Collett out to catch the eye in Miss Teen pageant
EAST London dancer extraordinaire Chace Collett, who has amassed numerous national and international trophies and plaques and about 200 medals for dance, is a finalist in the Miss Teen Pageant South Africa 2016-17.
Collett, 18, who matriculated from Merrifield College last year, will grace the stage in a custom-made rose-gold gown for the finals at the Batter Boys venue in Pretoria on October 29. She is one of 17 finalists. “When I entered I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t expect to be a finalist and was very surprised to have been chosen,” Collett said.
“I have done some modelling for South African Championships and the World Championships in Los Angeles, but being in a pageant is a little out of my comfort zone. “I’m very excited about it.” To participate in the pageant, which is operated by Beyond 2000 Performing Arts in Pretoria, a finalist must raise R1 800.
Pageant events manager Bernadette van Niekerk said that while a portion of this money would be channelled back into the competition, the rest would be used to buy supplies for a chosen charity.
“We work with a different one each year and have not yet decided on one for 2017.
“This year we identified Môrester Kinderhuis in Rustenberg.”
Van Niekerk’s mother, Dr Ellen Roux, who founded the competition 22 years ago, said the winning teen could decide which charity to support. She said finalists were chosen on the basis of head-and-shoulders and full-length evening and swimwear photographs.
Roux said this year’s winner would be flown to Las Vegas to participate in the Miss Teen Continents pageant, in which representatives from 35 countries would take part. “Eight South African girls have won this crown over the years,” she said.
Collett has been a shining star on the East London dance scene for some time, and this year won the overall senior performer title in the South African Championships of the Performing Arts.
Her prize was an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles in July, where she won more than 10 world championship awards, including 14 gold medals.
The South African Championships of Performing Arts is directed by Ellen Roux via Beyond 2000.
Collett, who teaches stretch and body contouring classes at Dance Addiction studio, said she had been approached by a well-known dance agency in Los Angeles and was applying for an American work visa, along with her dance partner and fellow East Londoner, Ashley Behrens. “I want to dance at the VMAs and in singers’ videos and movies, and I would love to perform in Cirque du Soleil.”
● Collett is hosting a bootcamp at 8am on Friday and a 90-minute spinathon on Saturday at 8am at Body Culture Gym in Beacon Bay.
A R50 participation fee will raise money for her sponsorship fee. —