Last weekend Chennai would have definitely noticed a storm coming. Only this time it was brewing on stage at the Sri Mutha VenkataSubba Rao Concert Hall, Lady Andal School. After battling it out at the prelims, 10 teams made it to the finals and set the stage on fire with their power-packed performances. The finalists were SSN College of Engineering, Women’s Christian College (Evening), SRM University (Teams 1 and 2), Stella Maris College, NIT-Tiruchi, Loyola College (Girls and Boys Teams), Anna University, Madras Institute of Technology. Judging the event were actor Ashok and dancer-choreographer John Britto, who kept an eye out for style and variety.
Coming as a pleasant surprise this year was the increased number of women participating — either as all-girl teams or along with the boys. They matched up to the boys not just in numbers but in power and attitude too. Hand stands, jumps, energy…if the boys could do it, they could too, leaving the judges with a tough task for the evening. But remaining unchanged was the fact that hip hop once again dominated the show, with a bit of jazz and freestyle thrown in.
Gangnam style too was the flavour of the season (no surprise there!) with a few teams mixing that up in their tracks, besides a few surprises like pop songs including Boney M’s Rasputin!
Winners all
Each college used their seven minutes in the best way possible hip-hopping, locking, popping, B-buoying and intermittently defying the law of gravity. From pretty dolls coming to life to sporting gas masks and headphones, each team made it a point to stand out on stage. The team from Women’s Christian College won the Special Prize as they impressed the judges with their hard core dancing, attitude, style and props.
NIT-Tiruchi had everyone’s attention with a railway announcement of the arrival of a train from Tiruchi and a performance that went on to become an antics-packed dance. This won them the third place. SRM University’s Team 2, who literally lit up the stage, were not far behind. With three costume changes, well choreographed sequences and powerful dancing they narrowly missed the top spot and had to make do with second place.
After missing out on the title last year, the crowd favourites, Loyola College (Boys’ Team) walked away with the cash award of Rs. 1,50,000 besides other prizes! They scored with their style, coordination, props and unwavering energy on stage. The first and second runners-up pocketed cash prizes of Rs. 1,00,000 and Rs. 50,000 respectively.
Judges Speak
Actor Bharath who was the Special Guest for the evening confessed that though he comes from a dance background, he was thrilled to see the performances put up by the contestants. “I was amazed to see such professionalism among college teams,” he confessed.
The judges were equally appreciative. “I really liked the way the engineering colleges used a lot of their academics like the use of LED,” joked John Britto. For Ashokk, it was the dance content that impressed him. “I came in as a blank sheet of paper waiting to be amazed and that’s exactly what happened!”
And this was not all. The crowd was also treated to spellbinding dance showcases from The Prince Dance Group from Odisha who recently won the National reality show—India’s Got Talent and the juniors from The John Britto (Junior) Dance Company.
Sponsors
The title sponsor for the event was GRT Stylus. Television Partner: Vijay TV, Radio Partner; Hello FM; Grooming Partner: Green Trends; Event Partner: iads & events; Dance Partner: John Britto's Dance Co.; Multiplex Partner: Inox. Gift Partners were: Marrybrown, Mahavir Optics, Fruit Shop on Greams Road, The Raintree Anna Salai, Sting, Vogue Eyewear, Landmark and O2 Health Studio.
