Iyke Bede
In an arena where the audience reigned supreme as umpires at this year’s edition of the fiercely contested Red Bull Dance Your Style Nigeria held at The Jewel Aeida, Lekki, Lagos, BJ Miah danced his way to victory from a pool of 16 contestants.
With his triumph at the nationals, he will advance to the World Final to compete against dancers from over 30 countries.
“God Knows it’s my time,” BJ Miah said after revealing it was his third tryout at the championship. “I want to go to the final and win. I just need to win this for Nigeria.”
Split between red and blue teams in a face-off that saw defending champion King Davinci make a return, BBNaija’s Hermes make a debut, and maiden Dance Boss winner QueenExtel shine with finesse, all the contestants had just two minutes to interpret random songs thrown their way.
In an interesting turn of events, King Davinci was defeated after an intense duel with BJ Miah that ended in a tie. The tie-breaking dance-off earned the latter a unanimous vote from the crowd that advanced him to edge out Blayke with sleek moves and sheer charisma.
Hermes was booted off by Fusion Daze in the first round while the crowd favourite, QueenExtel, suffered a crushing defeat from King Davinci in the second round.
Adrenaline-inducing, the crowd were not only thrilled by the performances from their favourites drawn from the state-level finals held in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, but they also witnessed a colourful display of culture from the dance troupe Wow Factor. The group performed the rhythmic Ekombi dance traditional to Efik people and the calisthenic Atiliogwu dance of the Igbos.
A special performance was rendered by The D Soraki, a Japanese hip-hop dancer who outmanoeuvred King Davinci at the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final last year to emerge the winner.
The Red Bull Dance Your Style World Finals will take place on November 4, 2023, in Frankfurt, Germany.
