East London team dazzles judges at World Dance Masters contest

Ecstatic but exhausted dancers from East London’s Jo Jackson Dance Company have returned home from the Dancestar World Dance Masters competition, where two of their crews placed third against artists from 21 countries.

Alongside the group accolades, dancers Amyoli Mnqojana, 12, finished first in the Junior Urban style category in the A League, and Kirt Ruiters, 32, was first in the Senior Urban styles in the B League.

The 21 dancers, aged between 10 and 32, touched down in Buffalo City yesterday after representing SA and Jackson’s dance company at the five-day competition in Croatia from May 17-21.

“It makes you realise that all the hard work wasn’t for nothing, working so hard towards a goal and when you reach it, there is this feeling of reward, and the children all work super hard — they really do,” Jackson, their coach and teacher, said.

Her group, “Fortitude”, comprising all 21 dancers, finished third in the Urban Styles large group category in the A League.

Her smaller crew of nine, named “Leave the Light On”, placed third in the Lyrical category, also in the A League.

“We had top three placements but above that I’m super proud of our other dancers, who also ranked in the top 10,” Jackson said.

The dancers competed in the individual and group categories in urban hip-hop, lyrical and contemporary styles, and the event was packed with 5,000 competitors from across the globe, with 10,000 spectators cheering them on.

Dancer Rachel Grunewald, 17, from Stirling High, said for most of the team this was their first time overseas.

Michelle Zanoncelli, of Beacon Bay, whose daughter Mia, 12, competed in the junior league, was one of the parents who accompanied the team.

“In East London they are good, but there is a big difference compared with the international stage, where the competition is very fierce, so when they placed so well we were ecstatic,” she said.