By Ewen McRae
Banjo has always danced to his own beat.
Just three years after taking up hip hop dancing classes the 14-year-old, who trains at L2R Dance in Sunshine, was named the winner of the under-18 solo B Boy Dance Battle in the competitive Destructive Steps national competition in Sydney recently.
“Most of the people in the competition were a bit older, like 17, so it was a bit nerve wracking,’” he said.
“But after the first round I started to feel really confident in what I was doing.
“I just kept doing me, and when I got into the finals I just decided to have some fun and I ended up winning.
“For me, just making the final was enough, so winning it was another level again. I was pretty pumped.”
It’s been a long journey from his early days learning the basics at L2R Dance, but his love of dance and movement now has Banjo eyeing it off as a future career.
“Back when I started it was really hard for me, I couldn’t really do anything like tricks or things like that so I couldn’t really see myself getting to where I am now,” Banjo said.
“It’s been a great journey. I’ve developed the passion to be a youth worker like my teacher, I want to teach dance because it really inspires me to see the work that L2R does and what they’ve done for me.”
