Dance4Life Event The Netherlands
Traffic Jam What a fantastic sight! A long queue of buses stopped at the traffic lights. An echelon of green vehicles standing ready for action in the car park of the event location, the Gelredome Stadium. The buses are packed with excited young people, dressed in white, hardly able to wait for the start. Nearly thirty minutes later, the big moment arrives ……the doors open. Screaming and jumping enthusiastically, they can finally go in !
 A warm welcome
Once inside, the hall looks fabulous - truly palatial with beautiful pillars, flashing lights and silver disco balls. This can only mean one thing - party, party, party ! The atmosphere feels good, with DJ Jesse Voorn kicking off. The familiar Tour Teams show their faces and the Drill is rehearsed one last time. HIV and AIDS we can beat it !
Line-up Presenting the event is the notorious radio DJ Giel Beelen and the MTV/TMF vamp, Miljuschka! They’ve too dressed up for the occasion: Mil in a white Marilyn Monroe dress and Giel in a white magicians top-hat. With such enthusiastic presenters, nothing can go wrong!
 The main programme begins with a performance by the well known Blue Man Group. The Blue Men perform as never seen before! The huge arena is filled by eleven thousand youths from fifty different schools, every one of them having raised money for the HIV/AIDS projects of the founding partners of Dance4Life NL. The youths are rewarded with a glittering line-up of well known Dutch artists, rappers, MC’s and dance companies.
Rap/dance contest The youths themselves are also put in the spotlight. The winners of the rap contest, organised by Dance4Life NL, that took place in all the participating Dance4Life schools, perform with great success their own HIV/AIDS rap. The winners of the dance competition also steal the show. Despite many of the entries being hip-hop/streetdance influenced, a classical entry wins. Two girls perform a beautiful classical dance. With their dance, they try to illustrate how it is to be HIV infected and how those around you can react. So do the young people actually like the classical style? Judging by the incredible applause, the audience clearly appreciate their skills.
Fundraising
The final amount that the school youths raised for Dance4Life is ….... 430,030.40 Euro!!!!! The student who collected the most money (1700 Euro!) is called onto the stage and wins a cool bike. There are also prizes for the best Organisation Team, the school that has collected the most money and for the “most original activity”. The winner of this award was a school who made a special “teachers in swimwear” calendar!
Live connection When the satellite connection to the eight other countries starts up, the students in the Gelredome go absolutely wild. Waving at young people in Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany and seeing them all simultaneously dance the Dance4Life drill, is an electric moment!
DJ Tiësto Twice before has Tiesto performed in front of a sell out Gelredome crowd; a unique achievement. In 2004, he was the first DJ to set the arena on fire with his beats in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Like a well oiled machine, he spins his tunes, blowing speakers with his bass as he goes and together with Maxi Jazz, has written a memorable hit for Dance4Life. And he is performing now for Dance4Life, not for just five minutes, but for one whole hour!
 Our Hero of Trance begins with a stirring version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Next come more hits, such as Love Comes Again and He’s a Pirate (Tiesto Remix). The crowd go wild, particularly when the first beats of the Dance4Life track begin to reverberate around the arena. With fireworks, lasers and the fantastic dancing of the Scapino dance group – deservedly so the absolute top of the Dutch dance scene - this great day reaches it’s fantastic and worthy finale.
'Absolutely overwhelming', 15-year old Anne van Eeghoud raves, photographed here - in white! - with her two classmates.
For more pictures, click on any of the photos above to go to the Photo Albums
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