HIP HOP WORLD CHAMPS

Eighteen year old, Dante Kalotapu is heading to Phoenix Arizona, USA, at the end of July to live his dream of dancing in the Hip Hop World Championship.

He has been dancing since the age of six and at the beginning of this year was selected to join a dance team in Auckland, and has since been selected to compete at the HHI 2023 World Hip Hop Championships alongside his crew, Idescendents.

Dante is a fun, sweet, caring, respectable and dedicated young man and has strong connections to the local area, spending most of his school holidays with his great grandmother Margaret Holliday and grandmother Pamela (Pam) Davies, both long term Sheffield residents. His great great great great grandfather was T W Adams , an early settler in Greendale.

Dante’s parents Melissa and John Kalotapu, were married in Sheffield, and the family lived there, Kirwee and West Melton, before settling in Rolleston.

Dante attended Annabel’s Nursery, West Melton Early Learning Centre, Clearview Primary in Rolleston, Kirkwood Intermediate and Burnside High School.

He was involved in the Jump Jam team throughout his primary school years and started dancing at Ignite Studio in Prebbleton, mainly learning Break Dancing. In 2014, while at Swarm Studio, he auditioned and got into a Hip Hop crew and started competing. During this time, the group danced at Christmas in the Park, Canterbury Rams basketball games, appeared on What Now, just to name a few. In 2017, he started competing in a crew at Zion Studio, and in 2022, he was competing with Ace Studio.

In January this year, Dante got the opportunity to audition for Indentity Dance Company, one of the top New Zealand crews based in Auckland. Much to his surprise, he was successful! Dante was given a week to locate to Auckland to make his dream of dancing on the world stage come true. Not having ever lived on his own or so far away from his family, Dante being fearless, got on the plane, found a full time job and a studio apartment. His hard work and commitment to his dancing has paid off, with his crew winning the Hip Hop International New Zealand (HHINZ) Nationals, which qualified them to compete in the World Competition in Phoenix, against crews from fifty five countries.

Dante is working to meet his daily living costs while trying to save hard to fund this trip himself. A very good friend of the family, Rainbow Oveson, has set up a give-a-little page to help him achieve his goals.

If you would like to assist in Dante’s journey to compete on the World stage in Phoenix, Arizona alongside his crew, I-descendents this July/August please donate to his give-a-little page! Any help will be greatly appreciated!