Kylie Martens and Emma Coulson have been busy fundraising for their big trip to Rimini, Italy as they will be representing Canada at the World Hip Hop Championships this October.
The girls attended an audition in Nanaimo with hundreds of kids from Western Canada and were chosen by the Canadian National Dance Team to represent Canada and travel to Italy on Oct. 17 with the competition held from Oct. 20 to 25.
With no funding from the government, these 11-year-olds have been busy going door to door and reaching out to the community with a recent lemonade and freezy stand to fundraise for their trip, which will cover choreography fees, flight and hotel accommodation. There will also be a garage sale organized for Aug. 8 at the Deep Cove Market from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with drop-in garage sale donations between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. There will also be a bottle drive.
The team is based out of Vibestreet Studios, which is a hip hop studio in Victoria and consists of 12 kids in the girls’ division, however Coulson and Martens are the only two selected for the kids team locally (in North Saanich). The seniors team will also be representing Canada with 10 from the studio.
Both girls began dance at a young age in ballet and switched to hip hop a few years later.
“It’s a dream come true for us,” said Martens.
“Vibestreet is the main reason we got into this so we really want to thank Brooke Kilgore (owner, director and crew choreographer at the studio),” added Coulson.