Dancing their way to World Cup

Fifteen-year-old Raksha Pai made South Africa proud at the recent Dance World Cup Finals that were held in Braga, Portugal.

Dancers from 53 countries – a total of 6003 participants – came together to participate in the competition, with South Africa achieving an overall third place.

Raksha, who dances at Blink Dance Studio, performed in six group dances and did very well. They received a silver medal for second place, a bronze medal for third place, two of their dances were ranked in the Top 10 and the other two were placed 11th in their respective categories.

She has been dancing since she was four years old and has been part of Blink Dance Studio for the past three years. In 2017, she took up ballet and at the beginning of this year, tried her hand at hip hop. She has also performed at other international events such as Dance Star, World of Dance and for the past eight years, in the Roodepoort Dance festival.

It has always been her dream to perform on an international platform, and she described her World Cup Final experience as follows, “Qualifying to perform in such a great event is an honour and privilege. To wear the South African jacket, wave the South African flag and participate in the inauguration parade was a great experience for all of us.”