A modern take on the old-time marching band has led to a national title for a group of Melton dancers at the 2014 Australian DrillDance championships in Queensland earlier this month.
The Electrik DrillDance club won gold with its Electrikaires DrillDance team in the systematic dance competition and came second in the prop drill dance section.
Senior coach Billie Harrip said the club had come a long way in the three years since it rebranded.
“Basically the competition is based on the old marching band format, but it has been funked up to include a bit more dance.
“We still do drill dances, marching in time, and some dance routines.
“Across Australia there are 50-60 teams and in Victoria in our section there are four senior teams, four junior teams and two masters teams.
“We started in the mid-1960s as the Melton Marching Group.”
Harrip said the club was shocked with the results it achieved at the titles in Queensland.
“We’ve only been in the national field for three years, so to get gold was amazing.
“All the girls were crying, screaming and yelling after hearing the results.
“You don’t get told until the end and we knew it was really close. I thought we had done well in the prop routine, where we placed second.”
Electrikaires finished fifth in its other two events: systematic and technical drills.
The club’s under-17 group also won gold in one of its events, and the intermediate team got a fifth placing in its first season together.
Club president Paul Harrip said the girls performed with a lot of energy.
“Our senior team wowed the crowd with their routines and that pumped up our under-17s for when it came their turn to perform,” said Mr Harrip. “Our hard work over the past year has paid off.”
The club is looking at expanding next year and is hoping to attract more members and sponsors. Two new teams – masters (over 30s) and under 12s – are on the agenda.
