Pumped up kids
MANILA, Philippines - Last weekend at Grand Ballroom of the City of Dreams, a bevy of talented kids showed us how to move it.
DreamPlay, an interactive play center where children can see their favorite DreamWorks Animation characters brought to life, hosted their first-ever dance competition — entitled “King Julian’s Dance Off” — to commemorate their first anniversary. Seven talented groups of kids made it to the grand finals: Amazing Kiddos, Junior Hashtag, Rhythmworks Kids, Jr. Terpsichore, Southernside Dance Theatre, Junior FMD Extreme and Kidz.com. They were judged according to choreography, execution, costume and audience impact.
Four people sat at the judges’ panel: City of Dream Manila’s VP for PR Charisse Chuidian and SVP for Non-Gaming Jarlath Lynch, Powerdance choreographer Douglas Nierras and actor Paul Salas as celebrity guest judge.
The show opened with a dance number featuring mascots of Po from Kung Fu Panda, Alex the Lion from Madagascar, and Princess Fiona and Shrek from Shrek, exciting the children watching in the audience. A crew of dancers clad in animal-patterned bodysuits followed, performing stunts and acrobatics. King Julian, the famous lemur from the Madagascar franchise, ended the performance dancing enthusiastically to a remixed version of his signature tune, I Like to Move It.
Most of the performances had the kids donning martial arts clothing and dancing their hearts out to a mix of Carl Douglas’s Kung-Fu Fighting, in homage to their favorite karate-chopping panda, and I Like to Move It, since the competition is, after all, named after King Julian.
In the end, Junior FMD Extreme, with their clean performance and ace mover — a little boy oozing with swag — took home the grand prize: P80,000 in cash, P1,000 in DreamShop vouchers, an overnight voucher for three rooms at Nobu Hotel, 8 Hyatt Café buffet vouchers, a photo op with DreamWorks characters, a special invitation to upcoming DreamPlay events, a specially designed trophy, and the honor of being the first to ever receive an annual pass to DreamPlay.
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For more information about DreamPlay and the City of Dreams Manila, visit their website at www.cityofdreams.com.ph.
