Search for country’s best school dance crews

CEBU, Philippines - Following the success of its first dance tilt, Smart Prepaid has launched a much bigger Smart Jump In Dance-Off competition this year, offering the best school dance crews over P4 million worth of prizes and a chance to become its brand ambassadors.

Touted as the largest interschool street dance competition in the country, Smart Jump In Dance-Off aims to give students a bigger stage to show their dancing chops to the world. This year, Smart Jump In casts a wider net for the country’s talented movers as it opens the competition to the elementary level, in addition to high school and college categories.

The initial phase of the competition will be done through online auditions that will run until August 12, 2014.

Hotbed of talents

“After the overwhelming response we got last year, we have leveled up this year’s Jump In Dance-Off competition – with bigger prizes and a new elementary category – to encourage talented dancers to give a shot at their dream even at a very young age,” said Joel Lumanlan, Smart Prepaid head.

“We see the Smart Jump In Dance-Off as a hotbed of high-caliber talents who may follow the footsteps of the country’s world-renowned street dance crews like the UP Street Dance, Philippine AllStars, and the La Salle Dance Company, among many others,” Lumanlan added.

Springboard to the world stage

In September last year, the all-girl Sayawatha Dance Troupe of Miriam College bagged the championship of the Smart Jump In Dance-Off high school category, while the FMD Extreme of Saint John Bosco Institute of Arts and Science in San Mateo, Rizal bagged the top plum in the college category.

FMD Extreme’s victory served as the team’s springboard to the world stage three months later, when they emerged as the winner of the Open Division of the World Supremacy Battlegrounds, an international hip-hop dance competition in Australia.

Two-minute video auditions

To join the online auditions, each dance group must have 12 to 16 members from the same elementary, high school or college – all subscribers of Smart Jump In SIM or regular Smart Prepaid. The members of the group may be all males, all females or a mix of males and females, 10 to 24 years old.

Interested groups must make a two-minute video with all the members showing their best moves to their choice of music. Video must be in mp4, .mov, .flv, .mpeg, .wmv, or .avi format to be submitted online via the official contest site www.smartjumpin.com/danceoff2.

Dance groups will be judged based on their visual and artistic expression, technical execution, and musicality.

Workshops under top dance coaches

Those who will pass the online auditions will be invited to the live regional screenings in the different spots of the country in August and September. The top teams will battle it out in the grand finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on October 5.

“Aside from the chance to win cash prizes, the final teams will also have the chance to attend a much-coveted workshop under the country’s top dance coaches and even perform alongside their favorite artists. So we are calling all qualified dance groups to make that first step to realizing their goals,” Lumanlan added.

To read the complete mechanics, visit smartjumpin.com/danceoff2. For more updates, also follow the official Smart Jump In account on Facebook (www.facebook.com/SmartJumpIn) and official Smart Twitter account (@SMARTCares).  (FREEMAN)