Bring It On

An Auckland secondary school music and dance competition run annually by the Tearfund organisation, kicked off the South/East Zones on Saturday. The competing schools, Mangere College, Otahuhu College, Tagaroa College, James Cook High, Aorere College, DeLasalle College, Tamaki College were in it to win, as they applied make-up and original bandanas to slap across their heads as they went on stage.

Each school is given 5-7 minutes to perform a dance routine in front of thousands of people and three judges. And thousands there were in the Pacific Telstra Events Centre in Manukau City with a whole heap of people waiting outside the front doors guarded by the tight security, trying to get in.

Last years competition had seen NZ Idol winner Ben Lummis get up on stage and do his thing, this year saw an array of new talent and guest performances by Cydel & The Groovehouse, Brown Leaders and Spacifiks & Blaze.

A school reportedly had pulled out, so the student on the bus tells me, due to threats of a fight breaking out. On the night I saw not only tight security, but also a whole heap of police officers that would in some cases only make the situation worse but when in the South Bronx was necessary. Anyway.

I had a great time watching the entertainment and learning a few new dance steps that may come in handy in the future, I was also being a bit cocky when I was sitting in my VIP seat and thought that a few routines could have been done differently, I was thinking whether I should be a dance advisor with no qualification or something. Anyway, three judges there were and as they were deliberating the winners in the VIP suite up top, watching a sony camcorder of the schools performances and deciding that Mangere College would take it out I was pondering whether or not I should do freelance work as a non-qualified DJ, providing mixes of beats, music etc to schools who perform in hope of making the musical aspects of judging more easier in deciding the winner.

So anyway, there is still the Central/North Zones (9th July 2005) and the Westside Zone (16th July 2005) yet to come and should be interesting to watch - I've prebooked my tickets!

Are you going to see any of these?

More info http://www.nzbringiton.co.nz/