Dancers Compete to be featured on Hotel Inter-Continental’s Digital Canvas
Josie GulliksenNearly 50 dancers congregated on a recent Saturday morning at the Hotel Inter-Continental Miami for a shot at gracing the hotel’s outdoor digital canvas for all of 2015 as Miami’s iconic silhouette dancer. The featured dancer is set to debut on New Year’s Eve during the annual celebration and orange ball drop.This year’s winners were 20-year-old Ashlee-Ann Ramsay and 12-year-old Lucas Triana.Lucas dances at STARS Dance Studio and both were featured on Dance Moms Miami. He has been dancing since he was three years old and was featured in the video “Twilight” by Cover Drive.Ashlee-Ann-Ramsay teaches at Dance Unlimited and has been dancing since she was two years old. She has been teaching at Dance Unlimited for three years, focusing mainly on hip hop, jazz and contemporary. In summer 2013 she had the opportunity to dance for Dee Caspary choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance on his show Seems Like Forever Ago.Two ballrooms at the hotel were abuzz with anticipation. In one, dancers were stretching, preparing, chatting and in some instances, smiling for the camera. It was the holding area before they were called in to leave it all on the dance floor and impress the judges.Directly next door was where the action took place. Sitting behind tables ready to be wowed were judges Jane Castro of VH1, dancer Jay Marcos one of last year’s winners, Ana Gonzalez of YoungArts Miami and the hotel’s resident in-house DJ YSL.The foursome watched intently as dancer after dancer took the floor and blended hip hop, urban, ballet and even belly dancing moves. Once done with their routines, dancers were treated to questions from the judges about their performance.The foursome of judges were gracious and offered tips and pointers to the dancers and in the case of those they were impressed with and were considered for the finals, asked them to repeat specific moves from their routine.Standing off to the side watching was another of last year’s winners Jasmine Howell, who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from New World School of the Arts and now dances with Peter London Global Dance Company.“The experience last year was great. I got tagged on Instagram and got 2,000 followers. It also brought me back to the Hotel Inter-Continental where we now do dance workshops. It is a privilege to work with the hotel staff and make them more aware of the arts,” she said.This year’s winner Ashlee-Ann Ramsay echoes those sentiments saying "I am so grateful for this opportunity and feel so blessed to be representing Miami as the dancing silhouette for the Hotel Inter-Continental. I'm so excited to be a part of this memorable experience.”Immediately following the announcement of the winners their silhouette performances were filmed. On December 31st and throughout the year keep your eyes on the Hotel Inter-Continental Miami’s digital canvas on their building where the two winners’ larger than life dancing figures will be featured.
