Masked dance crew offers the ultimate in teamwork

Here's an old cliche made newly literal: When Chris Gatdula dances, even his own mother wouldn't know him.

That's the idea anyway. (A mother always knows.)

The Las Vegas native is part of Jabbawockeez, the hip-hop dance troupe you might recognize for not recognizing them. Its members wear identical masks and gloves, creating the ultimate democracy.

"You don't think of race or culture. You can't stereotype it," Gatdula says of the dance crew that opens today in the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre. "Jabbawockeez is very pure."

Its founders realized early on they needed an attention-getter to get a leg up in a dance contest where most competitors already knew one another. "We try to be like ninjas," Gatdula says with a laugh. "Come in, show people what we do, and then just vanish."

They also discovered that when audiences aren't picking out their personal favorites, they better notice the collective geometry of the 11-man effort.

"We just wanted people to more appreciate the movement and the art behind it," Gatdula says. "There's nobody really highlighted. So it's just about the music and movement. It's really for the art of dancing."

Anonymous as individuals, the troupe collectively gained a high profile on television. It was the shoo-in winner for the first season of MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew," and had even more mainstream guest appearances on "Dancing with the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance."

"TV helped boost our credit in the mainstream world," says Gatdula, a 1999 Cimarron High School graduate. "Maybe it would have been a long time if we had never been on TV. We probably could have been part of Cirque (du Soleil) or something like that.

"It's amazing how they're choosing a dance crew to actually be featured in Vegas."

Indeed. But then again, some may remember a day without blue guys banging on PVC pipes. Like the Blue Man Group, Jabbawockeez perhaps carries the burden of proof that it can deliver in the long form instead of just five-minute bursts.

"We're actually putting a whole story together," Gatdula says of the production titled "MÜS.I.C" (read "Muse I see"). "Hopefully, by the end of this show, (viewers) will be able to figure what their muse is."

And by then, Gatdula's family may have spotted him as well.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.