers from over fifty countries. With an analysis of judges and their practices from 2012 to 2014, the chapter shows that their standardization euphemizes racial, gender, ethnic, and technical difference. At the same time, the chapter reveals dance criticism that undermines the stereotype of Filipinos as naturally gifted dancers in the cultural imaginary. Discourse around dance judging enables discussions of how multiple ethnic traditions are codified similarly amidst a vexed desire for hip-hop universalism.