Two groups of Whangarei dancers have hip-hopped their way to the world championships in the United States - and a dance expert says they've got the goods to take out the title. New group Kapeesh, a crew of eight youngsters aged 10 to 13, took out the junior division of thenational Streetdance NZ championships in Auckland at the weekend, and are now looking forward to the July world champs in Las Vegas. Another Whangarei group, Kani Krew, came third in Auckland and are also going to Las Vegas. Kapeesh manager Tui Broughton said the group was excited and pretty shocked when they got the news of its championship win. The group's first major competition was in December when it entered the World Supremacy Battleground Australasian hip-hop competition in Sydney. The eight dancers practise three times a week and most weekends leading up to competitions, Ms Broughton said. "We'll be working on some new routines, as well as polishing some old routines, working on fitness and a bit of gymnastics training too." Group member Kataraina Rapana, 11, said the best thing about the Auckland competition was "winning," but seeing other hip-hop groups perform - like her idols Sweet & Sour, from Auckland- had been pretty cool. Fale McCarthy, of Streetdance NZ, said Kapeesh had the skills to take out the junior division in Las Vegas, where it will compete against more than 50 crews from all over the globe. "New Zealand hip-hop dance is right up there with American as the best in the world," Ms McCarthy said. With Auckland and Tauranga crews previously successful at the New Zealand nationals, it was good to see Northland groups taking out the first and third spots, she said. "It's really awesome seeing how the standard keeps getting higher. We had crews come up from Christchurch at the weekend and they were just blown away with these groups. They had no idea the standard was so high."
