Ashanti to Make Appearance at Pop Starz Hip Hop Dance Workshop to Benefit the New 'Hurricane Bank Relief Fund'

MIAMI, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- This Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the beautiful Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Fla., Grammy Award-winning R&B artist Ashanti (Inc. Records) will be "showing some love" to South Florida, with an appearance at the Pop Starz Hip Hop Dance Workshop to help raise money for the new program The Hurricane Bank Relief Fund, created by Pop Starz founder and President Michelle Tucker.

"We are so excited to get started in raising money for such a needed cause. Being a native Floridian myself, and seeing the devastation since I was little that hurricanes can cause, and then the 'panic mode' that the state goes into to raise money on an emergency basis, made me come up with the idea for The Hurricane Bank Relief Fund," Tucker said. "Like the old-fashioned blood bank, where blood is kept in reserve if the donor chooses, eliminating the panic of not having a blood type when needed, reduces the last-minute rush of finding that blood type for the needed victim. Pop Starz is creating something similar, a 'Hurricane Bank' -- money set aside only to be used for hurricane-related needs. This we hope in the future will help reduce the emergency and panic of money needed at the last minute for hurricane victims. We are going to donate 20% of all profits made at our events throughout the year so come next hurricane season, if needed, there will be plenty of money set aside in the Hurricane Bank Relief Fund, designated only to be used for helping Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach county hurricane victims."

Teaching at this Sunday's workshop will be Pop Starz Artistic Director Brice Vick, who has been Ashanti's exclusive choreographer for the last four years and Remmi Martin's (Fat Joe's Terror Squad) choreographer. Shane Sparks, winner of the prestigious "Choreographer of the Year Award," who also choreographed the hit dance movie, "You Got Served," starring Omarion and the hip hop choreographer on the hit FOX TV show "So You Think You Can Dance," will teach. Also teaching those famous hip hop dance moves is Shotyme, presently the choreographer for Gwen Stefani's World Tour (Gwen will be performing in South Florida December 20), who became a famous choreographer after he choreographed most of R&B/Pop artist Mya's trademarked dance moves.

The dance workshop is for dancers from beginners to professional ages 8 to adults.

Pre-registration forms can be found on popstarzinc.com or by calling Pop Starz at 305-531-7224.

Pop Starz, a South Florida hip hop company with classes throughout Miami- Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, has had much fame from their Production Company Dancers, made up of kids and teens ages 8 to 17. They have opened for many top artists' concerts and celebrity events, such as *NSYNC's "Challenge for the Children" Event, B2K's Scream III Tour, Hilary Duff, Brian McKnight, Aaron Carter and Nick Cannon. They have appeared already on several MTV music videos, national commercials, and continue to achieve national attention while being featured on such TV shows as Extra, Inside Edition, as well as appeared locally numerous times on NBC, ABC, Fox and Telemundo.