Ideal Wins $50,000 Let's Dance Prize

From fancy footwork to high-energy performances from spectacular outfits and exotic style to traditional routines and fast-paced action, M-Net's Let's Dance has brought the best of Nigerian dance talent to the silver screen for the past four months. On may 17, DSTV audiences across Nigeria watched as brilliant dance partners 'Ideal' were named as the overall winners of the rhythmic dance reality series, waltzing off with the blockbuster first prize of USD 50 000 cash. After 14 weeks of intensive training and nerve wrecking eliminations, Ideal scored the highest number of votes beating Nova into Nova into second place and Vibes into the third place. The runners up went home with USD20 000, and USD10 000 respectively. As is the case with Let's Dance, which is sponsored by Verve from interswitch, the show started with cliffhanger as Elect were eliminated after garnering the least viewers' votes after last week's performance. the remaining three contestants took to the dance floor performing a rigorous 4 times each- including one traditional Nigerian Dance followed by the Argentine Tango, The Salsa and an improvised Cha-cha to a piece of music none of them had heard before. the judges professor Ojo Bakare, Dr. Chuks Okoye and Mrs Yeside Dosunmu-Lawal, were underwhelmedby the traditional dances, chiding vibes for not displaying enough energy, Ideal for showing too much and Nova for providing an anticlimax towards the end of the dance.