Three years ago, Bronx teen Kenny Bermudez had a choice: He could join a gang and sell drugs or get serious about dance. He picked dance, and Sunday night he'll show off his signature "drunken whale" headstand and aerial flips on the 9 p.m. season debut of MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew."
His seven-member group, Bronx-based Rhythm City, is one of two New York City crews battling in the synchronized hip-hop dance competition.

"I was a little bad boy," Bermudez, 19, said during a break from rehearsals on a giant circular stage that throbbed with bass, strobes and stomping feet. "I grew up around gang violence. I felt pressured into doing stuff, picking on people."The turning point came when a classmate's brother was shot in the head during a feud steps from where Bermudez was riding a scooter.

"It could have been me. It was a life-changing moment. I didn't want to end up dead or in jail. I separated myself from that," the Baychester teen said. He joined Rhythm City, founded by dancer Alonzo Williams, 27. The troupe competes around the world, appears in music videos and runs classes at the Bronxdale Community Center.

Williams says he feels pressure to win the $100,000 prize because West Coast crews triumphed the first three seasons. "Everyone is underrating the East Coast. We feel the rivalry," he said. "We have a lot riding on us with the history of hip hop coming from the Bronx. It's pretty heavy on us."

The show starts out with nine crews and, with the help of viewer voters, one is eliminated every week until the winner is crowned by producer Randy Jackson of "American Idol" fame. To take home the Golden B-Boy trophy, Rhythm City will have to outdance Manhattan-based Vogue Evolution - the series' first openly gay crew, which is banking on signature catwalking, dips, spins and model-like poses.

"Right now, the first thing people look at is the fact that we're LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender]," said Leonardo (Leiomy) Maldonado, 22, a transgender dancer from Castle Hill, the Bronx.
"We want them to forget about what we represent. It's more about the dancing and the talent. A lot of people are using our moves, but we don't get the recognition of where it's coming from."Vogue Evolution's opening routine ends with Maldonado spinning like a dervish until she falls straight back in a dramatic "suicide dip."
"People think I'm going to drop and hurt myself, but it's graceful," she said. "I've been doing this for almost six years."