The Kensington Dance Crew (KDC) hopes to smash their competition during the World of Dance regional auditions on Saturday 16 July to secure a spot at the national qualifiers to be held in Johannesburg later this year.
World of Dance is the largest International Urban Dance Competition with the focus on the art of street dancing and newage choreography. It is known as the largest touring event that embraces Urban Dance and lifestyle.
Dancers will be chosen from across the country to participate in the national qualifiers to be held in Johannesburg in December.
From there the top dancers will be chosen to participate in the World of Dance Championships to be held in the United States of America (USA) later this year.
Cindy-Ann Booysen, Assistant Coach and parent to three of the dancers for KDC, says the auditions will take place at the Hill Song Church in Century City.
Booysen says their goal is to work hard enough in order to qualify for the championship in the USA.
“These kids live for dance. They practise during the week after school and on Saturdays from 08:00 to 12:00. They even practise at my home sometimes.”
The group, consisting of about 15 members, hails from the Kensington and Factreton community.
David Stemmet (22), founder of the group, says KDC was established in 2016.
“We started off at Kensington High School and then got the community involved. The children we have now are not just Kensington High School learners, it’s former learners from the school as well. There are also children from other schools. The motivation is to keep the kids off the streets and providing them with more opportunities.”
He says they are excited and optimistic about the regional auditions.
“There are different sections in the competition, we entered two sections, a junior section and an upper teens section. We are hoping to be placed between first place and third place to qualify for the national competition happening in Johannesburg in December.”
He says the group does different dance genres, but their main focus is Hip Hop.
“I try and teach every genre so they can have basic skills about various genres. If they leave here they at least know a bit of everything.”
According to Booysen, finance and sponsorship is a big challenge as not all parents are able to contribute.
“They always need new clothing, everyone needs to look the same. Uniformity is also one of the things they get rated on. There are no funds available to us. But we will be having fundraisers soon because there are more competitions in the pipeline.”
The group is no stranger to the dancing scene and has a few winning titles in the bag. In 2018 they won the Hip Hop International competition and last year they won second place in the 021 best dance crew competition.
As a group they have also made several appearances on SABC’s Expresso Morning Show.
Booysen calls on the community to support the group.
“This is the first time our children have this opportunity. We would like our community’s support. Many people don’t know about us. But we would like them to come and support us at the competition. These children are talented and they put in a lot of effort. Their whole life revolves around academics, home and dance.”
Tickets for the World of Dance regional auditions can be purchased at quicket.
