St Johns Hill School to represent Whanganui at Jump Jam National Challenge

St Johns Hill School's "Jumping Johns" Jump Jam team, who are heading to the national championships this weekend. Photo / Bevan Conley

A team from St Johns Hill School are set to go where no Whanganui school has gone before, as they prepare for the Jump Jam National Challenge.

Jump Jam is a fusion of dance and aerobic fitness specifically designed for primary and intermediate school children and teachers by two-time world aerobics champion Brett Fairweather.

Teams learn choreographed aerobic dance routines to popular music to advance movement skills, increase fitness, develop student leadership and encourage them to move and enjoy exercise.

The school’s Jumping Johns team qualified for the nationals in Tauranga by winning a regional competition in Palmerston North.

Coaches Jessica Abelen and Glen Howells have been helping the team prepare for the competition.

Abelen said she and the team were very nervous but excited to be heading to Tauranga.

“A lot of work has gone into it, and we’re the first group in Whanganui to ever go to [the] nationals or be invited to the nationals, so [there’s] a lot of pressure but I’m excited - they’re excited as well,” Abelen said.

Howells said the school had been doing Jump Jam for at least the last 16 years, but only got involved with the competitive scene last year when they took a team to a regional competition in Palmerston North.

“It was fun, and we figured out what we needed to improve,” Howells said.

This involved picking a smaller group of kids to be part of the team and bringing on Abelen to be a dedicated dance coach.

“I stepped away and let Jessica take over because she’s the dancer; I just do all the organising of the kits and help kids learn the routine, but she fine-tunes it and gets them going really well with it,” he said.

This was Abelen’s first year being involved with Jump Jam, and her influence immediately made a difference, with the team winning this year’s regionals, giving them a spot at nationals.

The regional win came as a surprise to her and the team.

“That was an awesome experience. We were shocked that we got the placing - we thought we might get a placing, but we didn’t think we’d get first.”

She said competitive Jump Jam was different to other dance competitions as the performances are based around aerobics.

“You’re doing a lot of high-energy, fitness movement.”

The performance was mainly focused on high-energy, sharp movements, facial expressions and vocalising.

Abelen said the national competition will be more involved than the regionals.

“We’ve had to do costumes, which is different. We’ve had to work on the routine and really improve,” she said.

Their routine will be performed to the Smash Mouth cover of I’m a Believer from Shrek.

“We hope we win, but I think even if we just get on stage and perform it well and do our best, the best we’ve ever done, we’ll be proud.”

She thanked the school for getting behind the team and helping to fundraise to get the team over to Tauranga.

The national challenge is taking place this weekend on November 11 and 12.

Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.