Hip-hop dancers turn heads at world championships

Thomas Murphy of Dziah works on the routine that the group developed. Picture / Dean Purcell

Eight young men from South Auckland have given a huge boost to the local hip-hop scene by being named the second-best hip-hop dancers in the world.

Dziah, based in a light industrial block in Otara, have come second only to a group from the Philippines in the 33-nation world championships in Los Angeles.

James Daniels of the Auckland hip-hop radio station Flava said the group showed that the genre was no longer an American phenomenon.

"Hip-hop is the fastest-growing genre of music in the world. This just reflects how strong we are in New Zealand with it," he said.

"It's been around since the 70s, but the reason it's exploding as a music genre is that it's easy to do now. Remember when you used to have to have a guitar, drums and bass. Now these kids can make all their music on PCs."

Dziah were founded in 2002 and won eighth place in their first bid for the world championships last year.

Founding member Billie Paea, who manages an Otara gym started by his father, youth worker Sully Paea, said the group were "a bit scared" in their first overseas outing, but this year they knew they had a good routine and had a good time.

"We got a standing ovation in the heats, which gave us a lot of confidence. We thought, 'We can actually win this'," he said.

In contrast to most other entrants, who performed routines created by choreographers, all eight Dziah dancers, aged 18 to 24, took part in developing their performances.

"Our style is quite different to the other countries. It does have a Polynesian influence, but we have quite a multicultural group - Filipino, Cambodian, Samoan, Maori. We have all those influences in our group."

They had to sacrifice practice time because of the pressure of raising $45,000 for air fares and expenses.

This year three other New Zealand groups also went to Los Angeles.

Wellington group Legacy came 12th, West Auckland's Blaze came 17th and East Auckland's O2 placed in the twenties.

* Dziah perform at a youth function tonight at the Christian Life Centre, 95 Mt Eden Rd, Auckland.