Shas­tri Boodan

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

Af­ter a sev­en-year hia­tus, the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) is bring­ing back its pop­u­lar Dance and Youth Champ com­pe­ti­tions as part of this year’s Di­vali Na­gar cel­e­bra­tions.

The NCIC has part­nered with ma­jor spon­sors to stage the com­pe­ti­tions back-to-back on the fourth night of the Na­gar, which is sched­uled to run from Oc­to­ber 30 to No­vem­ber 7.

The re­turn of the com­pe­ti­tions fol­lows a break that in­clud­ed the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, with NCIC pres­i­dent Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo say­ing pa­trons have been call­ing for their re­turn.

On Sun­day, the se­mi-fi­nal round of the NCIC/Meena House Dance Com­pe­ti­tion took place smooth­ly at Gulf City Shop­ping Mall, La Ro­maine, south Trinidad.

Fif­teen groups and in­di­vid­ual com­peti­tors faced a pan­el of judges, vy­ing for nine places in the fi­nal. The show al­so fea­tured some of the vo­cal­ists who qual­i­fied for the NCIC/Trin In­dia Youth Champ Com­pe­ti­tion.

Man­ga­roo said the com­pe­ti­tions were re­turn­ing “with a bang” and that the NCIC had se­cured $100,000 in prize mon­ey for the two events.

He said the com­pe­ti­tions were last staged be­fore the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and that, since then, pa­trons of Di­vali Na­gar had been clam­our­ing for their re­turn.

The com­pe­ti­tions will form part of the en­ter­tain­ment pack­age for this year’s Na­gar, which the NCIC has themed Vive­ka—Dis­cern­ing Truth in the Age of Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence (AI).

Man­ga­roo al­so re­it­er­at­ed that the NCIC had de­cid­ed to pro­hib­it the sale of fire­works at this year’s cel­e­bra­tions.

He said the de­ci­sion was aimed at re­duc­ing risks and pro­tect­ing peo­ple and prop­er­ty while cre­at­ing a more peace­ful and se­cure en­vi­ron­ment for every­one at­tend­ing the event.

The re­turn of the com­pe­ti­tions is ex­pect­ed to add an­oth­er ma­jor at­trac­tion to the an­nu­al Di­vali Na­gar cel­e­bra­tions, which show­case In­di­an cul­ture, mu­sic, dance, food and re­li­gious tra­di­tions.

Fi­nal­ists in the NCIC/Trin In­dia Youth Champ Com­pe­ti­tion

Di­vya Go­cool

Sangee­ta San­to­kee

Alan­zo Lance Gopaul

Avani Mo­hammed

Priya Parikh

Young Starz Tas­sa Group

Nigel & Kavir Sankar

Shariya Mo­hammed

Fi­nal­ists in the NCIC/Meena House Dance Com­pe­ti­tion

Sari­ka Mathu­ra

Sriya James

An­drea Man­ga­roo

Ap­sara Dance Acad­e­my

Suryami­ka Dance Group

Nikiesha Shah

Ariel Ramhit

Shiv Kala Kendra

Bol­ly­wood Dance Group