Encomium
The women folk fought back what had seemed like oppression from the men folk at the three-week long auditions of the dance reality TV show, Dance with Peter sponsored by Globacom, by winning the hearts of the judges in the quest for the available six tickets at the Port Harcourt audition of the show on Thursday night.
The Port Harcourt audition was the last in a series of auditions in four major Nigerian cities and the capital city of Ghana, Accra. All the previous auditions were dominated by the boys who dazzled the judges with their brilliance.
But at the Port Harcourt audition, the ladies put up a stiff resistance replicating nearly all the tricks up the sleeves of the boys.
The development was applauded by Dance star, Kaffy, who said the outcome would encourage more women to embrace dancing as a profession.
The Port Harcourt audition presented the last opportunity for those interested in participating at the show. Consequently, many of the contestants who narrowly missed securing qualifying tickets from the previously held auditions travelled to Port Harcourt to try their luck for the final time.
Contestants from Lagos particularly outshone their peers from other regions, including the host city. The Lagos boys and girls were the first to break the ice by securing the nod of the judges to go into the next round of the competition.
This development made the promoter of the show, Peter Okoye of Psquare to jump up from his seat in exasperation at some point. He walked to where the dancers were waiting for their turns to climb the stage, and charged the local contestants to raise their game.
“Port Harcourt, what is happening? You are hosting this audition. Why are you breaking my heart by letting people who came all the way from Lagos to run away with the tickets? This region is richly talented. It’s just that you people are not taking it as seriously as those guys from Lagos have taken it,” he said as he urged them to put more pep into their performances.
Also at the audition was a talented group of dancers who said they were at the audition because they believed dance was the ticket to get their families out of grinding poverty.
Speaking before the commencement of audition, the leader of the group named Expression, Tunde Olaleye, said the team including a five-year old dance prodigy, Samson Oladipupo, came together to eke a living out of dancing, considering the poor conditions of their individual families.
“I am from a very humble background. My parents are from Osun State, but are in Port Harcourt to hustle and we also need to put in our own efforts to ensure that we are alive and well,” he said.
Olaleye said that when not doing menial jobs to keep body and soul together, members of the group performed at private and public functions and sustained themselves and their families with whatever they received as payments. He said the group was determined to focus on dance as a means of economically empowering themselves and their families.
Their routine at the audition included some stunts and daring dance moves, the climax of which was the multiple back flips by the five year-old member of the group. The group also wowed the judges by creatively forming a motorcycle with their bodies at one point in their performance.
Over 300 individuals and groups fought for the available six qualifying tickets from the Port Harcourt audition.
A total of 30 contestants from the five auditions will now assemble in Lagos where they will slug it out for the star prize of N3million, a Rav4 SUV and a rare opportunity to feature in PSquare next music video. Also available for grab is a Honda City plus N2m and a Kia Rio with N1m for the first and second runners-up respectively. The first and second runners up will also have the grace to dance with a Glo ambassador each in their next music videos.
