Dancers step up to big competition
Brenda Liu is getting ready to sashay her way across the ditch for one of the biggest events on New Zealand’s competitive salsa dancing calendar.
She is a member of the Latinissimo Dance Studios Ladies A-Team that has taken out first place at the New Zealand Salsa Solo Competition.
The win has earned it at place at the Salsa Solo Australia and International competition to be held in Brisbane in November and December.
In solo competitions dancers dance on their own rather than with a partner.
‘‘You can touch each other, but it’s not a guy and a girl dancing,’’ Miss Liu says.
‘‘It’s different to normal salsa, there are more styles and shines.’’
Getting into top form for the competition meant getting creative.
Preparations didn’t start until June and the choreographer behind the routine, national Salsa champion Masha Johansson, was in Miami competing during much of the leadup.
‘‘Sometimes she was teaching us through Skype which was interesting.’’
Miss Liu is a relative newcomer to Salsa. The Mt Roskill resident picked it up as a hobby a little over a year ago.
‘‘I’d done some dancing at intermediate school, which was a long time ago, and I thought this would be a way to get back into it.’’
The competitive Salsa world still quite small, Miss Liu says.
‘‘In clubs and places that have Salsa it’s actually quite busy but a lot of people still don’t want to enter competitions.
‘‘It’s really social though, and you get a good workout,’’ she says.
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Latinissimo Ladies A-Team is: Tracy Templeton, Sharon Middleton, Renee Hamilton, Brenda Liu, Emily Woodfield, Mitelene Enslin and Mai Dalhber.