For two un­for­get­table nights on Au­gust 8 and 9, Queen’s Hall pulsed with mu­sic, colour and move­ment as X-Treme Dance Acad­e­my (XDA) staged Hits—A Two-Night Stage Saga. The show­case cel­e­brat­ed near­ly three decades of the acad­e­my’s best chore­og­ra­phy, blend­ing past and present rou­tines in­to an elec­tri­fy­ing spec­ta­cle of tal­ent and pas­sion.

Now in its 27th year, XDA has grown far be­yond the walls of a stu­dio. It has be­come a move­ment—em­pow­er­ing youth, shap­ing fu­tures and trans­form­ing lives through the pow­er of dance. From the rhythm of so­ca and folk to the beats of Afro, hip hop and dance­hall; from the grace of con­tem­po­rary to the fire of Bol­ly­wood, K-Pop and Femme, the acad­e­my’s range re­flects T&T’s cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty and glob­al in­flu­ences.

This year’s edi­tion, XDA Hits 2025, pushed cre­ative bound­aries with high-en­er­gy per­for­mances, strik­ing vi­su­als and pul­sat­ing sound­tracks. The evening opened with a hip hop rou­tine ti­tled Out­set (Let’s Get It Start­ed), set­ting an adren­a­line-charged tone for what fol­lowed.

Dance crews The Acad­e­my and Sab­o­tage reprised the rou­tines that earned T&T first-place medals at the All Dance Pana­ma com­pe­ti­tion in Sep­tem­ber 2024. The spot­light al­so shone on the acad­e­my’s younger dancers, who sent a pow­er­ful mes­sage of “No to Bul­ly­ing” through their spir­it­ed piece Jump.

Across both nights, au­di­ences were treat­ed to four con­tem­po­rary works. You and I, a group dance, cel­e­brat­ed self-love, true beau­ty and au­then­tic­i­ty. Heal­ing Pow­er ex­pressed the ther­a­peu­tic en­er­gy of so­ca mu­sic and dance. Un­con­trol­lable, a so­lo, ex­plored the in­ten­si­ty of love and the need to han­dle it with care. And With­in These Men­tal Walls tack­led life’s chal­lenges and in­ner strug­gles—a poignant re­minder of the im­por­tance of men­tal health aware­ness and sup­port for those who may not al­ways voice their pain.

Tra­di­tion­al folk and so­ca cul­tures al­so found vi­brant ex­pres­sion in The Rhythm With­in and The Asy­lum Car­ni­val. Mean­while, K-Pop and Bol­ly­wood took cen­tre stage with guest per­for­mances from Tenac­i­ty Dance Crew, Krush Rev­o­lu­tion and Je­mya Samp­son. Bri­an Man­ga­roo and the Khal­nayak Acad­e­my of Dance added a splash of colour with Holi Ke Rang Ma and Pin­ga.

Oth­er guest acts kept the en­er­gy soar­ing: Ri­co­boss and his One Mis­sion group brought the heat of dance­hall; Black­rose thrilled with a dy­nam­ic Michael Jack­son trib­ute; and SS Elite of Su­per Sat­ur­days Dance Com­pa­ny fused ur­ban styles in­to a per­for­mance built around the idea that some­times “even the tini­est bit of hope is enough.”

With its mix of artistry, so­cial mes­sages and cross-cul­tur­al rhythms, Hits – A Two-Night Stage Saga was more than a show­case. It was a tes­ta­ment to XDA’s en­dur­ing in­flu­ence on T&T’s dance land­scape—and to the pow­er of move­ment to in­spire, heal and unite.