All 21 members of the Cartel Crew from the Hastings Mafia Dance Family took home fourth place in their division at National to win a spot at World in America. Photo / Supplied
All 21 members of the Cartel Crew from the Hastings Mafia Dance Family took home fourth place in their division at National to win a spot at World in America. Photo / Supplied
The Cartel Crew from Mafia Dance Family in Hastings took home fourth place at the 2022 Hip Hop international New Zealand (HHINZ) Online national competition.
Due to Covid this year, the New Zealand national hip-hop competition looked a bit different as everything was online, so the group of 21 dancersages 12 to 17 years old had to submit a video instead of attending the event in Auckland.
Instead, they watched the live stream of "the biggest comp in NZ for hip-hop".
The top five dance crews in the Junior Varsity Mega category won a place at the World Hip Hop Championships in Phoenix, Arizona, on August 6-13.
Hip-hop is a very competitive sport in New Zealand, so it's pretty hard to get to the World Championships as New Zealand crews have such a high skill level, said the dancers.
Jemma Moffitt, a dancer from the Cartel Crew, "going to worlds is the dream, you can't get any better than worlds, it's so exciting".
All 21 members of the Cartel Crew from the Hastings Mafia Dance Family took home fourth place in their division at National to win a spot at World in America. Photo / Supplied
After the excitement of winning a spot to Worlds settled in, it also sunk in quite quickly that the Mafia Dance Family had less than eight weeks to fundraise.
The group of 21 dancers plus a coach and support team are looking at around $5000 per person.
Dance crew manager Nicola Cormack said the group would need about $120,000 to cover flights, accommodation, registration, Covid tests and travel insurance.
"It's a lot of money in a short time frame but we have to try, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some of these kids," Cormack said.
The Cartel Crew and Mafia Dance Family need help to send these kids over to represent Hawke's Bay and New Zealand on the world stage.
And are open to any ideas and support the community and wider New Zealand may have to offer.
Competing in America would be a fantastic opportunity for the kids in the hip-hop crew to show off what they can do in front of a world-class audience and their dance crew manager said, "Mafia Dance Family need your support."
Don't hesitate to get in touch with Nicola Cormack (manager) 022 410 2046 or email mafiadancefamily@gmail.com
