Six Make It To MAD's Teen Finals

FREDERICK KEBADIRETSE
Staff Writer | Monday July 12, 2010 00:00

Dance dominated this year's semi final performances, as there were eight dance performances against two singing and a solo instrumental performance. The six talented hopefuls, who impressed the judges for a slot in the finals were Wada Mapiki, X-Flex, a Gaborone-based Hip-hop dance group, break-dancer Oabile Ramsay, a dance group Jika Jive, Ba Kgafela, a traditional dance troupe; and a solo singer, Kago Goveya.

All the semi-finalists gave some splendid performances, leaving the audience wondering as to who would sail through to the finals and make it harder for the judges to decide the finalists. First on the stage was Goveya, singing Fly Away by Westlife.

He let the audience eat out of his palm with his mastery of the song lyrics. Ba Kgafela took the crowd by storm, demonstrating that traditional dance is still a force to reckon with amid all the evolving urban dances. The young traditional dance troupe not only won judges' hearts with an excellent performance, they were also a crowd favourite.

The six-member group Jika Jive would have made Columbian singer Shakira proud when they danced to her top-chatting World Cup anthem Waka Waka (This Is Africa). The audience marvelled at their mastery of the samba dance. Mapiki gave a polished performance singing Keisha Cole's Sent From Heaven, before merging it to the late King of Pop Michael Jackson's Human Nature much to the excitement of the crowd and the judges' liking. To spice it all up, sweet-voiced Mapiki was playing a live guitar on stage.

X-Flex also gave an awesome performance break-dancing to hip-hop tunes. The Gaborone group keeps improving every time they perform. They had the audience craving for more as they left the stage. The solo dancer Ramsay was equally outstanding on stage with his choreographed break-dance moves making it to the finals.

Despite not making it to the finals, the other five performances were equally impressive. Kevin Stephen, a setinkane player from Selebi-Phikwe, mastered the traditional instrument much to the approval of the audience, made up mainly of urban youth. Tinashe Mangiroza impressed with his heart-stopping break-dance moves winning the hearts of the audience as well. They continued with their cheering long after he had finished his performance.

Alaskians, a girl dance group all the way from Francistown, tried their best with the diski-dance, but it was not enough to take them to the finals. Young Bells, a duo From Palapye, were also impressive with their dance moves, as well as Acapellas, the Pantsula dance outfit from Francistown. The voting is now open to the public to select their favourite from the top six before the finals