by: Manny Ita
For the first time since its inception, Nigeria is going to be a part of the R16 Global Dance Competition.
The R16 Global Dance Competition is an annual youth dance competition that features urban arts subcultures from Korea and over 27 countries in the world.
The event has for over eight years now been sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korean Tourism Organization (KTO) with young people representing their countries in a single and group dance competition.
The South Korean Government introduced this event to boost tourism and attract foreign Direct Investment in the country .
There are different categories that the competition is segmented into with different prizes to be won. These are; the nation to nation tournament with the 1st and 2nd prizes being $15,000 and $5,000 respectively. There is the performance contest with the winner going home with $3,000. There is also the one on one solo battle with prizes as $3,000 and $1,000 respectively. The one on one popping and one on one locking battles will attract $3,000 and #1,000 respectively.
The 4 on 4 national winners will be in charge of the performance contest. However, all participants who advance to the world finals will be allowed to enter into the performance contest should the team of 4 choose to.
In Nigeria, the qualifying series of the event will hold at Port Harcourt, Abuja, Ibadan, Enugu with the finals to hold in Lagos. The winners will consequently fly to South Korea for the Global competition finals.