Maningrida youth showcase talents onstage

From Wednesday the 27th of July to Tuesday the 2nd of August, 10 amazing young people from Maningrida were in Darwin working with J-MILLA on a new song and attending the Evolution Dance Competition. 
Recently, SCfC provided funding to the Family and Community Wellness Service to support young people to work on developing a song with J-MILLA around the topic of youth offending in Maningrida. Although the song writers and producers, Donovan Kernan, Tremmel Taylor and Tim Wilson, have been working with J on lyrics and music over Zoom from Maningrida, this trip coincided with the opportunity to meet with J-MILLA face to face and sit down and chat and rap. These three young people have been working hard on creating a message to send to the wider community on youth perspectives of offending. We are anticipating the song and music video release in November this year. The Maningrida Dance crew also attended J-MILLA’s Party Nite at Garrmalang Festival where some brave young dancers got up and danced on stage with J-MILLA and his brother YUNG MILLA.  
Following the excitement of spending time with J-MILLA, the Maningrida Dancers spent the next 3 days at the Evolution Dance Competition held in Darwin. They had 5 routines entered across Hip-Hop and Open categories. All of the routines placed first in their sections and they all qualified to enter into the National Finals held on the Gold Coast in 2023. 
Melvin Doolan and Sethalia Olsen worked exceptionally hard, choreographing and teaching the Open category Freestyle group dance and the Hip Hop duo routine. It is a massive achievement to get up on stage and perform, but to also have made up all the moves is something they should be incredibly proud of. On top of this, Sethalia also competed in the 12-13’s Hip Hop solo’s and placed first, as well as receiving the 4th top scoring solo for her whole age group, placing her as an Evo Elite. This is not easy to do, and she went up against countless talented dancers across many styles of dance. 
The families and community of these young people are extremely proud of their achievements. The Maningrida Dance members work tirelessly year-round to compete at this dance event and we’re so happy that their hard work paid off. The trip can never happen without the strong support workers and family members behind it. Deion, Roderick, Stephanie, and Jessie from Mala’la were all invaluable members of the team doing long days making sure the young people enjoyed every moment of their trip. 
To see photos and videos of the dancers and their routines, please check out Maningrida Dance on Instagram and YouTube.