A Richmond school will be hosting their 14th annual dance competition to promote fine arts in the community and appreciate art.
RC Palmer Secondary’s hip hop dance competition, Footloose, will have 31 dance teams competing for the top five spots in both the senior and junior categories and top three teams in the duo and trio category on Feb. 28.
During the event, there will be four showcase groups from private studios in the Lower Mainland performing.
Dance teams are from various schools in the Lower Mainland, public and private, and are school-sponsored meaning schools must sign them up in order for them to compete.
Six professional choreographers and studio owners have volunteered to judge the competition.
Aarthi Naidu, vice principal of RC Palmer Secondary, created the first dance team and dance competition at the school when she joined the school as a teacher 13 years ago.
“At that time, it was really hard to get invited to dance competitions because a lot of them were invite-only and if you were just starting up you didn’t get an invitation,” said Naidu.
“Our idea was to start our own competition and it would be open to anyone and it’s inclusive to everybody.”
Naidu added there will be a freestyle competition at the end of the night for everyone including audience members.
Money raised from the competition will go towards the school’s extracurricular dance program, which provides post-secondary scholarships to graduating dance team members.
Tickets to the event are $10 each and are sold at RC Palmer Secondary’s front office from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The competition will take place at RC Palmer Secondary’s gymnasium from 6 – 11 p.m.
