From left: X-Cape hip hop dancers Valerie, Tyson, Monique, choreographer Sabrina, Melissa, Christina, Toni and Tanuja.
By Shaun Inguanzo
ON that last weekend in September two athletic teams will be focused on one grand prize – but they won’t be wearing footy jumpers.
The X-Cape and High Voltage dance teams, made up of young people from across Greater Dandenong, will compete at the state final of hip hop dance competition Groove.
The team members are mainly secondary school teenagers fulfilling their passion for hip hop dance, with a large contingency from Lyndale Secondary College.
Both X-Cape and High Voltage are run with the help of the City of Greater Dandenong’s youth services team, including Youth Linx worker Nick Karlas.
Mr Karlas said hip hop dancing helped the students’ personal development in many ways.
“They are working hard and believing in themselves,” he said. “They are not only learning dance skills, but also the patience required to learn those skills.”
The journey for both teams began two years ago when X-Cape was born.
“We started with casual classes for the students,” Mr Karlas said. “Once a week we would do dance training.”
As numbers burst at the seams, Mr Karlas said the youth services team was forced to form another team to provide the growing number of hip hop dancers an opportunity be part of the program.
“High Voltage was that second group,” he said.
But allegiances between the groups will no doubt be tested when the Groove finals take place on 30 September –which is also AFL grand final day.
X-Cape, High Voltage and other dance groups from around the state will go head to head vying for a place in the national competition run by Hoopdreamz Enterprises in Sydney in December.
Both groups have appeared previously at the opening of Dandenong’s The Castle, the Sumnation World Cultural Festival at Sandown, and the Commonwealth Games Big Top Hop event.
