Some of Canberra's youngest dancers have cleaned up at the national Australian Dance Crew Championship in Sydney.
One for All, a crew of six dancers between the ages of 11 and 13, won first place in the junior crew division while Cloe Palavestra won first place in the junior soloist division.
All the dancers are students at Project Beats Dance Studio in City Walk and trained their pieces with studio owner, Chippy Lo.
The crew comprises Badau Ragless (12). Elise Doherty (12), Elliott Barnes (13), Hannah Yun (11), Lili Rush (12) and Sujaan Biddle (11). They took home $3000 in prize money.
"It feels unreal and really awesome because it means all our hard work has resulted in a reward," Lili said.
Elliott agreed. "It is the best feeling ever, especially as they called out our crew name, it was this huge rush of adrenaline. Of course my parents are now telling everyone about our win," she said.
Chippy said Project Beats had also won first place in the adult section at the same championship in 2019 before COVID hit and now, it was taking home the junior section as the competition resumed.
"It definitely means a lot because these kids are the second-generation of Canberra dancers and they are already at national level," he said.
"Although Canberra is small, we can still compete at a national level against all the other states."
Both the One For All routine and Cloe's solo piece were "highly unique routines mostly using the street dance style of locking, which originated in the 1970s".
Being part of a crew and the streets dance community has been an empowering experience for the students and their parents.
"I have learnt that, with help, I can learn any dance and I can challenge myself more than I thought I could," Elise said.
And how are they going to spend that prize money?
"'I promised them that if they won, they could have their own custom crew outfit - so that's the first thing I need to do with the money," Chippy said.
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