A Rotorua dance crew is delighted to be going to a national dance competition.
Rotorua dance crew Unit-y is heading to Auckland for the Street Dance New Zealand national championships.
The group danced their way to victory in the Bay of Plenty Waikato regional competition last month.
Unit-y came first in the "varsity"
section of the regionals and won a trophy.
Crew manager Caron Tuhura said the team were "over the moon".
Their goal had been to make the top three, but to come first was awesome: "The kids were really rapt with our placing."
The win meant the team had qualified to go to the nationals, which were to be held tomorrow and Saturday.
Last year Unit-y went to the national championships after coming second at the regional competition. However, they did not figure in the final placings.
"We're hoping to do better this year by qualifying for the finals," Mrs Tuhura said.
Unit-y was founded at the beginning of last year and is made up of seven people, aged 12 to 17.
For the regional and national competitions, the crew has to perform a mix of dance styles.
"We have to show different styles, that's how you're judged," Mrs Tuhura said.
They danced to a mixture of music, including R & B and hip hop.
Her son Raukawa, 17, choreographed the team's dances.
Their dance for this year required the dancers to get fit and put in a lot of preparation and training.
"Our dance is really high-energy," Mrs Tuhura said.
The crew had been practising hard at Western Heights Primary School and at the Rotorua Youth Centre.
