MINNEAPOLIS — Dance City, a north Minneapolis studio serving young Black girls, is celebrating after placing first in hip hop and first overall at a Starpower National Talent competition in Las Vegas June 19-23.
"It was fun because I got to have fun while I'm dancing but I also get to sometimes win," said 8-year-old Cade Coley.
"You had to be on point, you had to have energy, faces and be yourself," 11-year-old Daisa Watson added.
Director Cierra Burnaugh says it was community generosity that sent the girls there.
"A lot of my moms are single moms and so they work extremely hard to pay for costumes, dance shoes," Burnaugh said. "We did a GoFundMe so that the moms didn't have to spend a dime on flights or hotels. We were able to raise that $25,000 in six days."
Now, Burnaugh has created a new GoFundMe to help send her national champions to train with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York and the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles.
"So these girls can see African-American dance studios that have a lot of history and a lot of longevity, and they can see where they can be," she explained.
Burnaugh founded her own competitive studio, Dance City, eight years ago but the company doesn't have its own space. However, her alma mater, Minneapolis North High School, helps when it can.
"North is phenomenal but of course school is out so now we can't have practice there [or] when it's winter break," Burnaugh said. "We have to work around their schedule."
Friday, for example, the girls rehearsed at Zenon Dance School downtown. So while their immediate ask is to travel, they wouldn't say no to a permanent home.
"It would take a miracle to get me out of North because I love them so much but if someone were to hand me a set of keys and say this is your dance space … that would be amazing for the girls," Burnaugh said.
It would be a home for what the girls say already feels like family.
"I don't have any sisters here but we call our friends here, we call them dance sisters," Coley said.
Watch more Breaking The News:
Watch all of the latest stories from Breaking The News in our YouTube playlist: