Young dancers strut their stuff at festival

A Dance Unlimited team perform at the Wanganui Competitions Society Dancing Festival on Thursday. Photo Stuart Munro

They jumped high, they swooped low, they spun and dipped and one of them even sneezed a lot.

They were young dance teams competing at the annual ballet, modern and tap dancing competitions held in the Whanganui Girls' College hall this week.

The Wanganui Competitions Society Dancing Festival attracted over 500 entries this year and they have been appearing before adjudicator Lorna Rosevear this week.

Competitions kicked off at 8am each morning from Wednesday and Thursday afternoon saw the modern group open entrants strut their stuff.

There was glamour from groups representing Dance Unlimited which has schools operating in Feilding, Marton and Palmerston North.

Four representative groups performed entiries entitled Magic, Moulin Rouge, Circus and Queen.

A group from Maximum Dance Zone in Palmerston North represented Snow White's buddies with The Seven Dwarfs complete with pick axes and punctuated by sneezes from a certain member of the team.

Kaea Rakatairi, Diego Ramos-Juarez and Zac Maskill brought the elusive Where's Wally to life with some smooth moves.

They were followed by two teams of little dancers from Dean McKerras School of Dance in Palmerston North performing Too Funky and Conga.

Wanganui Competitions Society president Eris Walker was busy overseeing the music backstage and she it has been an "exhausting but enjoyable" week.

"We really earn our keep with these competitions," she said.

"They are not old ladies tea party sessions."

The festival ended with award presentations after the tap dancing competitions held on Friday and the next competitions will be held in October.