Zac's Hartlepool team bids to rock the street dance world

A dance crew is in full training as it gets ready to defend its world title.
The Rocsquad crew celebrates at the UDO World Streetdance Championships.The Rocsquad crew celebrates at the UDO World Streetdance Championships.
The Rocsquad crew celebrates at the UDO World Streetdance Championships.

It has been a hectic few weeks for Zac Healey who is involved in the Hartlepool-based dance crew Ruff Diamond as as well as the Urban Rockz Academy which is based in Whitby Street South.

Zac said: “We have had our crew auditions to form our Urban Rockz crews for 2016/17.

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“Ruff Diamond have got our full crew back together and are currently training to defend our World of Dance title in November.”

But the academy has already had some great results at one world championships which was held in Glasgow recently.

Urban Rockz crews went to the UDO World Streetdance Championships and Zac said the outcome for his crews was “amazing.”

“Rocsquad placed second out of 20 crews in the Under 18 Advanced Division,” said Zac.

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“They were the only UK crew in the top four, being beaten to the top spot by a crew from Denmark. They received £750 prize money for their second place.

“Shadowz’ also placed second out of 40 crews in the Under 14 Beginner Division. They received no prize money as it wasn’t an advanced section, but to beat 38 crews was absolutely phenomenal.”

Two female crews from the academy also took part and they were TDC Femme and Lil Gems.

Both just missed out on progressing to the final round, said Zac.

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Now, another series of competitions are on the way and Zac explained more.

“We have our 2017 UDO qualifier in Sheffield at the end of this month and this qualifies us for Glasgow next August.”

Then, in Novemner this year, Ruff Diamond will be competing in the World of Dance competition at Elephant and Castle in London on November 27.

It’s a big date for Ruff Diamond as the crew are reigning champions, Zac said: “We are going to defend the title against the absolute best in the country.”

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But the excitement does not end there as there will be more competitions early next year, including the Hip Hop international qualifier in Portsmouth on February 15 and 16. The winning crews from that event will qualify to go forward to the World Hip Hop championships in Las Vegas in August next year.” Zac said: “Our elite crews are going there, including Ruff Diamond, and plan on being in Vegas in August.”

Ruff Diamond’s remarkable run of success started when the crew were runners-up in the Sky 1 competition Got To Dance.