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Team Jersey are limbering up to parade around town this weekend with thousands of other dancers from all around the world for the launch of the finals of the 2016 Bloch Dance World Cup.
After qualifying for the event back in March, the 323 dancers from ten local dance schools, some as young as five, are en pointe to wow the judges when the competition gets underway.
Team Jersey Committee Chairman Alison De Bourcier said: "This year's team range in age from five to 20+. Dancers will be performing solos, duet's, trio's, quad's and groups in all genres of dance, in age categories and will be fighting it out with 3008 competitors in total from all over the world."
"For some dancers this will be their first time representing their Island, others are more experienced and are looking to make this their profession.
"Without doubt, this is a very proud moment for the dancers and teachers who have been training and rehearsing for many months and of course for parents, friends and Jersey!"
Former Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt will be here to judge some of the competition and will be hosting and dancing at a separate 'Eurovision Song Contest' style competition called 'Dance Impact' at Jersey Opera House on Saturday night.
The main competition takes place throughout next week at Fort Regent with dancers competing in a variety of genres including ballet, national, tap, song and dance, hip hop, modern, jazz and acro.
The event is the largest dance competition in the world and will be a big boost for the local economy and tourism.
Visit Jersey's Head of Marketing Adam Caerlewy-Smith said: “There will be more than 3,000 participants and up to 2,000 additional visitors coming to support and accompany those participants enjoying Jersey over the next two weeks.
“The anecdotal evidence is that this is delivering healthy levels of room occupancy across our hotels, and our growing number of AirBnB properties are also set to see Dance World Cup visitors over the next couple of weeks.
“With so many young visitors on the island who will not be dancing all day every day there is a great opportunity for our attractions to welcome hundreds of first-time visitors.
Visit Jersey has plans to stay in touch with all the dancers during the week.
Mr Caerlewy-Smith said: “In conjunction with the DWC Visit Jersey will stay connected with the 3,000+ competitors through various digital and social media campaigns.
“Also the event will be live streamed across the internet, watched in 92 countries through the course of the 7 days; with potentially over 420,000 individual views.
“We will use the live stream to showcase just how beautiful Jersey is to audiences across the world, so they too can enjoy #theislandbreak.
“We would like to welcome everyone to Jersey and wish the dancers competing the best of luck!”
All the dancers will set off on their parade from the Weighbridge at 3 pm on Saturday.
Alison said: "The team is pleased to be taking part in the Opening Parade this Saturday afternoon and will be the last to march from the Weighbridge to Springfield Stadium. The Captain will proudly carry the Jersey flag and will be accompanied by Ashvini Elanco and Darcey Cronin as the team mascots in traditional Jersey costumes.
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