Local dance team to jet to Spain
15-year-old Shriya Somaroo of Curro Waterfall and her dance team Pulse Empire want to add to their dance accolades.
A Grade 10 passionate dancer of Curro Waterfall and her dance team will represent South Africa in the Dance World Cup in June this year.
Shriya Somaroo (15) and her Pulse Empire dance team, recently participated in the Dance World Cup, South Africa edition finals in March and were placed first in both hip-hop senior large group commercial and hip-hop large group open-entry categories.
This meant the dance team qualified to represent South Africa in THE Dance World Cup to be held in San Sebastian, Spain.
Shriya said she started dancing at an early age as a hobby but soon realised that she really enjoyed it and started dancing competitively.
“The feeling of freedom that dance gives me is amazing. I am able to express myself while being around people with a similar energy and vibe. I love Bollywood dance because that is the first style I actually started with before I did hip-hop. But apart from being a style that I enjoy, I identify with it culturally as well,” said Shriya.
She said she spent about four hours a week practising but during competition time, it could be up to five hours a day.
In April, Pulse Empire participated in the Battle of the Giants at Sun City and were placed third and fourth in different dance categories.
Shriya said this was a very difficult competition as they were up against talented dancers, and had to work extremely hard to earn their placings.
“As I participate in the large group category, one of our challenges is to ensure that we are all in sync. This requires a lot of practising and perfecting. Covid-19 has also been a challenge over the last two years, from practising with masks on, social distancing and a few of our competitions were postponed.”
Shriya said it was fun being around people who loved dancing as much as she did while working towards the same goal, and described the group as ‘we are a family’.
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