A local dance school director’s buzzing over how her troupe performed at last weekend’s three-day Queenstown Dance Awards — and over the whole event.

Pictured are Lakes Theatre Arts (LTA) dancers, back row, from left, Rhea Poyet, 9, Lua Song, 10, Piper Somerville, 13, Emilia Clark, 9, and, front row, Scarlett Roos, 8, and Maia Montana, 6.
LTA studio principal Leoni Sullivan says her troupe competed in jazz and lyrical, and placed third in the jazz 12-and-under category.

Her dancers also picked up three individual silvers and three bronzes across ballet, jazz and musical theatre.

Sullivan says she was “very impressed” with the event, organised for the second year by Arrowtown-raised former professional dancer Sophie Purdon, which attracted 500-plus entries.

She singles out not just the high standard of dancers and adjudicators, “but, most importantly, every child was really nice”.

“You had kids from all over New Zealand, and they just instantly became friends.”

— PHILIP CHANDLER