Las Vegas break dance troupe Knucklehead Zoo competing in Ultimate B-Boy Championships

The break dancers of Knucklehead Zoo were featured in the movie documentary "Planet B-boy," had their own show in a Broadway-district theater and received a hero's welcome in Seoul, Korea.

But here? It's more like, Knucklehead who?

"I feel like we've never got recognition in Las Vegas. It kind of sucks because it's our hometown," says Alfonso Echeverria (B-boy alias: Fonzie). "We're one of the best teams from the world and we're from Vegas. We want to represent Vegas but I don't know, Vegas doesn't really have that hometown feel."

Teammate Abenamar Honrubia (B-boy alias: B-boy Ben) agrees. "Everything is so enormous here, if something's coming from the culture of Vegas or from the people, it's kind of overlooked."

But there is another side to this story.

What if you did want to see Knucklehead Zoo compete? Or pay to watch them do a show here in town? Good luck. Hometown pride in the crew begins and ends on YouTube.

That changes today and Saturday, with the Ultimate B-boy Championships at the MGM Grand Garden. The competition pulls the once underground B-boy culture further into the mainstream.

The Strip location is "huge for us," Honrubia says. "We're hoping this is just the beginning of packed arenas all over the world. People just need to see what it is now, what level of entertainment and athleticism we're at. It's just as good or just as entertaining as any other sport that's out there."

Today's break dancing isn't so different from the popping, locking and head-spinning '80s fad that came and went like Jennifer Beals' "Flashdance" leg warmers. At a recent practice in a most anti-hip-hop setting -- a ritzy clubhouse in Henderson's Anthem development -- the moves are still familiar: One at a time, the guys step up with a liquid gait and then -- Bam! They're upside down and twirling almost as fast as the eye can follow.

What has changed is that B-boys made their way back to MTV, via "Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew." And the first season's winners, the masked Jabbawockeez, are the breakout surprise in a dismal year for shows on the Strip.

Jabbawockeez are guest stars at the championship, before returning to the MGM's Hollywood Theater for a third run of their "MUS.I.C" show Aug. 19-25. Last week, the group promoted the run on the top-rated "America's Got Talent."

"They've got really loyal fans and a lot of those fans were flying out just to see the show," says Honrubia, who was part of the troupe's expanded cast at the MGM. "It kind of goes to show dancing's starting to pull weight."

No one would have predicted this five years ago. "I'm so amazed that in such a short time us kids took it to something totally different and innovative. Took it to the next level," says 23-year-old Miguel Olague (B-boy alias: Mig 187), who commutes from Salt Lake City to be part of the Zoo.

The comeback is not at all coincidental with the rise of YouTube. Internet video "globalized" a community that once had to trade VHS tapes to see faraway competitions, Olague says.

But a higher profile has demanded more structure -- and more theater -- of a proudly disorganized movement.

"We've had to learn. The whole game has changed," says Honrubia. The Green Valley High School graduate was de facto choreographer for "Rewind," the Zoo's limited New York run at the youth-oriented New Victory Theater in 2008. "There are competitions where you can't even battle unless you have a good show."

The MGM competition covers both bases. Today it's one-on-one competition with a chosen member from the eight international teams (including an all-female one from Japan), followed by a five-minute show from each group. Knucklehead plans a Vegas-themed poker-game sketch.

Saturday brings tournament-style competition, continuing an international effort to develop a formal scoring system.

"The first day is to make people laugh, then the next day is serious: 'Let's win this,' " Echeverria explains. At 32, he's the oldest "by far" of the 10-man team and was drawn to "the athleticism" of break dancing. "I always felt that one day there will be judged competitions. That always kind of drove me."

Lately the troupe has been driven by the promise, so far denied, of an MTV reality show. "They were all just teasing us, like feeding cheese to a bunch of rats," Echeverria says.

He thinks the Zoo could hold its own on the "Jersey Shore" channel. "I can party hard and train hard, straight up. If you're gonna party hard, you gotta wake up and the next day and train hard."

And can Snooki say she partied so hard in Iceland that she got lost in a snowstorm? "We're a bunch of wild animals, to tell the truth. We've definitely had a lot of adventures, from the Middle East, to China to Iceland, France, Germany."

Olague says break dancing can appeal to the inner self, too. "It's an adrenaline rush, something for your soul. You're a part of something bigger than yourself. It gives you that something in life. Everybody needs something. For a lot of us, this is it."

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