Mount Gambier’s Hype Dance Studio welcomed significant success at a recent state championship in Adelaide, with multiple awards received by competitors from the studio. The World Supremacy Battlegrounds is a private Australian event that takes to the international stage, after a round of statewide qualifiers, each year.
Recently, Hype Dance Studio competed in an Adelaide qualifier for the event – and came away with multiple wins. Hype director Kim Cella, who was a driving force behind getting the regional event off the ground in 2021 after a Victorian qualified became unviable, was thrilled by her dancers’ achievements.
“It was just beyond anything that we ever thought the kids were going to achieve,” Ms Cella told The SE Voice. Nearly all of Hype Dance Studio’s crews came away with an award placing, alongside a significant number of its soloists – two of whom came away with a placing at World Supremacy Battlegrounds.
Among these was Emma O’Callaghan, who won the teen solo division category and Bella Laube, who placed third and won the award for best music in the teen solo division. In the junior solo division, Isabella Schroder placed third, while Jaxon Groves picked up the best music award and Jesse Lamb received the most creative award.
Gaby Casey won the most creative award in the adult solo division. However, the studio’s 2021 journey in the competition ends here. With the national stage of World Supremacy Battlegrounds on the same date as a longstanding local charity event that Hype Dance Studio supports, it is unable to participate in the finals.
“Unfortunately, the finals date is the date for Swinging with the Stars, this year,” Ms Cella said. “Because eight of my dancers and I are heavily involved with Swinging with the Stars … we cannot actually attend finals this year.” Swinging with the Stars is a fundraising event for local charity Stand Like Stone, a community organisation that raises funds for grants and scholarships benefiting the Limestone Coast.
Ms Cella said Hype would work around the World Supremacy Battlegrounds event in 2022, to ensure that any final dates do not clash with other events on the studio’s calendar.
