Celebrating 15 years of dancing against drugs

DanceWorks! 2013 celebrates 15 years of dancing against drugs. Co-organised by the National Council Against Drug Abuse (NCADA) and the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) since 1999, this annual nationwide dance competition has attracted participation from nearly 16,000 youths under 25 years who believe in leading and spreading the word of an active drug-free lifestyle.

15^th Anniversary of DanceWorks!

First organised in 1999, DanceWorks! enjoys a loyal following amongst youth dance enthusiasts who return year-in and year-out to compete on the dance floor. This year, DanceWorks! will see close to 75 teams competing for the top spots and cash prizes worth $60,000. Of these, 40 teams are participating in DanceWorks! for the first time. “Sanoras Magnificas” from Sembawang Secondary School explained that they joined DanceWorks! to “tell people that a drug-free lifestyle is cool and awesome”, while “Moda”[1] said that “a fit, healthy body is the best fashion statement” and “why do drugs when you can dance?”.

To celebrate 15 years of dancing against drugs, DanceWorks! will be starting a new tradition this year by having a mass dance. Specially choreographed by Ms Kay Lee, an experienced dance instructor as well as one of the judges for DanceWorks! since 2008, the mass dance will be taught to all participants and supporters at various rounds of the competition. The mass dance routine will be carried forward as a tradition in future DanceWorks![2]. Other firsts for DanceWorks! include riding on two new social media platforms to engage the youths, including non-dancers: Instagram and the blogs of five popular youth bloggers. In conjunction with the dance competition, we are also organising two lucky draw contests: the ‘15-word collection’ on five blogs where participants are required to ‘collect’ 15 words by reading five blog entries and submit them for a lucky draw; and the Instagram contest, where participants simply need to post and submit up to five photographs with the hashtag ‘#danceworks2013’ and mention the DanceWorks! Instagram account, ‘danceworks_liveitloud’. Winners will stand to win movie passes and Instax instant cameras. Collaboration with Singapore Polytechnic This year, NCADA and CNB are collaborating with Singapore Polytechnic (SP) for the first time to organise DanceWorks!. With regard to the collaboration, Mr Lim Cher Yam, Senior Director, Architecture, Design & Environment Cluster said, “Singapore Polytechnic is proud to collaborate with the National Council Against Drug Abuse and the Central Narcotics Bureau for DanceWorks! 2013. This is a meaningful community outreach project for our students to be involved in as it encourages youths to take their stand against drugs and pursue a healthy lifestyle.”

The group of four SP students (Khor Qi Min, Choo Siok Hui, Su Yongwen and Eugene Lee Han Leong) who had a part in conceptualising the event are very excited and looking forward to the competition. One of the students, Yongwen said, “This event not only allows me to gain new knowledge and experience but also gives me an opportunity to contribute to the society by sending out an impactful anti-drug message which will hopefully reduce the number of drug abusers in Singapore.” The Year 2 students are currently taking a Diploma in Integrated Events & Project Management at SP. They were already involved in conducting an earlier ‘DanceWords’ fringe activity at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard and Bugis+ over four weekends in November and December last year. Youths were invited to participate in the activity by forming their own anti-drug messages from 15 placards. Photographs of the participants posing with their anti-drug messages were uploaded on CNB’s ‘Live It Loud’ Facebook page. The SP students will be at the competition rounds to help out in the event and to guide the participants and supporters for the mass dance.

Saying ‘NO’ to Drugs through Dance

One of the biggest dance competitions in Singapore, and the only one with an anti-drug theme, DanceWorks! aims to let participants have fun while internalising and sharing the anti-drug message. With this in mind, demonstration of the anti-drug theme in the dance performance is a compulsory judging criterion which takes up 40% of the overall score. To further emphasise the importance of the anti-drug theme this year, the team that scores the highest for the anti-drug criterion will be presented with a new “Best Anti-Drug Theme Award”. DanceWorks! 2013 performances will be judged by experienced professionals from the dance and artistic fields, with participants standing to win $60,000 in cash and other prizes.

Mr Victor Lye, Chairman, NCADA said, “For the past 14 years, we have been sending a strong message to youths on our zero-tolerance stance against drug abuse through DanceWorks!. As we celebrate the 15th anniversary of DanceWorks! this year, we are grateful to all those who have shared in this journey – as participants, sponsors and organisers. Danceworks! will continue to be a platform for youth to express themselves in Dance and to promote our anti-drug message among their peers. The Council will continue to work closely with CNB and the relevant community partners to organise creative and interesting outreach programmes to educate the youths and community groups on the dangers of drug abuse.”

Mr Ng Ser Song, Director, CNB added, “DanceWorks! has been a platform for youths to showcase their talents while demonstrating to fellow youths how they can lead a healthy and drug-free lifestyle. Over the past 14 years, we are repeatedly impressed by the standard of dance performances put up by participating teams and their creativity in weaving the anti-drug message in their performances. It is the belief and support that youths have in this event that makes it possible for us to celebrate this important milestone this year. We hope to continue organising the dance competition so that more youths are given a stage to unleash their talents and become our ambassadors to spread the anti-drug message”.

Issued by : National Council Against Drug Abuse and Central Narcotics Bureau