Shepparton dance star shines on national stage

The duo blew the competition out of the water, being crowned the under-21 Australian champion in the New Vogue, Standard and Latin categories.

Brown and Wood were really happy with how they danced, with Brown saying it felt good to take out the win.

“It’s always the real aim for each year, dancing at the Australian championships and trying to finish up in the highest place we can,” Brown said.

“I think honestly it was the best we’ve actually danced ever, so I was very happy with how we danced, I wouldn’t change much at all.”

Currently splitting training between Melbourne and Shepparton, Brown said the duo had three coaches interstate, which not only meant flying to Sydney to train, but flying coaches to Victoria in order prepare for the event.

He acknowledged and thanked Excell Dance Centre Shepparton for helping the team prepare for the event, with the strong support of its families also crucial.

Last year, Brown was inducted into the Junior Honour Roll category of the Greater Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame.

He said he would not have pictured himself receiving the induction when he started to dance.

“It feels so good just knowing that I’ve done that and hopefully others can now look at the achievements I’ve done at a young age and go ‘hopefully I can do that in whatever I want to do’ sorta thing,” he said.

With three national titles now under its belt, the duo will hopefully be off to Europe later this year.

“Because we won the under-21 championships for Australia we’ve been given world rep positions, so hopefully later this year we’ll go off to Poland, the Netherlands and Romania, that’s where the under-21 world championships are being held this year,” he said.

“We’ve never been able to do it before, so it’s going to be a pretty cool experience to go overseas and be amongst dancers I’ve never seen before.

“We’re very privileged to be able to represent Australia.”