A young east Auckland dance prodigy has bold ambitions including to become a professional dancer and one day open her own studio.
Year 10 Pakuranga College pupil Emily Cooper has been dancing since before she was three years old.
She’s into tap, jazz, hip-hop and contemporary dance, and somehow manages to find time to also play football for her school.
“My parents put me in it and ever since I’ve just loved doing it,” she says of her introduction to dancing.
“I love all styles but tap is special to me because it’s not that common. I love different timings and I love jazz as well.”
Emily has competed in several national and international competitions this year and is making a name for herself as a rising star.
The 14-year-old is a member of the Rangers dance crew that competed at the World Hip Hop Dance Championship in Arizona in the United States in August.
Rangers, from east Auckland’s Jaye’s Dance, took out second place for New Zealand as well as 24th in the world in the varsity division.
“It was pretty good since it’s totally a new experience from New Zealand and then performing again against the world,” Emily says.
Unsurprisingly, she puts a lot of time and effort into dance to be as good as she is.
“I sometimes have down time, but I dance every day for a few hours,” she says.
“I want to pursue dance and be a professional dancer overseas and eventually become a dance teacher and own my own dance studio.”
Her advice to younger dancers is to put in the time and if they have a passion for it, they’ll eventually get better.
“Competitions are my favourite thing because I love performing on stage and meeting new friends,” Emily says.
“Dance friends are the best people to meet. I do dance exams and in all my exams I got ‘distinction’.
“I also got a tap scholarship in Wellington which I went to. I just came back from it. It’s basically a competition and I made finals.”
The exams require dancers to learn a new dance in just one hour and then perform it in front of the judges before being graded.
‘Distinction’ means a grade of 98 per cent or higher on the exam.
Adding to her successful year, Emily was named Dancer of the Year at Jaye’s Dance.
