Having celebrated the dancing success of sisters Denice, Year 12, and Anna, Year 10, often in the Newsletter, we decided to sit down with them and find out more about their talent.
Tell us about Freestyle Disco
Anna: “Freestyle Disco is different to other styles, it’s really explosive and chaotic. You have to dance really fast and there are a lot of kicks, tricks and spins. There are two different types of dances, the fast one and the slow one. I prefer the fast one. The judges rate you your facial expressions and your costume and makeup, too. If your fake tan looks bad, you’ll get a low score.”
How did you get into dancing?
Denice: “We started dancing in 2018 when our mum’s friend, who used to be a dancer, told us about it. It sounded like fun so we thought we would try it out.”
Anna: “We started gymnastics when we were really young, so we were already quite flexible. Going from that to Freestyle Disco was pretty easy. In the final you can do a lot of jumps and tricks, so gymnastics helped with these.”
What are your proudest achievements?
Anna: “I got to double Premier level, the highest level you can get to. This means I’m a Premier Champion in both Fast and Slow. Also, for the last competition I danced in I had to compete in the Slow dance and I was the only person on the stage, so all of the attention was on me. It was awkward, I didn’t like it, but I’m glad I did it.”
Denice: “In May, I became a Champion in Fast. I was on the Intermediate level for quite a long time so I’m really happy. My proudest achievement is when I competed against seven other winners last year and I was awarded first place out of everyone.”
Anna: “I’ve also been sponsored by a costume designer. In 2020, he saw my videos on Instagram and asked my coach if I could model his designs.”
Denice: “We’ve both qualified for Worlds, which is in the Ballroom Tower in Blackpool this June. It’s going to be three days long and there will be loads of people, so it’s going to be very hard.”
What are your future dancing plans?
Anna: “Northern England is where the best Freestyle Disco dancers are, so I want to go there and take part in more competitions.”
Denice: “We have our first international competition coming up, in Spain. It’s going to be fun, I’m excited. You perform in pairs and wear beach clothes, which will be easier because it gets so hot in our normal costumes.”
Anna: “There are some really good northern schools competing there, so I’m scared!”
What’s the most difficult part of dancing?
Anna: “Our dance teacher is so strict and makes us do lots of core workouts and stamina exercises, like the bleep test, which is hard. It’s so funny though; even though it’s difficult, we enjoy it.”
Denice: “Learning the dances is difficult too, we have to learn six dances for each competition and they’re all different.”
Anna: “Sometimes our dance teacher will change the routine a couple of days before the competition, so it’s hard to remember it.”
How often do you train?
Denice: “We go to our dance club for two hours, we have an hour of private lessons, and if there’s no competition at the weekend, we’ll have three hours of training then too.”
Anna: “There are competitions on most weekends though, our next one is in Essex on 5th February. Sometimes I can train at school and work on my stamina in the gym, which is helpful.”