Chance taken

Auckland-based hip-hop women’s dance troupe Request has won the 21 World Hip Hop Dance Championship at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The eight-member group is the first dance crew from New Zealand to win the adult division of the nine-year-old championship. The same crew won the varsity division last year, the only team to pull off that double. Request dancer Parris Goebel said that going into the competition the troupe just wanted to represent New Zealand well. “Honestly, we didn’t think we had a chance,” Goebel concedes. “We asked ourselves, ‘Are we really that good?’” The girls’ intricate and entertaining choreography wowed the panel of international judges, which included one New Zealander.