Willow to show off her dance moves
FRESH from coming home as the highest scorer at a dance competition in Cairns, City Studios’ Willow Humphries is already stretched and limbered up for her upcoming Townsville Eisteddfod performances.
City Studios director Natalie Griffiths said the sevenyear-old dancer had shown great talent.
“She’s been with me since she was four and she’s been competing since she was five,” she said.
“In all my years I’ve never seen so much talent.”
Ms Griffiths said Willow was the highest-scoring competitor at the Evolution dance competition in Cairns.
Willow’s mother, Donna Humphries, said her daughter would perform two routines at the eisteddfod and compete in the Aussie Gold Cheer and Dance competition on September 21.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Townsville Eisteddfod.
Ms Humphries said it took Willow a short time to realise she had a passion for dance.
“She came here (City Studios) when she was four. I think after her first showcase she just liked to be on the stage more – now she’s loving it,” Ms Humphries said.
“She’ll be doing two (routines), classical and jazz. As well as that, she’ll be doing six routines at Aussie Gold.
“She’s pretty excited to perform in front of a home crowd.”
Townsville Eisteddfod president Noel Price said close to 2000 young performers were part of this year’s event. “This morning at C2 theatre piano solos start then it goes through to vocals in the afternoon,” he said.
“At the Choral Society Hall we will have instrumental quartets, duos all afternoon. In the evening in the same place we have mixed ensembles.”
Mr Price said this year’s eisteddfod had to be downsized after the floods in February made the Civic Theatre unusable. “We’re a bit down this year because of the floods and things. We’re about 150 people down,” he said.
“We haven’t got the bands this year unfortunately because we couldn’t get them all in. We’re making the best of a bad situation for the kids.”
Mr Price said performers from Mackay and Cairns would also be competing.
The eisteddfod will finish on September 28.