Smirnoff Nightlife attracts local talent

The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project is off to an exciting start as dancers from rural and urban Jamaica turned out in their numbers at the Lime Light Nightclub in Half-Way Tree last Friday to show their talents. One lucky local dancer will get a chance to go on tour with pop star Madonna.

The dance-off started at minutes after 2 p.m. when the judges gave the contestants their instructions. Each dancer was given a minute to demonstrate how well they could dance to Madonna's single Celebration.

Martino Energy was up first, and he gave a good account of himself, showing a lot of energy with his moves as he cartwheeled and jumped all over the dance floor.

"The song was uptempo, so I mostly did break-dancing. Boots aren't the best gear to dance in, so that gave me some problems," he told The Gleaner after his performance.

Fiery delivery

Next was the first female dancer of the day, Stacia Fire. She delivered an acrobatic routine, doing a split on a number of occasions. The patrons loved her performance and shouted 'fire' as she exited the dance floor.

Rural dancer Norris Gregory from Portland also impressed the judges, mixing disco and dancehall moves.

According to Norris, dancing is his first love. "Mi interested in the Madonna thing, suh mi glad fi the exposure. It was a bit scary up there, but when I started dancing, the fear went away," he said.

Matthew Richards of the popular dance group Shady Squad also entered as a solo dancer. He told the judges that he just wanted to give Madonna some of his style. He too created an impression by showing flexibility and mixing that with his onstage antics.

A shocker was the 2004 dancehall queen Latesha. Dressed in skintight lace leggings, the queen disturbed the venue with excitement. She gave an exotic performance and the predominantly male audience could not contain themselves. In fact, they begged for her return after the one-minute performance had ended.

The queen later told The Gleaner that she enjoyed her performance and that she thinks she has a fair chance of being selected.

Smirnoff Brand Manager Safia Cooper later said Jamaica was rapidly growing as one of the bigger Smirnoff markets, and that explains why the country was selected to be a part of the nightlife exchange project.

"Countries with a huge Smirnoff market will exchange nightlife and Jamaica is one of those countries," she said.

She also said that Jamaica will exchange nightlife on November 12, at an undisclosed location.

The winner of the dance competition will be in New York at that time.

For more information on the Smirnoff Nightlife project, persons can subscribe at facebook.com/SmirnoffJamaica.