Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
JAMAICA HAS continued to mine precious metal at the World Championship of the Performing Arts, the Olympics style competition for the performing arts. The 2005 championships took place from August 6 to 14 at the Burbank Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles, California. With 44 entries, the Jamaican contingent was able to scoop up a 30 medal-strong haul.
This year Jamaica had 10 groups and individuals as its representatives. In the juniors category were dancers C2K; the Liberty Prep Drummers, who participated in the instrumental category; Anissa Mercurius for vocals; Tahirah Scott-Anderson in the vocal and spokes model categories; and Joel Wright in the vocal and instrumental categories.
In the seniors group three contestants competed in the vocal category, of which two (Tyrone Davis and Karla Josephs) also competed in the modelling categories. The Renewed Gospel Singers were the third vocal entry. Roger Hall and Nickeeta Stewart both competed in the acting category.
According to a release, along with scooping medals some of the contestants received other benefits, with Roger Hall and Nickeeta Stewart having been offered partial scholarships to the New York School of Film & Television. The island reaped 10 gold, 15 silver and five bronze medals.
Hall and Wright both earned the World Champion trophies for their respective categories. Gold medals were earned by Hall, Wright, Josephs, Renewed Gospel and Liberty Drummers.
However, the Senior Grand Champion of the World, Jed Madela, hailed from the Philippines. Madela had entered six categories and received a gold medal for each. In 2003, the first year Jamaica entered the competition, the delegation came back with the Grand Champion trophy, earned through a duet from the Strachan sisters, Ana and Samantha.
The 2005 World Championship of the Performing Arts featured contestants from 51 countries with over 4,000 entries.
