Ready for the big stage: Isobel Currey, Sophie Woolman, Jodie Pargetta, Cooper Mann, Rickii Parsons-Gregson and absent Cheryl Parsons are excited for the first drill dance competition to be held in Echuca in more than 25 years.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
For the first time in more than 25 years, Echuca has a team of 16 students in the next drill dancing competition on Sunday, June 19.
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Angela Durham, founder, coach and marcher at the Thunder Drill Dance Club, said the sport used to be popular, and was going through a resurgence in the area.
“Drill dancing used to be massive in the Echuca Moama region during the 1980s and 1990s but then it died off and now it’s coming back again,” she said.
“It’s a merge between dance in a spectacular and the drill. Imagine old school marching groups in costume, with a twist.
“The routines rely heavily on teamwork and working together.”
Ms Durham and a few others decided to form the club in April 2021 after marching for the Broadford team last season.
Now, the club has an under-8s team, a master’s team (over 30s) and Australia’s first and only all-abilities team.
The teams will compete against other clubs in the state at the Echuca Basketball Stadium this month.
“We just thought that maybe we could find enough local people to start up a competitive team in Echuca,” Ms Durham said.
“We put the feelers out there and it just exploded from there. We now have 16 members — our youngest is seven and our oldest is 70.
“We weren’t expecting this many people to sign up. We also know of people who are interested in signing up for next year, now that they have seen what we do.”
Businesses such as Rich River Corporate Taxi have got behind the club by donating a significant sum of money to assist with general expenditure, competition and travel costs.
The competition in June will be the fourth competition of the season for the club.
Ms Durham said the masters had competed their two routines six times this year and had won three golds and two bronzes.
“We’ve been really successful actually,” she said.
The Thunder Drill Dance Club has already qualified for the state competition in Geelong on July 3, and the nationals event which will be held in Adelaide.
Ms Durham has encouraged community members to come and watch the competition in Echuca, which is free and open to the public.
The competition will be held at the Echuca Basketball Stadium on Sunday, June 19, from 10am to 3pm.
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