Red Bull’s global one-on-one street dance competition, ‘Dance Your Style’, is back in Jamaica with its third national final to be hosted in Kingston on July 6.

This year’s winner will join dancer Cautiion Flexx, the 2021 champion, and together they will represent the country on the global stage at the 2022 Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final, set to be hosted in Johannesburg on December 5. 

Auditions were held through to June 5 via social media where, to participate, all dancers had to upload a 45-second video to Instagram dancing to any mainstream music of their preference, use the hashtag #redbulldanceyourstyle and tag @redbulljamaica and lastly, complete the submission form on redbull.com/redbulldanceyourstylejm. 

Last year, in 2021, the competition was hosted entirely online with dancers from all over the island uploading their auditions to Instagram. A jury consisting of Raddy Rich, Maria Hitchens and Pancho, the 2019 national champion, selected eight dancers from the applications, while Latonya Style selected eight wildcards for a total of 16 participants. 

This year the competition will follow the same format – eight dancers selected from online submissions, and eight wildcards, for a total of 16 finalists, who will battle head-to-head at an in-person event set to excite audiences on July 6. 

Red Bull Dance Your Style features a unique battle format and has become a platform for street dancers of all styles – from hip hop to house, popping, locking and more – to showcase their skills. In the competition, they are challenged with unpredictable music hits and are crowned by crowd-voting.

Competitors must conquer the audience as they are ultimately deciding who will rule the dance floor. This year dancehall was introduced as an official format.

With the global competition series set to tour more than 30 countries with onsite and online events, the world final will showcase the rich culture of dance on the African continent together with outstanding talent from some of the best international street dancers.

Here is everything you need to know about Red Bull Dance Your Style:

• In 2018 Kingston hosted the first competition with local dancer Pancho Cautiion becoming the champion. Shamara “Inspire” Spencer was the top performing female in the competition placing overall fourth.
  
• The first World Final for Red Bull Dance Your Style was hosted in Paris at the historic Grande Halle de La Villette with over 4,000 attendees and over 3.8M viewers around the world seeing Dutch dancer Shinshan best 39 dancers to ultimately become the first ever World Champion.

• In 2020, Red Bull Dance Your Style went digital with the first global street dance competition to be held entirely on TikTok as Briton Kieran Lai triumphed over 1,500 dancers from 47 countries in a six-week event.

• In 2021 the event made a comeback with a fully online activation on Red Bull Jamaica’s Instagram account. Sixteen dancers were judged by way of votes in the comments section, with red and blue hearts indicating which dancer moved to the next round. Cautiion Flexx was crowned winner.
  
• From hip hop to dancehall, to locking to popping – dancers will need to ‘wow’ the crowd by testing freestyle and musicality skills through tracks ranging from recent hits to classic beats.

• This year, the competition will showcase rich African dance culture together with outstanding talent from some of the best international dancers in a unique one-on-one street dance battle format.

Who will rule the dance floor in 2022? Head to www.redbulldanceyourstyle.com to find out more.