Kiah Hungerford on stage at the World of Dance competition in LA
Kiah Hungerford on stage at the World of Dance competition in LA
Te Puke High School student Kiah Hungerford won’t be finishing his secondary education at the school.
Instead, the current year 12 student will spend 2025 in Auckland after being accepted into the first cohort of a new elite pre-professional dance school, The Conservatory.
Acceptance has capped a year where, with two dance crews, Kiah competed in the US at two international dance competitions.
Earlier this year, with crews from the Space Studios in Tauranga, he competed in the World of Dance competition in LA and Hip Hop International in Arizona.
He was part of a 13-person contemporary crew called Astra that won the New Zealand World of Dance qualifying competition in Auckland and came second in its division in LA.
In a second team, a mega crew called Proteam, that qualified by winning the New Zealand Hip Hop International (HHI) competition, he finished 5th in the world HHI competition and made it through to the finals of the World of Dance competition.
The World of Dance caters for all kinds of contemporary dance types, but HHI is purely a hip-hop competition.
Kiah says there was a lot of fundraising involved in getting to the competitions.
" We were so thankful for everyone who supported us to get there,” he says.
Dancers from Space Studios in LA, with Kiah Hungerford second from the right.
Kiah was born and raised in Tauranga but after his family moved to the Waikato he started a weekly junior hip-hop class at Aspire Dance Studio in Matamata.
When the family moved to Christchurch he enrolled in hip-hop classes there before moving back to Tauranga where he joined Ride Dance Company.
“I was there for about three years and part of their competition teams for about a year.”
He then auditioned and was accepted at Space Studio in Tauranga where he has been for three years.
He was about 6 when he started dance and it was one of several sports and activities he was given the opportunity to try.
“My parents are big rugby fans and I was enrolled in rip rugby and tackle rugby, I tried football, but it didn’t really stick and I found out it was just dance for me and I love it, it’s great.
“I loved watching dance, I loved watching other boys in dance and seeing that boys can actually dance and don’t just have to do rugby - that was the first trigger for me, and I just thought it looks so cool and I thought ‘I want to move like that, I want to dance like that and I know that I can do that one day’. That’s where it started for me.
“I kept turning up every week, practising hard at home, trying all the new techniques and, yeah, once it led me to Space Studios, they really helped me to open up my technique and really push further and harder.”
The mega team Proteam on stage at Hip Hop International
Studying at The Conservatory will take things up a notch.
“It will help me prepare for the professional industry of dance and also do a semester on film and producing as well, so it will give me a good taste of the professional aspects of both filming and dance that I can take elsewhere wherever I go afterwards.”
As well as taking part, Kiah says he likes to capture dance - in photography and video, saying he wants to portray an idea, or “get something across to the audience - something that has meaning.
“That’s where I see my future, creating film and photography that portray an intention of some kind, that actually makes an impact somewhere.
“A big thing for me is the whole stereotypes of dance and how it’s not necessarily an easy path to walk through college because those stereotypes are always there, like you’re gay if you dance, whereas, really, straight boys can do dance, so that’s the one stereotype I’d love to chip away at in the future.”
But the interest in film doesn’t mean he will give up on dance.
“I’d love to do a good mix of both. I think my strengths would come from being behind the camera and planning and creating and seeing the whole process come to life. But I would love to be in some of my own pieces.
Kiah’s schoolmates have had the chance to see him on stage and he was in the cast of Grease in 2021, has successfully taken part in lipsynch competitions and appeared on stage in school dance competitions.
He has also signed up with dance and talent agency 3WJ+boy, which may see another string added to his bow.
“I wasn’t sure how that would go, but I did get accepted, which is pretty cool, and now that sees me driving around for auditions for dancing, TV commercials. I’d love to one day do that, but I think the auditions are just a great experience to build up knowledge on that side of the industry.”
He sees his future career somewhere in the creative industries.
“Anything where I am creating and producing the idea of a concept that can be delivered to an audience, I think is where I’ll be in the future.”
