Mount Gambier dancer Ella Dyson owned the stage at the ‘Get the Beat’ national dance competition and was crowned the pre-junior 9 to 10 years national grand champion.
The talented 10-year-old dances for MJ Dance Studio and won a prize package valued at over $5000.
Ella will travel to California next year with Get the Beat winners in other age groups to compete in the Kids Artistic Revue (KAR) dance competition.
Ella’s proud mum Stacy Dyson said her daughter’s achievement in the Queensland event was “very exciting”.
“The Get the Beat competition is probably one of the most elite dance competitions in Australia,” Ms Dyson said.
Ella was up against 36 other dancers in the ‘Champion of Champions’ category.
“Then they do a top 20, a top 10 and then they normally do a top 5 and the top 5 dance off again in a gala for the championship,” Ms Dyson said.
In the gala, Ella danced off in front of seven judges and approximately 600 people and came out on top with her traditional contemporary solo.
“At first I was shocked that I was winning, because I was versing a lot of well known dancers and good dancers and now I am just happy that I won,” Ella said.
Ella was also accepted into the elite interstate training program with the Australian Ballet School, which will start next year.
“It’s a pretty underestimated sport, the work they have to actually do is phenomenal,” Ms Dyson said.
“To get to this level and compete against girls that are either home schooled or they do 30 hours plus a week dancing, to win it from country South Australia is pretty surreal.”
Ella trained five to six times per week leading up to the competition, completing up to four solo lessons each week with solo teacher Christina Jenkin plus normal classes along with her own practices on Sundays.
“Thanks to Maria Slape and MJ’s for their training and giving country kids the opportunity to experience these types of competitions and Christina Jenkin for creating all her dances and doing her solos,” Ms Dyson said.
MJ Dance Studio studio director Maria Slape said she was very proud of Ella and her achievement was “absolutely incredible”.
“It is a credit to her, her mum, her solo teacher Christina Jenkin and basically the whole culture at MJ really helps get these kids up there,” Ms Slape said.
“And it is not easy, these are some of the best kids around and it’s an incredible achievement that she has done.
“She is a beautiful little dancer with a wonderful quality on stage and she just works really hard as well.”
Ms Slape said this was the first time an MJ Dance Studio student had won a Get the Beat competition and said to build a dancer up to Ella’s standard involved years of hard work.
“It is wonderful for country kids to also know that it can happen, sometimes they think it is hard because they live in the country but it can happen,” she said.
“You have just got to be determined and work hard and it really can happen for you.”
Ms Slape said she was also very proud of her daughter Ms Jenkin, who she said had worked “really hard”.
Ms Jenkin said Ella started solos with her at six years old and they had been working towards the Get the Beat competition all year.
“It is a bit unbelievable to be honest, I never thought we would win one, it is the biggest comp in Australia and to have won one is pretty crazy,” Ms Jenkin said.
“She’s just got something special that you cannot really teach. She was just born to be a dancer, I think.”
