Dancers from Dynamite Leeds, the Middleton-based dance outfit, have returned from the USA having covered themselves in glory.
The group spent two weeks in Orlando, Florida competing over two weekends at two huge World Championship competitions.
At the Allstar World Championships, both the open age (16+) Leeds Dynamite Bomb Squad and the junior (11-15) Leeds Dynamite TNT Hip-hop teams won silver medals.
A week later, the Bomb Squad team secured 8th place at the prestigious IASF Dance World Championships against top teams from countries including Japan, USA, Australia, Mexico and China.
Commenting on the results, Danielle Watkins the founder of Leeds Dynamite said:
“We are so proud of all our coaches and athletes from Leeds Dynamite and feel so honoured to be the first and only team from Leeds to represent in the Hip-hop category, not just in one, but two age groups out here at both World Championships. I’m completely blown away. Then to top it off to come away with such outstanding results. No feeling could come close to this.
“It’s been a lot of hard work. Being a self-funded community group everything we do has to be fundraised for – from fundraising to get to the USA, costumes, uniforms and shoes, to raising funds for extra rehearsals, both in the UK and the US. We’re very grateful for the sponsorship from many amazing local businesses.
“It’s been a crazy rollercoaster to get all our children and young people here. But boy was it worth it.
“It just shows you don’t need all the fancy dance studios, dance mirrors and all the other expensive things the majority of the other teams have to achieve the wildest dreams. We train in our local church halls – the Middleton Park Baptist and the Ark Family centre.
“All you need is pure commitment, dedication, hard work and lots of belief and never giving up on the dream. This has to be our biggest success to date and we are proud to say we’re from Middleton and achieved this for not only ourselves but the community we live in. We want to thank everyone in Middleton and our sponsors for all their continued support. We couldn’t do anything without you all.”
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