Some 200 dance divas and funky fellas gave it their all on the dance floor of a Dublin nightclub yesterday in a bid to win a place on a new reality-TV dance show, which will be broadcast on MTV this autumn.
Dublin was the first port of call for the MTV scouts who are looking for Europe's funkiest movers and shakers in 10 cities over the summer.
In Dublin, competitors aged between 16 and 42 were delighted to "bump, grind and booty shake" for three hours, hoping their hottest moves would catch the eye of one of the MTV judges.
The eight European finalists will attend dance 'boot camp' where the choreographer to the stars, Wade Robson, will oversee a tough schedule of dance master classes in the fly-on-the-wall show. The ultimate winner will get to appear in a well-known artist's music video.
Producer Seán Murphy told The Irish Times that the organisers were looking for dancers with their own style who are able to "show off". "We don't want people to impersonate Britney, we want to see individuality."
Pop Idol contestant Brendan Kilkenny, from Dublin, who has entered more reality TV shows in the last three years than he can remember, said that "his dancing was nearly as good as his singing" and hoped that his "very unusual and very wacky" style would impress the judges.
Iain Dowling, from Crumlin, Dublin, who spent two years at the College of Dance in Monkstown and one year at the Rambert School in London, said he hoped that the lack of male dancers at the show would work in his favour.
Deborah Myler, from Darndale, Dublin, who impressed onlookers with her athletic moves on the dance floor, said she loved to "get the crowd going".
Kitchy Nwosu, originally from Holland but living in Dublin, said she did not enter the competition to win but to "show the cameras what I got".
The finalists will be announced in mid August.