A YOUNG King William’s Town dancer’s passion for dancing and his dream of becoming a superstar has received a major boost.
Grade 8 Breidbach Secondary pupil, Tauriq May, was crowned overall dance category winner at International Applause Rising Talent Showcase (ARTS) Talent Showcase auditions at the weekend. The auditions held at Hoërskool Grens was just the first step Tauriq took towards possible stardom in the United States. Tauriq was one of the many participants performing and being scouted by the ARTS’S regional director, Elsubie Verlinden, for the International ARTS organisation.
The 14-year-old is through to the next leg of auditions featuring well-known directors, producers and record labels, scheduled for the Silver Star Casino in Krugersdorp on October 6 and 7. Verlinden is the director of Just You Model, Artist Management and the regional director of ARTS, and stages auditions with more than 1200 artists throughout South Africa to ensure that the best talent our country has to offer, perform at the International ARTS Talent Showcase.
The International ARTS Talent Showcase is an annual talent showcase held in Johannesburg, which brings talent from all nine provinces to showcase their abilities to International Talent Scout Kim Myers (director of ARTS), for an opportunity to be scouted to represent the country at ARTS Talent Showcase in Orlando, Florida in the US.
During the regional event artists and models performed in four categories namely singing, dancing, acting and modeling. The GO! visited the proud family, who are clearly over the moon about Tauriq’s opportunity.
“My brother, Deston, is a pupil at Grens and told me about the auditions which excited me as I was longing for the opportunity all my life,” Tauriq said.
“I did the free-style dub step which is similar to break dancing and was confident that I had impressed the judges in the one minute allocated to me.”
Tauriq said his role models were his parents and his favourite artists Chris Brown and Nonstop.