My name is Tasharna and I have been a part of the Dance Central family for 6 years. My journey started with Dance Central in the varsity crew ‘DC Crew’. Later I progressed into the adult division, competing twice before moving overseas to compete in an international team.
Upon returning to Canberra, I had the honour of founding Dance Central’s adult crew ‘Mercy’. I also had the opportunity to lead Dance Central’s varsity crew ‘DCV’ I also have the pleasure of co-leading the amazing junior crew ‘DKC’ with Wayde Webster. All this, of course, with the guidance and constant help of our director Julie Scheer.
I could not be prouder of the DKC kids — particularly achieving such an amazing goal to represent Canberra and Australia at the 2017 Hip Hop Internationals world event held in Arizona, USA.
Hip Hop Internationals (HHI) is an experience that I am overjoyed to share with DKC. I have been lucky enough to have my crews participate in HHI twice now… although “luck” is better defined as hard work and dedication. HHI is an opportunity that can change perspectives and can impact lives. It doesn’t matter what your age, your gender, your country, or your religion is. Thousands of people from all sides of the world come together to share their love for dance.
Almost every crew that compete leave the stage in tears because of how hard they worked to get there. You can’t help but be overwhelmed by the tears of joy and the tears of pure exhaustion from putting every last bit one had on that stage. Even though you don’t know the dancers or may not understand their language, there is a connection between everyone at HHI that is rather magical.
Dancing and competing on the world stage is a whole new experience in itself. We have watched countless Youtube videos of incredible crews competing and we show DKC videos of crews on that stage to inspire them, to push harder in trainings. To be able to bring the kids to that very stage and to watch them walk on to represent their country is just surreal!
I admire DKC for how hard they work, and I am grateful to be surrounded by all crews who match one another’s efforts. Their passion and drive always keeps them striving for more. In saying that, this is going to be a whole new ball game preparing for this competition.
You can never fully prepare yourself for the level of talent that you see at HHI. We will not be pushing DKC to what they see as their limits now; we will be designing new limits they didn’t even know were possible. We will be doing everything in our power to make sure they are physically and emotionally ready for this experience. We have the most amazing group of girls. I know with every beat of my heart these kids will take on everything we throw at them. Even now in the short time we have been working on the new routine, I can ask one of the girls “is it possible to do this?” or “can you do that?” their answer is always “I’ll get it before Worlds” without any hesitation.
DKC — totally rocking it. 🙂
This experience will expose DKC to a whole new world. They will see other crews their age train with bells on their feet to check for synchronicity, who are only allowed to eat food from an extremely strict diet plan, who stay up training until 2-3am in the morning, and meet children who will be questioned on their age because their talent is beyond words.
DKC are going to come home with a new outlook on dance, work ethic, and appreciation for their fellow dancers. This will be an experience they will not be able to describe no matter how many times they try.
As a performer, you stand side stage while the MC announces the name of your crew and the country you are representing. All of the other dancers of Team Australia start chanting “AUSSIE, AUSSIE AUSSIE, OI, OI,OI” and within seconds the entire room starts chanting your country’s name. That moment I stepped out is still the proudest moment of my life, and I cannot wait for the girls to experience it.
Every member of DKC is going to thrive from this experience in their own way. Everyone sees different things that inspire them — it might be meeting different people they have come to idolise, or it might be the crews that place the top in world, or even the crew that took the time to say hello to them. Whatever it is, they will have a whole new perspective of the type of dancer and person they want to be.
The DKC that leaves Dance Central will not be the same DKC that returns, and I am so privileged to be able to guide them through this journey as it will be one they will never forget.
