File - Two members of Shady Squad in performance during the Dancin' Dynamite competition held earlier this year.

By Teino Evans, Staff Reporter

You know their moves and faces from Dancin' Dynamites and they have performed on big stages like Reggae Sunsplash and inside of the Quad and Asylum nightclubs.

But now, Schoy Stewart (Usher), Garfield Hinds (Bussie), Andrew 'Adrian' Higgins (Jon Jon), Matthew Richards (Shady) and Conray Richards (Style) are looking to take their career to another level.

Despite not coming out on top at the Dancin' Dynamite competition, the Shady Squad Dancers say ever since their inception, others have realised that they are a force to be reckoned with.

"How we started out was at a competition inside Asylum in memory of Bogle called 'Jiggy Time' Dancers Competition, last year August. It featured groups like Cadillac, Timeless, Black Bling, Kayes and others. Shady Squad entered as the underdogs because we were just starting out and we won," Matthew Richards recalled.

The group started out with three members, Shady, Style and Jon Jon, but the group eventually expanded to the five members currently.

Shady says, "after winning the competition we realised that the public had much appreciation for us, and because of the footage from that we were getting a lot of business propositions."

Some of their appearances include Stone Love Anniversary (2005), Asylum Anniversary (2005), Independence Day Celebration (2006) in Half-Way Tree and New Kingston, Mr. Wacky Memorial (2005) and other places.

Despite being one squad, each member recalled different performances as their most memorable.

big accomplishment

Jon Jon says for him it was Reggae Sunsplash, "because I enjoyed dancing there and I did something that I didn't normally do, we did some roots, reggae, dancehall tribute an nuff autograph signing."

For Bussie, it was the group's performance at the National Cheerleading Competition. He says, "a di first mi actually dance an di crowd respond suh, an mi sign nuff autograph an bare girl a scream fi wi an ting."

Well, at least one of the members had to select the Dancin' Dynamites performance as one of their most memorable. Shady says, "it was because the competition was a big accomplishment and it proved to Jamaica what Shady Squad was really capable of."

For Usher, "it was the International Reggae Dance Championship held at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre this year. That was a great experience for me because the response was overwhelming and we enjoyed doing something that wasn't the norm."

Finally, Style says, "a performance at the Courtleigh auditorium, a production put on by Motion Dance and Fitness Centre, because the setting was a theatre one, not street type, and that was an opportunity for us to pass on to the rest of the group what we learnt at Dancin' Dynamite as far as theatre and stage performances go."

Now, Shady says the Squad is working on the administrative aspect of dancing, "the business side of things, promotional material...we've made portfolios and promotional DVDs. We're also looking to enter negotiations with a number of clothing lines and companies overseas to get shows and other performances. We're also working on our myspace.com web page and wi expanding the repertoire of the group, cause wi building up to do bigger and better things."