What’s behind those pale, featureless masks of the Jabbawockeez dance troupe?
The mystery is part of the magic.

“We wanted to strip the identities of the dancers to make audiences watch us as a whole,” says Jabbawockeez member Phi. “We didn’t want to be looked at like, ‘There’s a black guy or an Asian kid dancing.”’
The masks are a statement of the universal appeal of hip-hop, Phi says.
“We’re ’80s babies and we grew up watching the (hip-hop) movies ‘Beat Street’ and ‘Krush Groove’ and we grew up within the hip-hop community,” he says.
“Hip-hop is something you live and it’s all about unity and having fun and it’s colorblind. You go to Japan and there’s hip-hop and you go to France and some of the best graffiti writers in the world are there.”
The multicultural Jabbawockeez, winners of the first season of MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” in early 2008, entered the mainstream when basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal donned a mask and danced with the troupe during his introduction at February’s NBA All-Star Game.
“We didn’t know what he had planned, but he asked for a mask and we said ‘Uh, sure!,”’ says Phi, also known as Jeff Nguyen of Phoenix.
The performance — in which the Jabbawockeez surrounded Shaq while he breakdanced — gave the crew a whole new dimension of popularity.
“I was in a sports bar and there were some businessmen sitting there watching a game and one of them says, ”Hey, didn’t you do an interview? You’re one of the Jabbawockeez — you guys are amazing!“’ Phi says.
The Jabbawockeez — created in 2003 in California — are leading a national dance revival.
“I have 75 boys,” says George “Geo” Hubela, co-owner of the Icon Dance Complex in Englishtown. “That’s unheard of in a dance school.”
Hubela’s Iconic dance crew competed in season one of “America’s Best Dance Crew” along with Jabbawockeez.
The reason for the popularity of dance?
“Television,” Hubela says. “Absolutely. These TV shows have really helped. These kids are watching it on TV and thinking ‘it could be me.’”
Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” kicked things off in 2005 — the first season debuted shortly after “Dancing With the Stars,” which features celeb and pro dancers. Then the Randy Jackson-produced “America’s Best Dance Crew” on MTV shifted things into a higher gear.
The dancers on the competition shows are getting paid these days, incidentally. Phi and Hubela are pleased with the heightened status of dancers.
“When we were on ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’ we were not paid except for a stipend for food or expenses,” says Hubela. “We work as hard as professional athletes.”
“It’s like we were a novelty act or court jesters,” Phi says. “We weren’t taken seriously but dance nowadays is huge.”