Street dancers strut their stuff

"Locking" and "popping" and other hip-hop routines had fingers snapping, feet tapping and hands clapping when a bumper crowd showed up for the second annual Northland Street Dance Championships in Whangarei.
Twelve teams of up to eight people from around the region entered the competition, which involved each team performing a two-minute routine displaying as many different hip-hop styles as possible.
Organiser Hayden Wood said more than 900 people watched the championships in the Kensington Stadium on Saturday - more than double last year's crowd of 400 spectators.
Competitors were split into two groups - juniors aged 7-12 and varsity 13-17.
Judges were looking for moves like break dancing, "locking" and "popping".
Points were also awarded for acrobatic action known as "tricks".
"Locking" was a "fun street dance from the 1970s" and "popping" was more commonly known as the "robot dance", Mr Wood said.
The junior category was won by Whangarei team Kani Krew - commended for their exact timing - with Kapeesh, also Whangarei, runner-up and Junior Legion, Kawakawa, third.
The varsity category was won by Whangarei team Fraternity, commended for their unique tricks, with Legion from Kawakawa runner-up and Eman On (no name spelt backwards) from Whangarei third. Those six top Northland teams will now take part in the Auckland championships next month.
Mr Wood said the quality of the Northland championship performances had improved on last year and the competition was a lot tighter.
The ultimate goal of most contestants was to make it to the world hip-hop championships in Las Vegas, where an Auckland team last year won a gold medal in the varsity category against 1500 dancers from 30 nations.