Band auxiliaries will get to take center stage next month.

The second annual Essence of Twirling and Dance Auxiliary Competition will take place on Dec. 5 in the gym at King’s Fork High School.

The event will be hosted by Suffolk Parks and Recreation and coordinated by Chanel Bryant and her organization, For the Love of Band, LLC.

Bryant said the purpose of the upcoming competition is to give band auxiliaries “the opportunity to compete outside of football season. This type of competition is an indoor event, and it’s popular in the Maryland and (Washington) D.C. area, as well as North Carolina, but not in the Tidewater area.”

She wanted to get these competitions started in the area and did so successfully in April with the help of Suffolk Parks and Recreation.

“We decided to make it a December event to feed off of football season,” Bryant said.

Not only will the contest give high school majorette, dance and flag teams a chance to compete, it also helps them to continue to improve their skills throughout the year.

Proceeds from the event will go to benefit band programs, as well as the Suffolk Youth Achievement Awards, which help provide young people with scholarships.

Competing on Saturday will be eight different teams, some coming from Virginia, North Carolina and Washington D.C.

The competition will be broken into three divisions: marching, team and stand dance.

Bryant said the marching division serves as the introduction to the competition, adding that competing teams “march in and they center themselves center court, and they do their best marching routine like they would do in a parade” before marching off.

For the team division, each team must have a theme that it expresses through everything from its music to its moves to its attire.

“They’re scored on how well they encompass the theme that they are trying to present,” Bryant said. Noting that some teams even employ props, she added, “Some of them go really all out when it comes to their theme.”

Closing out the contest is the stand dance division, which features only the dance line.

“The stand dance battle is always a highlight of the competition,” Bryant said, after noting that it is conducted in a format similar to the one featured on the popular Lifetime show “Bring It!”

In the multi-round stand dance division, dance teams select their music to perform to and are judged based on a variety of factors including their unity, technique and showmanship.

“The showmanship really brings everything forth,” Bryant said.

In addition to the competition, the event at King’s Fork will also include exhibition performances, including one by the Letitia White Academy of Dance from Chesapeake, one by the Dance Dimensions Dance and Music Academy from Norfolk and one by Lilly Dawley of the “Satin Hearts” Elite Twirlers of Suffolk.

The Dec. 5 event will begin at 2 p.m., and tickets will cost $10. Doors will open at 1 p.m.

For more information, contact Chanel Bryant at 4theloveofband@gmail.com.