Sapphire City Dance Academy members Caleb Hamilton and Jay Tickle have recently returned from a jam-packed school holidays in which they both travelled to Sydney for various dance workshops, placing them at the top of their peer groups for dance.

Jay has been dancing for five years in a number of styles including tap, contemporary and jazz, and tried out the differing styles of tribal and hip hop while at the Sydney Dance Company Boys Dance Camp.

“I learnt a lot of new skills and techniques especially in hip hop, which I hadn’t done much of before, learning the hip hop was a lot of fun.”

At the camp, Jay joined 30 other boys from NSW where he was one of the only participants from rural NSW, and he got to work with many renowned choreographers, including Michael Francisco, made famous by the popular television show So You Think You Can Dance.

Ten-year-old Caleb also got to show off his dancing chops to the city kids when he attended the Australian Ballet School Education Program for boys, which was held at the Opera House.

During the program, Caleb participated in a lot of stretching and strength exercises and got to have a lesson with Australian Ballet Company choreographer Colin Peasley and also watch male dancers from the Australian Ballet Company practice.

“It was really good to see the dancers practise, they were so strong and skilled, I really want to be in the Australian Ballet one day so it was very inspirational,” Caleb said.

Both the boys now have a very busy time coming up with eisteddfods around the region, where they will be performing in groups and in solo performances, including the Inverell, Armidale, Tamworth and Tenterfield Eisteddfods.