CJ Batchelor, 5, centre, rocks his new haircut, while Ben Hori-Elliott, 7, watches on.
CJ Batchelor, 5, centre, rocks his new haircut, while Ben Hori-Elliott, 7, watches on.
Modelling his starry new hairdo, 5-year-old CJ Batchelor clapped energetically in time to Pharrell Williams' song Happy.
The young dancer was yesterday learning the moves to his hip-hop routine to be performed at Forum North tomorrow.
Ben Hori-Elliott, 7, learns his dance routine at the Goodwill Tappers summer workshop.
CJ was one of 12 boys - out of 60 dancers - taking partin the tenth annual Goodwill Tappers summer dance workshop in Whangarei this week.
"It's nice to see the boys getting into dancing - we only had one boy for the first three years of the workshops," organiser Penny Goodwill told the Advocate.
The workshop at the Pipeband Hall in Morningside - which kicked off on Monday and finishes tomorrow before the final performance - featured workshops for all ages across nine genres including hip-hop, contemporary, ballroom, tap and jazz.
Tutors included Dancing with the Stars teachers Jonny and Kristie Williams, Candy Lane Dance Studios choreographer and teacher Peter Kemble and former Identity Dance Crew performer Matthew Moore.
"It's nice to get those calibre of tutors up in Northland, and the children really respect them," Ms Goodwill said. "I like seeing the kids enjoying themselves, especially on their summer holidays. I get rewarded seeing them happy - this is my part-time passion."
Mr Kemble was involved with the creation of the workshop and has taught musical theatre and tap there ever since. The main change he has noticed in that time has been the shift in interest from genres like tap to hip-hop and contemporary. But he is just happy children were still keen to dance.
