NRL-LOVING HAYDEN DANCES TO OWN TUNE
THREE big cheers (hands in the air and two loud claps!) for the Gold Coast schoolboy footy player breaking new ground on the Titans’ cheerleading squad.
Proof sport and the performing arts can live in perfect harmony, NRL-loving nine-year-old Hayden Christainsen combines the best of both worlds.
Hayden, a junior rugby league player and dancer who performed in the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony’s Migaloo finale, is the first and only male member of the junior Titans cheer squad, which performs alongside the team’s professional NRL cheerleading squad at home games.
The squad is ‘coached’ by Anthony Ikin, a former sports aerobics world champion and choreographer who founded the Titans cheer squad when the club debuted in 2007.
“Hayden is a little legend,” said Ikin, the younger brother of former Brisbane Bronco turned commentator Ben Ikin.
“I just love seeing the hard work he puts in to his cheer training – and I hear he is a budding footy star too.”
Ikin said the number of boys taking up dance classes on the Coast continued to grow.
“Times are changing within dance and that makes me so happy,” he said.
“Every year I see more and more boys joining my dance school and in all styles of dance – ballet, cheer, hip hop.”