A Richmond-based dance team is celebrating all month long after recently claiming a bronze medal at the World Hip Hop Dance Championships in Phoenix, Arizona.
Freshh 2.0, from Richmond’s Fresh Groove Productions, competed against teams from 50 countries between Aug. 5 and 11. The nine Lower Mainland dancers, aged 10-12, had practised their routine all summer – sometimes for six hours a day. For one parent, the work certainly paid off.
“(The dancers) are so young so I’m not sure how they’re reacting to it…the parents are probably more excited because they understand the amount of time that was spent,” said Marcos Hui, whose 10-year-old son Juno is on the Freshh 2.0 team.
“We’ve been celebrating…since we got back, we’ve been having house parties, we’ve just been going at it. We won’t stop until school starts.”
Hui said the team has been “a year in the making,” and first had to compete in Edmonton to qualify for the world championships.
“It was very rigorous,” Hui said. “It was great to see these kids progress so quickly.”
For Hui, the competition was an exciting learning opportunity for his son.
“It was really cool because were doing it with all these different languages and different people who all came together to celebrate dance,” he said.
“I think (Juno) grew as a child.”
Freshh 2.0, and the rest of Fresh Groove Productions, will dance at its final performance for the year at the Richmond World Festival on Sept. 1.
