September 2007 - Billie Paea

Dance, dance, dance! That's all I can say. It's been such an exciting month with preparation for our end of the year shows and fundraisers. Our Desire2Dream programme started this month and is now in full flight. It's a 10 week programme for all ages with three sections; junior, varsity and adult, in which we introduce not only dance skills but character building and participation. It is an event not to be missed and performers look forward to participating in it every year.

We were also lucky enough to have three volunteers from Vodafone through the Vodafone NZ Foundation's Hands Up programme. Thanks so much to Isaac, Ruth and Soane for their time and expertise helping with funding templates for our dance studio, taking various calls on reception, helping with youth programmes and other odd jobs around our facility. I want to acknowledge their help and contribution to our programme in that short period of time. Big thanks go to Vodafone and the Vodafone NZ Foundation also.

Another highlight for the month was one of our support crews from Dziah Dance Studio, SAS - an up and coming hip hop crew from West Auckland, placing 2nd at the 'Tear It Up Nationals'. They're an awesome group of boys who are passionate about dance and wanting to make an impact in West Auckland. Our studio supports them in trying to produce what we have here in South Auckland. Next year we hope to have established a passionate team to start out in West Auckland helping youth at-risk and getting them into something productive rather than destructive. SAS is the new up and coming Dziah so I can't wait for next year to see them grow.

Building networks along the way has been a big help and we've met with a lot of other people with the same passion of building a way forward for our young people. Youth need to be occupied and have options available for them to release positive energy. With SDNZ (Street Dance NZ) we have combined with other dance companies and highly respected dancers to draw top choreographers and dancers from overseas and these are people that youth in our area aspire to be like. Seeing high calibre dancers who perform as back-up dancers for artists like Justin Timberlake, Usher, Missy Elliot and Britney Spears, come to NZ to inspire our youth is just awesome. We're here to reinforce, encourage and build them up to achieve their dreams. Our job is the middle man in helping youth discover what talents and abilities they have.

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