Siblings Orlanda and Ella Lucas (left and right), moved from Canada to New Zealand to join award-winning dance studio IDCO, to learn from and dance with director Josh Cesan, centre. They are competing at the World Dance Crew Championships in Auckland this week. Photo / Ant Farac
Siblings Orlanda and Ella Lucas (left and right), moved from Canada to New Zealand to join award-winning dance studio IDCO, to learn from and dance with director Josh Cesan, centre. They are competing at the World Dance Crew Championships in Auckland this week. Photo / Ant Farac
The World Dance Crew Championships begin tomorrow at Auckland’s Due Drop Events Centre, running until April 19.
Canadian siblings Ella and Orlando Lucas, now based in NZ, will compete with IDCO.
The siblings have gained fame on TikTok and now aim for dance stardom.
They’ve got more than 34 million views on some of their TikToks and now New Zealand-based Canadian siblings Ella and Orlando Lucas hope to secure glory for NZ at one of the world’s biggest dance competitions.
The World Dance Crew Championships (WDCC) begin tomorrow at Auckland’s Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau. Across seven days, elite dance crews from around the globe will compete in the largest event of its kind.
Crews will battle the best of the best in dance, including NZ’s award-winning IDCO, led by Joshua Cesan, and Parris Goebel’s infamous Royal Family.
Dancers have travelled far and wide to be part of the street and hip-hop dance competition, with some going as far as moving countries to be part of their dream crew.
Orlando, 19, and Ella Lucas, 21 relocated to New Zealand from Canada after seeing the calibre of NZ dance crews at the World Championships in 2023.
“We were so impressed with the quality of dance that we saw coming out of New Zealand,” Ella says.
“We wanted to take our dancing to the next level, so after we graduated high school, we decided to audition for [NZ dance studio] IDCO and see what would happen.”
The siblings auditioned for the studio’s director Cesan, and moved to NZ to train under his leadership.
“We fell in love with the dance community we found in New Zealand,” Ella says. “We moved here in 2024 and we are loving it.”
The Herald chats to them ahead of the big competition.
How did you get into dancing?
Ella: When we were young, we watched the movie Step Up with my parents and we fell in love with the whole style of the movie and the characters. But even before that, there are countless home videos of us dancing around the house as young as 3. After we saw the movie, we asked if we could take dance lessons and everything just took off from there. We’ve never stopped dancing after that.
How do you handle the attention that comes with social media?
Orlando: We appreciate the opportunity that social media presents for us. We’re able to engage directly with people who appreciate our dancing. We love answering their questions and taking requests from them when they ask us to dance to certain songs or artists. We also love engaging with them in live videos. Sometimes, we create dance choreography with their input. We get recognised sometimes when we are out and about and we love engaging with people. With some of the video views so high it feels great to be able to inspire others. Social media means we can reach people we wouldn’t otherwise be able to.
What video/dance has been most popular for you?
Orlando: Gas Pedal most recently got 34 million views in just a few weeks and has been copied and shared thousands of times. That’s pretty crazy to see a video reach that many views on TikTok. But we both have lots of popular videos that have been viewed a lot. Ella posts a lot of behind-the-scenes videos on how dance videos were created and those get a lot of views. I think people enjoy seeing the process rather than just the end product. People really like to see not just the dance but how we created and shot it. We get to show more of our personality that way, too.
The Lucas family. Photo / Ant Farac
How hard is it for a young dancer trying to break into the dance scene?
Orlando: It’s definitely not easy, but as long as we always keep pushing and working hard, the opportunities have come to us. We have never sat back and waited for things to happen, we have always made it happen for ourselves. We work very hard - including our social media. We have always pushed ourselves. That is something our parents taught us - that you can be successful at anything as long as you always give it 110%. The hard work is always worth it when you get to do the thing you love every single day.
Who are you most looking forward to seeing at the World Dance Crew Championships?
Orlando: We are competing and sharing the competition stage with The Royal Family, who we have always admired. It will be surreal to compete in the same category as them. Beyond IDCO teams, SRank is another team to watch out for in the adult crew category, also Crew24. We can’t wait to see what these teams bring to the stage.
What’s it like having your mum coming over from Canada to watch you perform this week?
Ella: We are so excited to have her watch us perform on stage. Our parents never missed a show or a competition when we were growing up, no matter where it took place in the world. Since we have been here in New Zealand dancing with IDCO they haven’t been able to be at every performance but they have come to the big ones - in LA last July, in Australia this past November and now in Auckland for WDCC. We know mum is so excited to be able to be here and we can’t wait to show her what we’ve been working on.
The World Dance Crew Championships take place at Auckland’s Due Drop Events Centre from April 13-19. Tickets available from Eventfinda.
