Popping Forever Preselections Battles Battle 21 augustus 2025

Popping Forever Preselections & Battles 2025

Thursday 21 August 2025

In Paradiso - Main Hall

Doors: 10:00, Doors close: 19:00, Main programme: 12:00

This program is part of Summer Dance Forever — an international hip-hop dance festival that brings together dancers and dance lovers from around the world for a week-long celebration. The festival showcases a wide variety of dance performances, next-level battles, soulful club nights, and energizing workshops to refresh and boost your skills. Summer Dance Forever takes place from 19–25 August at Paradiso, ITA, and DeLaMar, with a free program at Melkweg and Vondelpark Openluchttheater, and workshops at ATD and Foundation. Check out the full program here.

Program is half seated, half standing

Popping Forever brings together the Top 24 of the world’s best Popping dancers to battle it out at Paradiso. To reach the Battles, dancers must first impress the judges during the open Preselections and earn a spot in the Top 24. At the Battles, visitors are invited to watch the heat as dancers go head-to-head for a spot in the Top 3, where they’ll even face off against the three judges themselves.

This year, we’re flipping the script with a bold new format. Scroll down to see how it all works!

LINE-UP POPPING FOREVER PRESELECTION & BATTLE:

Judges:
MT Pop
Ricky
Poppin C

DJ’S:
Nobunaga
Lucas Benjamin

Hosts:
JNM the Naked MC
John Agesilas

WANT TO PARTICIPATE?

If you want to participate in the battles, you first need to register at Paradiso and participate in the Preselections. The Top 24 best dancers from the preselection will go through to the actual battle.

Minimum age for participation is 15 years.

⮕ Registration for participating dancers open from 10:00

⮕ Preselections Popping Forever from 12:00 - 14:00 (doors open at 11:00)

⮕ Battle Popping Forever from 14:30 - 19:00

HOW DO THE SDF BATTLES WORK?

Preselections: Everyone is welcome at the Preselections: whether you're participating or just there to enjoy the vibe. Dancers will hit the floor and have 45 seconds to show what they've got, hoping to impress the three judges and earn a spot in the Top 24.

Battles: In the Battles, those Top 24 dancers will go head-to-head in 1vs1 rounds to reach the Top 12, Top 6, and ultimately the Top 3. They will face off against the three Judges, who step into the battle themselves: the so called legendary Judge Battles. Don't talk about it — be about it!

New! Duo-mode: This year, SDF is flipping the script with an all-new concept. From the Judge Battles on, we switch to Duo Mode - 2vs2 battles! Each Top 3 dancer and each Judge chooses a partner from the Top 24 to form a duo. Together, they’ll battle side by side for the title. Yes... a duo takes the win!

Audience vote: And you, our audience in Paradiso and online, play a vital role… In the Semi-Finals and Final, it's up to the duos themselves to answer the legendary question: Did you win or lose? But if they can’t agree, you will have the final vote to crown our Forever champions!

Line-up

Main Hall

Summer Dance Forever

Battle Explanation Video

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How to get to Paradiso

Paradiso is on the Weteringschans 6-8 in Amsterdam. That is very close to Leidseplein. From every part of the city there are trams heading towards Leidseplein. From there on out you can walk to Paradiso. Free and secured underground bike parking is available on the opposite side of Paradiso. Travelling by car is difficult, since there are only a few busy parking lots nearby.

Google Maps

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