One of East Auckland’s premier dance schools have taken out top spots at an Australasian Dance competition in January.
More than 16,000 acts competed at this year’s Showcase Dance Nationals held at Jupiter’s Casino on the Gold Coast.
A team of 38 students from Howick’s Storm Dance Studio travelled to Australia to compete in the week-long competition, ranging from seven to 17 years old and encompassing a wide variety of dance genres.
Dance studio director Candice Foster said it was a big journey for the team, who qualified at the Auckland Regionals and Nationals before being selected to travel to Australia.
Storm’s hip hop team ‘Where are you now’ won first place in its category gaining the score of Double Platinum Gold.
This ranking qualified the team to compete at Battle of the Stars, the finale of the week’s competition, where the top three acts in each age group re-compete to win the overall title, and they were awarded Runner-Up in the teen large group section.
Soloists who took out first place and became the national champions in their category were Melody Lui-Webster (vocal), Coby Brooks (hip-hop) and Eeva Running (speed tap).
Other highlights included the junior lyrical team ‘Tears of an Angel’ being awarded first place and ranking as the national champions, as well as fourth place rankings for the junior jazz team, senior hip-hop team and teen lyrical team.
By: Laura Brookes
