Hip Hop Group/Crew Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A crew of four or more dancers performing one hip hop routine together, entered by the average age of the crew and judged on choreography, technique, musicality, performance and how tightly the group moves as one.

A hip hop crew is a team of dancers who train, choreograph and perform as a single unit. In competition the class is simply called Group/Crew: four or more dancers share one routine in a street-dance idiom, built on grounded bounces and grooves, sharp hits, freezes, footwork and travelling patterns. Because the whole crew is marked together, the panel is looking at two things at once: whether each dancer has the style, and whether the group looks like one body with many arms.

On the hip hop competition template this page is written from, which belongs to a hip hop dance competition held in Blacktown, New South Wales, Group/Crew is a separate section from the solo and the duo/trio classes. It is divided into five crew divisions by the average age of the dancers on the day: Lil Crews (8 and under), Junior Crews (10 and under), Young Guns Crews (12 and under), Varsity Crews (14 and under) and Open Crews (15 and over). Because the cut-off is an average, an older dancer can join a younger crew as long as the group as a whole still falls inside the division, so a coordinator needs each member’s age before deciding where a crew belongs.

A round is one performance on stage. The crew is announced, the music starts and the adjudicators watch the whole routine from entrance to final pose. A crew has at least four dancers and there is no printed maximum, so a section can contain anything from a compact quartet to a large troupe filling the stage. Routines run between two and five minutes, and a crew that goes over may be penalised or stopped at the competition director’s discretion. Boys and girls compete together and no language is set.

The panel marks five lines: Choreography and Creativity, Execution and Technique, Musicality and Timing, Performance and Presence, and Group Synchronisation. The syllabus prints no marks for each line, no total and no grade bands, and leaves placings and awards to the sole discretion of the panel. In eTalenter the item is therefore set up as a nominal mark out of 100, with no criteria installed, and the organiser records whatever total their judges agree and lets the ranking produce the placings.

Where Hip Hop Group/Crew comes from

The word crew comes from the street and club scene in which hip hop dance took shape in New York in the 1970s, where dancers formed named groups that practised together and challenged one another in cyphers. Competition studios later borrowed the name for any organised team of hip hop dancers.

Where Hip Hop Group/Crew is run

In eTalenter data Hip Hop Group/Crew appears on one template, a New South Wales hip hop dance competition with solo, duo/trio and crew sections, so this page describes only what that template carries. Crew classes are a staple of street-dance and studio competitions in Australia, the United Kingdom and North America, but the divisions, minimum numbers and time limits differ from event to event.

• Australia

Key facts

• Team item: a crew of at least four dancers with no printed upper limit, performing one routine.
• Five divisions by the average age of the crew: Lil (8 and under), Junior (10 and under), Young Guns (12 and under), Varsity (14 and under) and Open (15 and over).
• Time limit: routines run from two to five minutes; going over may be penalised or stopped at the director’s discretion.
• Five judging lines are named (choreography and creativity, execution and technique, musicality and timing, performance and presence, group synchronisation) but no marks are printed, so the page claims no weighting.
• Mixed gender and no language requirement; placings are at the sole discretion of the judging panel.
• Idea starters, not rules: a routine that opens in a single tight block and splits into two lines by the second chorus, a canon where each row repeats the same eight counts half a beat apart, a freeze that travels along the front line like a wave, a finish where the crew compresses into one shape or around a single prop.

On eTalenter, Hip Hop Group/Crew is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Hip Hop Group/Crew is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 5 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Hip Hop Group/Crew

What a Hip Hop Group/Crew panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Choreography and creativity: a routine with a shape, using changes of level, direction and formation, with ideas that belong to the crew rather than a copy of a viral video, and difficulty that suits the youngest and the weakest dancer in it.
• Execution and technique: clean isolations, controlled footwork and secure freezes from every member, since the panel will notice the dancer who is behind the group more than the one who is ahead.
• Musicality and timing: hits landing on accents in the track, moves that respond to changes in the music, and a routine cut so that the breaks and builds are used rather than ignored.
• Performance and presence: shared attitude and eye focus, facial energy that holds to the last count, and a crew that looks pleased to be on stage rather than counting steps.
• Group synchronisation: unison in timing, matched heights and angles on freezes, even spacing, and formation changes that arrive on the same count without a visible shuffle or a gap.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Hip Hop Group/Crew under Scoring Setup, or start from the full group dance judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Hip Hop Group/Crew

How entrants and their teachers usually get Hip Hop Group/Crew right on the day:

• Decide the division first: add up every dancer’s age on the day of the competition and divide by the number of dancers, so the crew enters where it belongs before choreography is fixed.
• Choose a number of dancers the stage and the choreographer can manage; four dancers who are precisely together beat ten who are approximately together.
• Cut the music to fit inside the five-minute ceiling with room to spare, and build it with a clear intro, build, break and finish so each section has a job.
• Teach the routine in layers: first the groove and basic step on a count with no choreography, then eight counts at a time, then each formation change, and only then the full routine to music.
• Rehearse formation changes with floor marks or taped dots until every dancer arrives on the same count, then remove the marks and repeat so no one is relying on them.
• Film from the judges’ position and from above if possible, and check who is hidden for long stretches, whether spacing holds and whether the freezes read as one picture.
• Run the full routine three times in a row at performance energy, in the shoes and clothes to be worn, so stamina in the final minute matches the opening.
• After a result, ask the panel or the teacher which of the five lines cost the most and spend the next rehearsal block on that single line.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hip Hop Group/Crew judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

How many dancers make a hip hop crew?

On the template this page is written from, a crew has at least four dancers and no maximum is printed. Other events set their own numbers, so check the rules before choosing the line-up.

How is a crew’s age division decided?

By the average age of the dancers, not by the oldest or youngest member. The template uses five divisions, from Lil Crews at 8 and under to Open Crews at 15 and over.

How long can a crew routine be?

Between two and five minutes on this template. A routine over the limit may be penalised or stopped at the director’s discretion.

Is a hip hop crew the same as a hip hop troupe?

They are the same kind of act, a team performing one routine together, but different events use different names and different rules. This page describes the crew class on one template; the Hip Hop Troupe page describes the troupe class on four others.

Is a crew judged on each dancer or as a team?

As a team: the crew gets one result. One of the five judging lines is group synchronisation, so a dancer who is out of time costs the whole crew marks.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full group dance judging criteria guide, or browse every dance competition item.