ASHE to host virtual dance competition

The ASHE performing arts group will be hosting its first ever virtual dance and cheer competition this month, and the group is urging local performers to submit entries to be part of the historic event.

The contest, which is being hosted as part of the group's social media outreach programme, The Tabs Project, will culminate on July 18 and will be theme-centred to spread different messages about health and wellness.

"The Tabs Project is a social media project run by ASHE, and we're putting on, for the first time, an online health expo which will incorporate a dance and cheer competition," said ASHE's integrated marketing and communications lead, Ifidel Williams. "Initially, we were going to have a big health fair ,where we would have people coming in and getting free tests and free check-ups done. But with the advent of COVID, we decided to make everything online, and you know ASHE is always about excitement and involvement, and so we thought, how better to engage the young people than to do some things that they love."

Williams told Dancers' Paradise that in keeping with ASHE's mandate to educate through entertainment, the crews that enter will be asked to create their choreographies and routines to pre-selected health-related themes.

"This competition is a part of a health expo, and so, naturally, we have to educate as we entertain. Crews will be asked to create routines and cheers on a particular theme. So it could be condom use, COVID-19, or HIV," he said. "Entertainment as we know it is not happening right now, and we don't know when they're going to fly the gate. So in the meantime, we at ASHE are trying to create ways and means, strategies, and outlets to encourage creativity and keep the space active."

Each interested crew can send a WhatsApp message with the crew's name to 876-504-2119, and an automatic response with the registration form will be generated.

Crews will be asked to submit one-minute videos of themselves in their element after which they will be contacted by phone to be briefed on the rules and regulations.

Shortlisted crews will then be invited to a location where they will be given their themes and filmed as they put their choreography together. The final edit of that video will be made available for social media, where voting will take place.

Registration closes next Friday. Crews are competing for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. The competition winners will be announced at the expo on July 18.