World’s Nr. 1 Street Dance competition arrives in Estonia

  • 2013-01-09
  • By TBT Staff

TALLINN - The long wait is finally over. Juste Debout [“just upright”], the largest and most prestigious urban dance competition in the world, arrives in Estonia this year. Juste Debout delivers the most important event of its genre in the Baltic region in 2013, and offers a gathering place for the opinion leaders of street culture.
Juste Debout will be the first truly international urban dance event ever arranged in Estonia. The winners of each competition category of the Estonian pre-selection will advance to the world finals in Paris on March 8 – 10 to compete for the desired Juste Debout Champion title.

It will be the perfect platform for Estonian street dancers to show their skills, share with the other dancers arriving from all over the world and learn from the legends of urban dance.
Juste Debout Estonia will replace on the international tour the Finnish pre-selection that has been organized in Helsinki annually since 2008.

Juste Debout is an international meeting of hip hop dancers which gathers more than 3,000 performers, selected after an international two month-long tour. Six  big disciplines are represented by it: Locking, Popping, Hip Hop New Style, House, Experimental and Top Rock.
The event, arisen from Bruce Ykanji’s initiative, founder of the Juste Debout and a renowned dancer, rewards at the end of training courses the best dancers in various disciplines. The meeting rests on values of exchange, sharing and conviviality, which will remain its trademark. It has for its vocation to make all the passionate persons dance, whether professional or amateur.

The competition is also known for its good atmosphere, good quality dancing and not the least for its judging panel that always consists of well-known characters and legends within the industry.
The main events of Juste Debout consists of two-on-two battles, in which two dancers work as a team trying to outperform the opposite couple in a specific dance style category. The music is chosen by the Juste Debout DJs and the dancers are not told of the songs in advance.

Normally, only one person dances at a time and the two teams take turns showing off. A battle finishes when each dancer has performed twice, resulting in a total of eight rounds, usually around a minute long each. Sometimes a team chooses to spontaneously replace or extend one of their rounds with a choreographed routine performed together for added effect, which is allowed. After each battle, a group of four judges decides the winning team, which moves them closer to the finals. In the end, a winning couple is chosen for each of the four dance style categories.

The other 15 pairs will qualify from the pre-selections organized in Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea, USA, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Greece, Sweden and France.
Outside of the battles, the Juste Debout events often include a number of shows from both the judges and invited guests, as well as dance parties that are open for all to join. The Grand Finale will be organized at the Bercy Arena in Paris, where the 2012 final attracted more than 18,000 spectators!


Juste Debout Estonia 2013
Feb. 9 – 12:00
Nokia Concert Hall, Tallinn
Ticket price 19 euros
Tickets can be purchased at: www.ticketpro.ee