The national team of DanceSport Namibia recently competed in the Barcelona International Dance Competition. Teams of twelve countries from four continents competed in this 3-day event with more the 140 different choreographies and more the 14 hours of dance in the competition. The countries represented were Albania, Belgium, France, Germany, India, Italy, Namibia, Oman, Slovakia, Sweden, Spain, USA.
The competition had twenty-three different categories and our team entered into five categories namely: Contemporary, Folk, Hip-hop, Musical, and Pedagogy. The competition was judged per category, thus all the dance items within a specific category counted toward the final mark for the team.
Namibia won the following medals.
– Bronze for one item in Dance Pedagogy
– Silver for two items in Dance Folk
– Silver for six items in Dance Hip-hop
– Silver for nine items in Dance Contemporary
– Gold for four items in Dance Musical
We won medals in all categories we entered, and we are extremely proud of this achievement. The athletes have spent countless hours preparing for this event and we are pleased with the results.
The international Jury each year awards five special awards overall. This includes Best Dance Team, Sissi Award for Dance, Artistic Direction, Special Mention of the Jury, and Barcelona Dance Award 2022.
We were thrilled to win the Special Mention of the Jury award since there were so many excellent dance items entered into the competition. Our contemporary dance item titled “The Lord is coming†took away the breath of the audience and also of the Jury. It communicated a strong message of hope and truth.
Competing in international events is important for our athletes to gain more experience. We are thankful to the Lord, who gave us the talent to compete. We are also thankful to our parents, supporters, and sponsors who enabled us to participate in this competition. It was an honour and privilege to represent our beautiful country abroad. We hope that this is the beginning of many more international events.
Dance Sport Namibia hereby would like to thank our Gold Sponsor of the National Team; Pupkewits Megatech as well our parents, friends, and colleagues that assist our national team to travel to Barcelona. We also thanks to the Namibia Sports Commission for awarding national colours to the team.