TO compete with the big boys, you have to be smart.
That’s exactly how Wellington all-girl hip-hop dance crew Emerge managed to secure a spot at the World Hip Hop Dance Championship in Las Vegas. Even more impressive, all the members are still in school.
Emerge initially started as a social dance group, but after new coach Ben Uili (founder former member of Legacy Dance Crew) came on board, things started to heat up.
Uili realised the girls wouldn’t be able to compete against boys’ crews using the same moves, such as handstands and throwing people up in the air, because girls don’t have as much upper body strength.  
So he developed a dance form that Emerge manager Lenny Loh says stays true to traditional hip-hop and focuses on the dance itself rather than outlandish moves.
The gamble paid off at the National Hip-Hop Finals in Auckland recently, where Emerge placed third.
 “It’s a great surprise,” says Loh, whose daughter Jessica is an Emerge member. “We’ve been competing in this competition in Auckland for three years and we hadn’t even managed to get into the finals. We would have been happy just with that.”
The success didn’t come without a lot of hard work, however. Emerge members juggled school (most of the girls go to Wellington Girls College), family commitments and dance, and managed to fit in up to 20 hours a week of practice in the lead-up to the Nationals.
Of the nine groups that received a placing in the various categories, Emerge was the only team not from Auckland, and was one of only three girls’ crews.
“Auckland teams dominate. There seem to be more people there involved in the hip-hop scene,” says Loh.
Emerge’s placing qualifies them for the world finals in Las Vegas in July, and they will be the first ever females from Wellington to represent New Zealand in it. First, they have to raise $22,000 of the $43,000 needed to go.
As well as selling biscuits, the girls have done a 10-hour long non-stop “Dance-a-Thon”, and will hold an auction dinner later this month at Dragon Restaurant on Tory Street.
“There are 24 tables and there will be an eight-course meal, followed by an auction. People are bringing in things like basketballs signed by The Saints,” says Loh.
Fundraising dinner and auction, Dragon Restaurant, May 22.