South Island Latin Championship 2025

A hugely successful weekend for Latin Fire at the South Island Latin Championships 2025! We are immensely proud of our students who competed throughout the day in the freestyle, solos, duets and teams sections!

As usual the competition was fierce with many of the South Island Studios turning out amazing performances and several close scores resulting. Congratulations to all those who competed, especially those who placed, you all looked amazing and did your dance schools proud!

The Latin Fire competitors performed amazingly with numerous placings. Our shines teams took out the Latin Shines Team category and came a very close second in the Salsa Shines Team category, our soloists won the Amateur Salsa and Latin Solo categories as well as the Salsa and Latin duet categories and our salsa couples team won the Salsa Couples Team category!

Placings for Latin Fire were as follows:

1st place Jorja Dann - Amateur Salsa Solo & Amateur Latin Solo

1st Place Salisha Wright - Youth Salsa Solo

1st Place Ella Taylor - Youth Latin Solo

1st Place Jorja Dann & Lauren Proud – Amateur Latin Duets

1st Place Amelia Woods & Jorja Dann – Amateur Salsa Duets

1st Place Hannah van Nieuwkerk and Lia Stevenson – Youth Latin Duets

1st Place Latin Fire Salsa Team – Salsa Couples Team

1st Place Latin Fire Escenia Team – Latin Shines Team

1st Place Latin Fire Fuego Teams – Youth Latin Shine Team and Youth Salsa Shine Team

1st Place Oceane Herry & Mike Hobbs - Pro-Am Salsa Freestyle

1st Place Mike Hobbs - Bachata Jack & Jill (Leader)

1st Place Jessica Abelen - Bachata Jack & Jill (Follower)

2nd Place McKenzie Kellet - Youth Latin Solo

2nd Place Lucy Darby Downes & Rosa Lyons – Youth Latin Duets

2nd Place Isabel Marshall & Noa Wilkinson – Youth Salsa Duets

2nd Place Latin Fire Descarada Salsa Team – Salsa Shines Team

2nd Place Latin Fire Fiesta Team – Youth Latin Shine Team and Youth Salsa Shine Team

2nd Place Hayley Pera-Maurangi & Mike Hobbs - Open Salsa Freestyle

2nd Place Jack Whitaker & Oceane Herry - Open Kizomba Freestyle

3rd Place Zara Harrington - Youth Salsa Solo

3rd Place Harper Knowles and Ella Taylor – Youth Latin Duets

3rd Place Latin Fire Groove Team – Youth Latin Shine Team and Youth Salsa Shine Team

3rd Place Julia Michalun & Michael Hobbs - Pro-Am Bachata Freestyle

4th Place Gabby Zhen - Amateur Salsa Solos

4th Place Lucy Wall and Phoebe Harris - Youth Latin Duets

4th Place Latin Fire Salsa Swing Team – Salsa Shines Team

4th Place Latin Fire Rosa Team - Youth Latin Shine Team

4th Place Nazeef Khan and Jessica Abelen - Open Salsa Freestyle

5th Place Judd Cattermole - Youth Salsa Solos

Huge thanks to our choreographers and trainers, especially Emily Glubb (E Dance Productions), Yohei and Farya (Odyssey Dance), Georgina Oosthuizen (Salsa Magic), Natasha Frost and Donna Frost for all the effort you have put into making our competitors look amazing onstage!

Once again a massive thank you to the organisers of the Southies for their continued efforts to run a smooth and enjoyable competition. We are truly blessed to be able to compete each year!!

Special thanks to Theuns for his amazing photography!