Robotboys

**Robotboys** was a Popping Dance Duo act from FantasyAGT: Battle of the Champions. They were eliminated in the Preliminaries.

## Background

Nick Nitro (born 1986) and  Jeppe Long (born 1989) met around 2004 when they were both very young.

Copenhagen had – and still has – a proud tradition of groundbreaking street dance originating from world famous popper/locker Steen Koerner AKA Mr. Steen AKA Boogie Steen AKA Eugene Blade, who was co-founder of streetdance group Out of Control (1987) along with Kenneth Fogel.

From 2004, both Nick and Jeppe were part of nestor Steens famous theater show The Nutcracker – a highly acclaimed modern hiphop–version of Hoffmann’s adventure, that won a theater award ”Reumert” for best dance show the same year.

Working together in combination with various other dancers in groups like Natural Effects and Big City Brains, Nick and Jeppe found out they shared the same dream of combining old classic mime techniques and commedia del arte with impressions from movies, video games, cartoons and all the other stuff from the international entertainment industry they share with all the other members of the first computer-generation.

It soon turned out their very different physical Laurel & Hardy-like appearance was a huge advantage.

Before the duo even had a name they teamed up for battles, and later on in 2006 for a popular Talent show called ”Scenen er din” (= The stage is all yours). They didn’t win, but they were higly praised by specialist judge Peter Bo Bendixen, Artistic Director of the Ballet in Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, who called their act close to “world class”.

Gaining experience by being part of theatre shows like Steen Koerners version of “The Sylph” and music videos like popular rockband Nephew’s “Igen og igen og” they started to develop their own style. After winning Juste Debout Scandinavia in Stockholm, Sweden in 2008, they decided to enter the first season of ”Denmark’s Got Talent”.

Their audition for Got Talent (See under LINKS) aired on tv while they were busy working with Steen Koerner’s ”Pierrot the Vampire” on the Pantomime theatre in Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen along with Koichiro Mori (Japan) and David Boyd from New Politics.

When the Got Talent live shows aired, they made one of their most popular shows ever: “The Symphony of the Robot Police” The almost iconic grafical intro with the boys in silver robot police uniforms in front of a red background, counting seconds and curling time using their arms as hands on a clock was extremely well received by the audience and the female judge – while the 2 male judges rambled on about not liking the costumes..

This was the birth of the name Robotdrengene (=Robotboys) – it was really just something the tv-host named them..but it caught on. A few weeks later, Robotboys were declared winners of the Got Talent 2008-competition with the Angel-Devil show, and eventually found out that some organizing was called for!

With no experience in dealing with PR and media on a larger scale, the boys did not think of uploading their shows on Youtube right away!

But others did! And did they get views!! It is probably not possible to count how many copies of the popular semi final show there is on Youtube. The first copy got 5 mill views before it was taken down for some technical reason. Since then the boys lost count of all the copies, but one of the copies on Youtube right now gets almost 1 mill views pr month!

And that’s not the only way it is copied: RB regularly gets mails about young dancers all over the globe who have danced this chorography and even won their local Talent shows with it. For instance this Indian version– edited and mixed with the original as documentation..

The duo toured a lot the following years, Russia, Austria, England, Germany, Poland, Lathvia, Italy, UK – getting offers from all over the world, as the copy of the winner video reached well over 14 million views – untill one day that too was taken down by the unknown uploader without warning.

Goodbye to 14 mill. views..a lesson learned: Upload your videos yourself

Since then, they learned their lesson: From now on, they uploaded everything on their own Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/user/robotdrengene

Unfortunately, that does not stop others from copying their shows, but at least now it is possible to point fans to a channel where everything is in best possible quality.

The following years they have made several shows, all very different from each other. Remote Control, Robotboys 2050 – in 2011 the ground breaking Dubstepic.

The idea of dancing to dubstep originated from fans writing comments on other shows on Youtube and Facebook. Robotboys stay in close contact with the audience – not in direct dialogue, as they are extremely busy – but they watch and listen and consider good ideas.

When they joined Copenhagen Choreographer’s Competition 2011, it was a good chance to test the dubstep concept on a large stage. They didn’t win the prize that year – but they certainly won the hearts and respect of both the audience present at Østre Gasværk Theater and the 3 million people who watched the show online during the first year, as they published it shortly before going to San Francisco to do a show on San Francisco HipHop Dance Festival.

Of course the new show was put to the test in USA too, and was a huge succes!

At the same time a reccuring request from fans was finally met: Robotboys published an album with their own compositions with the simple and obvious title: Robotboys: The Music. The boys make most of their music themselves, which makes show preparation extra demanding.

The year 2011 ended with a trip to Lithuania and a children’s theatre show “Cykelmyggen Egon”.

2012 has been a year of many travels: Netherlands,  Ukraine, Berlin (Germany), USA doing a private show, Cairo (Egypt) twice, – the first time as guests on a big show, that also presented ILuminate from USA.

An invitation to perform at UK B-Boys Championship in London resulted in an updated Dubstepic show.

InstruMentality And in October 2012 once again it was time for Copenhagen Choreographer’s Competition. Robotboys prepared music, choreography and costumes for their new show Instrumentality for month.

Getting ready for CCC Oct 2012

The competition took place at Denmarks Royal Theatre’s Old Stage, and judges Alexander Kølpin, Toniah Pedersen, Misha Gabriel (US choreographer and actor, known for dancing mainly in the shows of Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson, and for his role as Eddie in ”Step Up Revolution”) og Louya K-yul (FR) lead by Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Ballet, Nikolaj Hübbe declared Robotboys as winners!

On Facebook, Robotboys has more than 35.000 fans. On Youtube their shows has been watched more than 70 million times! [1]

## Preliminary

Robotboys' preliminary performance in Episode BC04 consisted of performing robotic dancing. Mike, Saf and Fresh all gave the duo standing ovations. Their performance was not strong enough for the judges to send them to Judge Cuts, eliminating them from the competition instead of Kenichi Ebina.