Teen keen to dance with more stars
A TEENAGER from Blue Downs, who took an opportunity to dance with Justin Bieber on stage at age 10 during his concert in Cape Town, dreams of dancing in front of two of the world’s top dancers, JLo and Ne-Yo.
Zoe Avontuur, 17, will soon compete in the Cape Town regional competition of
World of Dance in Los Angeles, of which JLo is executive producer. It is one of the world’s biggest dance competitions. If she finishes in the top three she will go through to the finals in Johannesburg.
Her excited mom, Charnell Avontuur, said: “If she scores above 80% she will go to Los Angeles to represent South Africa. One of the scoring criteria is crowd response, so we would appreciate it if as many people as possible come to support her.”
Avontuur said Zoe had been dancing since she was a baby: “When I was pregnant and music played, she would start kicking in my stomach. She has been dancing her whole life.”
Zoe said her dancing was influenced by her dad, a choreographer. “He’s one of the founders of a new hip hop school in Cape Town. His group Chain Reaction were well-known dancers who won a lot of competitions.
“Eight years ago I saw a competition about dancing with Justin Bieber on a stage, and I entered. It was great dancing with such a mega star on one stage! My latest dance video is on YouTube, and so far it has had 31 000 views.”