International award-winning dancers are (from left) Emma Lu, Bella Adams and Piper Golds (front).
Three Napier dancers are right on point with their recent success at an international dancing competition.
Emma Lu, Piper Golds and Bella Adams brought home gold and silver medals after competing in the Australian Teachers Of Dancing (ATOD) International Dance Awards recently.
“These awards are held annually in Brisbane but due to Covid restrictions, this year were pre-recorded. Two highly acclaimed dance identities from Australia adjudicated the many entries that were received from around the world,” dance teacher Heather Brunsdon says.
From the selection of dances they were eligible to enter, Emma Lu received first place in her classical ballet under 10 years and Bella Adams third.
Emma was also awarded third in the national character under 12 years. Piper and Emma were given honourable mention for their lyrical dances under 10 years.
Gold medals were awarded to Emma for ballet and jazz, with Piper also receiving gold medals for ballet, jazz and tap, while Bella was awarded silver for ballet and jazz dancing.
“The final announcement was that Piper had been awarded the prestigious J & J Powell Award for ‘Enjoyment of Dance’ over all ages and genres. These are outstanding achievements from all the girls. It was a fabulous highlight to finish up at the dance studio,” Heather says.
Heather trained all three girls at Heather Brunsdon School of Dance, which is now the Hawke’s Bay Dance Centre run by Kat and Joseph Skelton, following her recent retirement.
Ten-year-old Emma Lu has been dancing for six years and says she is very proud of herself.
“This is my first international competition. I was super shocked and excited about winning the awards because there were lots of children entered from so many other countries.”
Emma’s favourite style of dance is ballet, which she is hoping will take her a long way in the dance world. She’s off to a flying start, having been offered a placement with Dance Masters International Intensive Training Programme 2022-2023.
“I am so honoured to receive a junior scholarship at Dance Masters International workshop for next January in Auckland. I am also so honoured to have performed with the Royal New Zealand Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty in 2020. This experience was amazing, and I will never forget. I have learnt a lot and met so many lovely dancers around New Zealand.”
Piper, 10, started dancing jazz with Heather in 2018 and began ballet the following year.
“This is when I started competitions. I have been doing tap and contemporary for two years and musical theatre this year.”
Piper says she wasn’t going to enter because it was a busy time of year with exams.
“But mum had some of my dances recorded from competitions earlier in the year so we entered what we had which was lyrical, contemporary and jazz. Then we videoed my syllabus work for ballet, tap and jazz at the studio.”
Piper says she was shocked and surprised to win her awards.
“There were lots of competitors from different countries, but I was very proud too.”
She loves all dance styles and also hopes to be in the Royal New Zealand Ballet one day.
That dream could indeed be a reality, having already dipped her ballet shoes in the RNZB pool as a child extra for the past four years. Piper was first successful in auditioning to be a little bird in Hansel and Gretel in 2019 and then performed as a lilac fairy assistant in Sleeping Beauty in 2020. In 2021 she was invited back along with two other children to perform a walk-on role in Giselle. She also auditioned successfully this year for Cinderella as a fairy godmother helper.
Eleven-year-old Bella has been dancing since she was 4 and was also feeling very proud of herself for achieving “something this big”.
“There are competitors from all over the world that entered.”
Her favourite styles of dance are classical ballet and contemporary. Bella’s dancing aim is to “do my very best and see where it takes me”.
“I love dance and hope to do it for as long as possible.”