A shout to all those who competed in the Te Puke National Dance Battle, those who attended the event, the financial backers and the volunteers. Here is a short highlights video of the amazing day.

Thank you Creative Communities (Creative BOP), Te Puke Baptist Church, Sign Centre Ltd, Epic Te Puke, Maketu Rotary, WBOPDC, Social Link, Te Puke COLAB.

Thank you Te Puke Diner, BOP Radiators, The Daily Café, DFP Apparel, Epic for the vouchers and giveaways.

Thank you Dujon and Crew, you guys made it special. Donna and team for your awesome performance, the camera crew Jaden Charrington and James De Lange and to Mark Sandoval and co for some of the footage and those I grabbed some Instagram footage off 😉

Thanks to the opening kapa haka crew from Te Puke High School 😉

Special shout out to all my volunteers, Sydnie, Eve, Isaac, Badal, Gio, Otis, Greg, Summer, Tracey, Lucas and all the rest, you guys rock.

Yeet to Homegrown Art for the car graffiti 😉 looks rad!

Thank you also to The Afrolites, your music made the day

Again, thanks everyone for helping us out on the day and making it super special, fun and creative.

Steve and Tracey from the Vector Group Charitable Trust crew.
Te Puke Film aka Totem Film, Raven Media


A Creative Communities funded project. 
A Te Puke Baptist Church (Oktoberfest) funded project.
Digital Print sponsored by SignCentre Mt Manganui.
Insurance provided by Epic Te Puke
Funding from Maketu Rotary

Project Development by Vector Group Charitable Trust

What is the aim of holding this event?
Project is Youth led, inspired by Badal Gill and Reuben Foote, who are Te Puke High School students.

Establish an event that could lead to an annual youth event held in Te Puke. One that could be replicated to other regions.

Celebration in dance, the arts, relevant, inspirational, multi-generational family event, unique event to Te Puke.

  • Kaitautoko kaiarahi: support and lead at the same time
  • Inclusive: embracing diversity
  • Responsive: evolving with the sector

-What are you hoping to achieve?

Strengthen youth engagement and inclusivity, celebrating diversity.

Strengthen collaboration of Te Puke community alongside youth service providers and to others.

  • Rourou: whakawhanaungatanga – connect the sector
  • Kete: whakamanatanga – raise the standards
  • Korowai: taiohitanga – champion youth engagement and development
  • Waikawa: rōnakitanga – promote sustainability

-What inspired you to hold something like this?

To be part of a national celebration of youth (youth week 2019)
The theme is “We are more than you see” “He wai hōhonu a mātou” (literally, we are deep waters, thus referring to unseen depths).

-What are you most looking forward to with this event?

Fun, diversity, music, dance, and anticipation and unknown of what the car is going to look like after we graffiti it.

What have you been doing in the leadup to this event?

Involved in COLAB Community project overseen by Social Link and funded by WBOPDC and Lotteries, which is focussed on the continued strengthening of collaboration strategies between social sector groups in Te Puke.

Supporting Te Puke youth to Maketu Rotary youth project – develop business plan, and present for a youth led community project. Badal Gill and Reuben Foote (youth)

tepuke-national-dance-battlel

Te Puke Throwdown Agenda

Venue: Jubilee Park, Te Puke / Te Puke Baptist Church Hall (weather venue)

May 18: 11-3pm

Alongside event is a 1988 Nissan Sentra having some graffiti done on it.

We will also have some surprise performances hopefully up our sleeve ie well known “as seen on TV” beatboxing, plus…. 😉

Set up

9am Sound system / event (Steve & team)

10.30am Crowd Control set up / soundcheck (DJ & MC’s)

11am The Afrolites set up

11.45am Afrolites soundcheck

Entertainment

11am John ‘Happyfeet’ Vaifale workshop (20min)

11.25am Renee Sharp workshop (20min)

11.45am Afrolites soundcheck

11.55am Event Welcome

12pm All Styles Quarter Finals

12.30pm Breaking Quarter Finals with The Afrolites

12.40pm Breaking Semi Finals with The Afrolites

12.45pm Local battle / giveaway

1pm Showcase (Donna)  really looking forward to this as Donna works with kids with disabilities.

1.10pm All Styles Semi Finals

1.25pm All Styles Final

1.35pm Breaking Final

1.40pm Prize Giving

1.45pm Open Jam

3pm Pack down