I am one of four children in my family so we do not have the extra money to be able to pay for the trip to America and participate in dance activities and competitions. I live 20 minutes away from town so its hard for me to work regularly because my parents don’t have time to drive me in and pick me up again. I am also currently training four times a week at my dance studio where my parents already support me greatly.

I started dancing classical ballet when I was six years old. I had always wanted to be a ballerina and then finally mum allowed me to do a ballet class once a week. My parents thought I would grow out of this phase, but it soon turned into obsession for me. I came home everyday from school and practiced my heart out. Then I started to realise ballet wasn’t the only style of dance there was. I watched the older girls in my studio dancing jazz and contemporary and I instantly wanted to try it out. About a year ago I finally had my parents convinced and they paid for me to take ballet, contemporary and jazz. They had to drive me in to town and home again every week, sometimes twice. I am so grateful that they did this for me.

Half way through 2015 my dance studio decided to take a group of dancers to Los Angeles and Las Vegas to compete and perform over there. I was one of the selected ones to be part of the group. We soon were busy planning and that’s when I realised that it was all not going to be that cheap. My parents are not able to support me that much. I am sure they would like to but they have three other children to look after as well as already driving me and taking me to class four times a week and they are paying for the classes and my gear.

As a 14 year old it isn’t easy to find a job in a small town like Motueka and my parents can’t pick me up and drop me off everyday that I am not dancing. I do

FRANZISKA HAS BEEN SELECTED TO REPRESENT HER DANCE STUDIO IN THE USA!

MOTUEKA

HIGHEST SPORTING ACHIEVEMENT

I am one of the selected dancers from my dance studio to go to Las Vegas and Los Angeles in July 2016. We will compete in dance competitions, participate in dance workshops and take part in the disney land dance parade.

SPORTING GOALS