KABA Modern stars want to come back to Saipan

The shining stars of the dance group KABA Modern promised to come back to Saipan some other time after learning how fans here responded to their visit.

The group, which was a finalist in MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” earlier this year, served as judges in the first ever search for CNMI’s Best Dance Crew held Nov. 9 at the jam-packed Marianas High School Gym.

“It’s amazing,” Cindy Minowa, one of the stars of the group, said after their live performance before close to 2,000 screaming fans that filled the gym to the rafters.

Minowa said it feels great to learn that fans look up to them.

“We have achieved our purpose. We just came from Hawaii and Guam seven hours ago and we’re still tired but when you see a lot of fans showing their admiration for us, it really touches your heart and you have to make sure you give them the best performance. And we have done our job well,” Minowa said.

“This is something we love to do,” she said.

Minowa has high respect for all the groups that competed but she said there must be a winner.

She said the champion team, I-Candy, really showed a lot of potential and she expects them to keep improving on their talents and skills.

“They were really so great today,” Minowa said.

Another member, Lawrence Kao, said I-Candy is going in the right direction.

“I’m positive they will go a long way and I’m looking forward to seeing them on MTV,” he said.

The four other members of the group are Mike Song, Jia Huang, Tony Tran, and Yuri Tag. They came with their manager and founder Arnel Calvario, who also performed with them at the show.

CNMI’s best dance crew winner I-Candy and KABA Modern crew joined some 300 special guests at the Club V on Sunday night.

The occasion was to give recognition to all the major donors for the Northern Marianas College.

Ed Arriola Jr., producer of the first ever CNMI’s best dance crew competition, said the stars of KABA Modern had promised to come back to Saipan to have another live performance.

But before that, the group will have a tour of Asia in the next few weeks.

Kao said they are invited this week to perform in Hawaii. Their next stop will be South Africa and Japan at the end of this year.

“More and more shows are in the planning stage. We hope to see the fans here again some other chance,” Kao said.