“We wanted to express a Chinese philosophy: the path to enlightenment has no gate. Everyone enters the path out of love and continues because of passion. Constraints and opposition only distance people from their original passion,“ he explained, adding that this philosophy resonates not just in dance but across all fields where young people are redefining their paths.

　　To integrate the performance with face-changing, one of the most famous and mysterious kinds of dramatic art in Sichuan Opera, the 30-member team practiced for six months, inviting Yu Dan, an inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage, as their instructor.

　　Fang said each rehearsal felt like dancing on a knife's edge -- one missed beat could collapse the entire performance.

　　“Mistakes never stopped. But we were willing to take that risk,“ Fang said.

　　Du Xiaofan, an 11-year-old dancer, said the team was penalized for exceeding the time limit to preserve the story's integrity. Still, they believed expressing their creative spirit was more important than the ranking.

　　“When you pour all your passion into a work and stop thinking about winning or losing, you'll truly hear the roar of the audience,“ said Du.

　　The performance was uploaded online and won wide praise from netizens.

　　“I love the intro. It's amazing with the changing mask. That's really hard to pull of,“ said a post under the name “madgorilla4888“ on the social media platform of Youtube.

　　Following the competition, Homies quickly gained attention from U.S. media, expanding the influence of their work beyond the street dance community to a broader global audience.