The senior contemporary dancers celebrate their second place finish in the Battle of the Stars competition, with teacher Holly Duder-Joy in the middle. Photo / Supplied
International success has given a group of Whangarei dancers renewed passion as they prepare for their dance exams.
Twenty-two dancers from the Whangarei Academy of Dance and Performing Arts headed over to the Gold Coast to take part in the Showcase National Showcase competition earlier this year.
WADPA teacher and owner Holly Duder-Joy said the group is "more driven, more focused, more determined and definitely more inspired" since returning.
She said the school has been to the competition three times in the past six years but usually just for the experience and fun of being part of such a big competition. This time however, they got some results to go with their hard work.
Two groups got through to the finals at the end of the week long event - known as the Battle of the Stars.
Their senior contemporary group performed their dance, called Unsteady, in the senior section of the Battle of the Stars, and claimed second spot. Being the second best senior group out of 70 groups from across Australia and New Zealand netted them $500 and a large trophy.
The junior jazz group performed their dance called Black Magic in the wild card section of the Battle of the Stars and finished fifth.
The senior jazz group, the acrobatic group, the senior small group and the musical theatre groups also won their respective divisions, but their performances were not enough to see them through to the Battle of the Stars which took the top 10 performances across all divisions.
Ms Duder-Joy said as well as those, there were a number of dancers who scored in the top 10 of their sections.
Rowan McInnes claimed a first in classical ballet with a high gold commendation, Sophie-Maree Teh-Hall was second in acrobatic with high gold, McKenzie Healey was second in lyrical with gold and Kheira Paki-Taare second in tap with high silver.
Ms Duder-Joy said she was "absolutely proud" of all of the dancers.
"We totally out did all our expectations this year."
The dancers will sit their dance exams at the end of June, when an English examiner makes the trip across.