Dance Central Taupō's Stella Team are only 5 and 6 years old, but they're already first place finishers.
Dance Central Taupō's Stella Team are only 5 and 6 years old, but they're already first place finishers.
Dance Central’s dancers are celebrating back-to-back successes, with students succeeding in exams and qualifying for a major national competition.
Many Dance Central Students take Asia Pacific Dance Association (APDA) exams, as ASDA is an international dance syllabus that covers a range of genres.
In the exams, three dancers came away with the top or second-highest scores in the whole Asia Pacific region.
Holly Taplin, 18, scored a perfect 100 per cent in the solo seal contemporary category, alongside the top mark for solo seal jazz at 99.5 per cent and the second highest mark at 98 per cent for contemporary level 10.
Mia Beck, 12, took the second highest mark in Asia Pacific with 99 per cent in the elementary 2 jazz category, and Piper Tervit, 9, scored the top mark with 99 per cent in musical theatre level 2.
Dance Central’s principal, Iggy Gloy, said the team were thrilled with the dancers’ results.
“We are so proud of all our dancers at Dance Central and there were many dancers with exam results over 95 per cent.
“To gain a top mark or second highest mark when the standard is so, so high and there are so many dancers doing these exams around the world, shows incredible hard work, talent and love for dance.”
Nexus Team at Dance Central Taupō finished second in the jazz and lyrical competitions.
Seven Dance Central teams then headed to the New Zealand Dance Awards - Tauranga Regional competition on February 17.
The students needed a score of at least 80 per cent to qualify for the national competition in Christchurch.
Dance Central Taupō's Nova Team scored first place for contemporary and second place for jazz.
All of the teams who entered scored above 80 per cent, with the Stella Team (ages 5-6), Juno Team (ages 7-9), Monarch Team (ages 13-18), Junior Hip-Hop Team (ages 9-11) and Senior Hip Hop Team (ages 13-15) all taking first place finishes.
The Nova Team (ages 9-12) took one first- and one second-place and the Nexus Team (ages 12-13) impressed with two second-place finishes.
Dance Central is looking for community members and businesses to help with the costs of sending the seven teams to the national competition. Anyone able to help is asked to contact principal Iggy Gloy at dancecentral.taupo@gmail.com.
Full New Zealand Dance Awards - regional results:
Stella Team (age 5-6): 1st place for Jazz
Juno Team (age 7-9): 1st place for Jazz, 1st place for Contemporary
Nova Team (age 9-12): 2nd place for Jazz, 1st place for Contemporary
Nexus Team (age 12-13): 2nd place for Jazz, 2nd place for Lyrical
Monarch Team (age 13-18): 1st place for Jazz, 1st place for Contemporary
