SHAKING THINGS UP
ATownsville dance group has walked away national champions at a prestigious dance competition in Sydney.
It’s the first time Global Dance Collective has entered a team in the Australian Rueda de Casino Championships, defeating a host of former champions to win the Amateur Division.
Global Dance Collective director Cara
Griffin said the team of eight dancers dedicated more than six months of training to the competition, meeting twice a week to practice.
“As a team we were concentrating on our technique, musical timing and connection,” she said.
“The nature of Cuban Salsa music is very complex and depending on the band or particular flavour being played, the music can be very complex.
“It was our job to make sure we could lock into the core beat straight away.”
The four couples performed both a choreographed and improvised performance.
In Salsa Rueda, pairs of dancers stand in a circle and dance the same salsa moves simultaneously.
Ms Griffin said her role as a “caller” was to keep the group in time and perform elegant patterns to impress the judges.
“In the Rueda community it’s unusual to have women calling and rarer to have them calling in a follower dance role which is traditionally the women's role,” she said.
“So the Global Dance Collective certainly turned heads with this unusual combo.”
Ms Griffin said the team had to dig deep to take out the national title.
“We spent a lot of time focusing on clean lines and clean execution of movement,” she said.
“We had to really dig deep and keep focused on the development of the team, not so much of ourselves as individual dancers.”
It’s been a successful year for Global Dance Collective, the team also debuted its travelling fringe festival show, Salon La La, in the iconic Wonderland Speigeltent.
“We are hosting Belly Dance superstar Kaeshi Chai direct from the USA for a Halloween weekend of workshops and parties,” Ms Griffin said.
“We’ll also bring nationally acclaimed Afro Cuban Dance Festival, Afrekete, to Townsville next year.
“Having taken place for over ten years on the Gold Coast, we’ll partner with festival director Christina Monneron alongside local Townsville resorts and businesses to create the ultimate Cuban dance and music festival on the first weekend of August in 2023.”
We spent a lot of time focusing on clean lines and clean execution of movement