By Tamica Garnett

Things are about to heat up in the ENetworks/Red Entertainment talent show “The Spotlight” as the final 15 contestants to make it through to the next round will soon find out their fate.
Of the over 100 contestants who auditioned, a shortlisted 40 returned to the Giftland Mall to face the judges last Saturday; this time the judges were looking for those competitors who went back and improved their art enough to move ahead.
“Out of this 40, we wanted to see the people who made a decision to improve on what the judges have told them so far, and we want to see that they were interested in taking the time to do it,” said Russell Lancaster, one of last Saturday’s three judges.
“What we’re looking for is diversity, age, ethnicity, quality of performance; all those things are important. Because it’s a television show, it’s got to appeal to people’s eyes. More importantly we want the artistes to take it up to the next level.
“We have seen them; we decided that they have talent to get into the competition.”
The other judges on Saturday’s panel were former Miss India Guyana, Alana Seebarran and Music Unlimited founder, Christian Sobers. Though the judges knew what they were looking for in the selected few, making the decision was by no means an easy job as quite a number of the contestants were very impressive.
“Quite a few have (left a lasting impression), but I don’t want to say much right now because we have a difficult job of deciding which 15 will go forward,” Lancaster commented.
Perhaps it was acts like eclectic dance troupe “Now You See Me”, consisting of dancers from the renowned Classique, and Unique Arts dance groups, that had the judges scratching their heads in deciding just how to narrow the acts down. The quartet of dancers – Travis Bowen, Paul Charles, Kelton Jennings, and Nevon – came together just over a month ago to compete.
“We’re a brand new group. Some of us come from Classique and also there’s Unique Arts, we basically came together as friends to form the group at the beginning of this competition,” Travis explained.
And just what do these dancers bring to the table? According to Travis these agile performers are coming with a lot of energy and creativity as they seek to get that much closer to the win.
“Yea, definitely (we have what it takes to win); yea we’re dancers but we emphasize on various types of dances, as opposed to just one genre, so we bring all of that. We also bring energy, we bring creativity. I must say we have competition but I trust that once we do what we have to do, we’ll take it,” Travis asserted.
Travis and his gang are one of several dancing groups in the talent show. They are coming up against other groups like the all-boys “Euphoria Dance Crew”, comprising friends Jamal Ellis, Seon Douglas and Carlus Persaud.
The trio first came together when they met on the set of dancing competition back in 2013; that show was eventually cancelled and the boys never got their chance to perform.
However, the racially diverse group decided to stick together and are elated that they made it into the final 40 and can’t wait to see if their “kick-ass” performance last Saturday was good enough to get them through to the next round.
“We just found ourselves chasing one passion, so we continued dancing together as one group,” a member of the group said as they prepared their hip-hop and Punjabi routine.
Performance aside, they definitely impressed with their outfit if nothing else. The crew was decked out in eye-catching, matching black and green outfits.
Though the dancers are many, the competition is also littered with several singers, who bring some of the most competitive acts. The show also has its share of comedians, and it leaves to be seen how diverse the talent of the final 15 will be.
The organizers are not ready just yet to say which of the acts from Saturday made it through, but the final 15 are expected to be announced by next month, ahead of the show’s September airing on ENeteworks cable TV.
As things wind down from the final fifteen, contestants are expected to be eliminated each week. However the show is scheduled to feature a number of twists and surprises to keep the excitement going, and may even give ousted acts a chance to make their way back into the competition.
So keep looking out, and cheering on your favourite act!