Sir Mutha Venkata Subba Rao Auditorium at Lady Andal School was THE place to be last Friday. It was the second edition of The Hindu NXg Campus Jive, the city's best inter-collegiate dance competition. Once again it was time for brilliant moves, classy grooves, peppy music, loud cheers and an eye-popping amount of prize money.
Grand finale
The 12 best teams, who made it through a tough fight at the prelims, put up their best show at the finals before celebrity judges — actors Reema Sen and Sonia Aggarwal — who added to the glitz and glam of the evening.
The John Britto Dance Co. set the mood for the event with a peppy number, giving the audience some time to settle down and the participating teams to calm their throbbing nerves. Soon after, one after the other, the teams proved that they meant business when they went about giving their all to win the coveted trophy and prize money; after all being adjudged the best dance team in town was no child's play.
Hip-hop was once again the flavour of the day with teams going about locking, romping and krumping besides performing some amazing stunts, head-stands and theatrics. There were also touches of jazz and contemporary dance. Jerusalem College of Engineering gave the audience a good laugh with their imitation of the Super Mario game.
Winners
The final battle for the first place was between the yellows and the greens; Loyola College, last year's champs, and Jeppiar Engineering College (boys' team), last year's first runners-up, respectively. Both teams came up with a powerful, well co-ordinated performance giving the judges a hard time in deciding the title winner. This time, the green team whose t-shirts read “we make you run for the trophy” did just that and grabbed the trophy and the cheque for Rs. 1,50,000, with their brilliant choreography that included an innovative sequence with the basketball.
The team from Loyola College backed by the loudest cheer group (sounded pretty much like the entire auditorium was cheering for them), had to settle for the second place.
The team from Anna University, who displayed on stage a mock Campus Jive trophy during their performance couldn't get their hand on the real thing but did place third.
Prizes were also awarded to the best dancer — Soniya (IIT-M) and Satish (Anna University); and best performer — Denisha (M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women) and Anand (Loyola College).
“Apart from the usual parameters, what we were looking for was innovation and most importantly co-ordination, which many teams have to work on,” said the judges, who confessed to having a good time judging the teams because of the high standard.
The girls' teams from SDNB Vaishnav College for Women, Stella Maris College, M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women and Jeppiar Engineering College (girls' team) also put up a brilliant show. The event was interspersed with dances by John Britto Dance Co. and fashion shows by RMKV and GRT Stylus.
Sponsors
Title sponsor: GRT Stylus; Co-sponsor: Hero Honda; Associate Partners: Vinayaka Missions University and RMKV; TV Partner: SS Music; Dance Partner: John Britto's Dance Co.; Event Partner: iads and events; Radio Partner: Chennai Live 104.8 fm; Food Partner: Marrybrown; News Partner: NDTV Hindu; Prize Partners: Witco, Ambica Empire, FitnessOne, Mahavir Optics, Bubbles Family Salon and Spa; VGP Universal Kingdom, Metro, Inox and Vivek's.
The champs
An elated group of boys from Jeppiar Engineering College literally ran up to the stage to collect their prize. Their enthusiasm did not look likely to die down anytime soon. So when NXg caught up with them later, they were all smiles and in disbelief. “We still can't believe that we won,” said a team member.
The team's co-ordinator Udaya Prasanna, who was a participant last year, said that the run up to their performance was extremely nerve-wracking especially because their costumes were not ready until 10 minutes before their slot. “We couldn't use our old costume because of some conflict with the rules of the event and so we have to get another one ready in a day. But we are happy that it turned out to be better than out previous one,” he said.
Coming to the prize money, a portion of it will be used to fund the education of three of their team members who are not from financially well-to-do families. The rest, he said, will be used to fund their travel and costumes for other competitions. “I can't expect them to put in their money every time there is a competition.”
Well, for now, the boys are just still coming to terms with their victory, after all they were declared the best college dance team.
