The dancers Julia Hernández (Puerto del Carmen, 2002) and Alejandro Peraza (Arrecife, 2002) have taken Lanzarote to the top this past week after achieving, together with the rest of the Spanish group Entity Dance Family, a second place in the Hip Hop International, a dance competition in which more than 55 countries from all over the world participated.
Entity Dance Family, a Catalan dance group based in Barcelona and formed by 33 members, traveled to Phoenix, in the United States, to compete in this prestigious world hip hop championship that brings together the best dancers in the world. "It was our first time and as the championship is divided into three phases, our thought was to see if we could get to the semi-final because there were 40 groups and only half of them went to the final," says Julia Hernández.
Despite the fact that they were hoping to be among the top 15, they won a silver medal in the Megacrew category. In fact, they say that they were "shaken up" when they achieved first place in the preliminary round, as they saw greater possibilities even though they "didn't have the idea of winning".
A relationship with dance that began as children
Hernández and Peraza's passion for dance began in somewhat different ways. On the one hand, Julia started in the world of dance at the age of three and since then, she has tried many styles. "I started with classical but now I've stuck with urban dances," she says.
For his part, Alejandro started practicing dance at the age of 12. "I saw videos that I liked of breakdance and in the end I decided to go more for urban dances," he says.
On the other hand, their journey in the Entity Dance Family began about five years ago when they both moved to Barcelona to train in the world of dance. "Two years ago we decided to join a competition team and the choreographer contacted me to join one of these teams," reveals the young man.
After a whole season with the team, Julia saw the work that was being done there, something that she liked and led her to do the casting to access the following year.
A very strict competition
The Hip Hop International brings together the most prestigious teams in the world in this style of dance. "It is a very strict competition where you have to follow the guidelines that they set and it is evaluated by many juries, who look at different aspects," explains Julia Hernández.
In this sense, it is not only enough to focus on one element, but the participants must know different types of styles within hip hop, three minimum, and the choreographies must contain acrobatics and other characteristics in order to evaluate them correctly.
"The performance, the attitude, the skills (positions, transitions, effects, acrobatics, etc.) are evaluated," details Hernández. The competition, which began on Monday the 28th and ended on Sunday the 3rd, lasted several hours a day, as it started in the morning and ended in the afternoon as there were so many groups.
When there are no upcoming competitions, Julia and Alejandro usually rehearse on Sundays of each week during each week. This routine changes in the run-up to the world championship, as they have rehearsed on Saturdays and Sundays five hours during the whole month of July. "We gave it more cane than normal because it is a world championship and when you get there you take care of yourself a little more because it shows in the body," she says.
In addition, they also did a physical preparation because "the assembly requires a fairly large physical endurance to be able to carry out the performances".
Lanzarote, a land of talent
Julia Hernández and Alejandro Peraza are just two examples of talented people of the many that exist in Lanzarote and the Canary Islands who, in order to train and work on their passion, have to leave the islands.
"I always say it, in the Canary Islands there is a lot of level but sometimes we don't value it and we always look outside. When we go abroad, that's when we really become aware of how good people there are in the archipelago," says the dancer.
On the other hand, now, both will take some vacation time to enjoy the silver medal and rest from these months of work and tension. However, they already have their sights set on the possibility of attending another championship in the coming months.
"There are championships that are very exclusive to which anyone can not apply, but having this recognition of second place in a world competition, we may have opportunities for championships with more level," concludes the young woman.
