Japanese dancer K.O. takes out the Red Bull Dance Your Style 2022 Australian Final

Australian Champion, Ko Yamada aka K.O. is trained in various genre of dancing, including ballet, tap and popping. He is also the finalist for this year's Telstra Emerging Choreographer (TEC).

K.O. competes at the Red Bull Dance Your Style Australian Finals in Sydney, Australia on September 10, 2022 // Ken Leanfore Credit: Ken Leanfore

Red Bull Dance Your Style National Final returned on 10 September, with packed-out crowd at the Rocks overseas passenger terminal.

16 finalists from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane qualifying rounds battled out for their tickets to the World Final event in Johannesburg, South Africa on December 10.

Held across 30 countries, including Japan, Dance Your Style will bring together world's best dancers to the biggest street dance competition.

Taking out the Australian championship this year was Sydney based Japanese dancer, Ko Yamanda aka K.O.

This is the second time K.O. has taken out the title since 2019.

K.O. is an all rounder dancer, trained in various genres, including ballet, jazz, tap, popping and breaking.

Influenced by his mother who was a dancer, K.O.picked up dancing at the age of four, taking up new genres every year.

K.O.'s talents were evident early on, performing at the Australian Ballet by the time he was 14.

Although teachers encouraged K.O. to peruse a career in ballet, he knew from early on that he wanted to dance various genres, and not just ballet.

K.O. competes at the Red Bull Dance Your Style Australian Finals in Sydney, Australia on September 10, 2022 // Ken Leanfore Credit: Ken Leanfore

Dance Your Style is an improvisation battle - dancers do not know the music they will be dancing to, until that very moment.

"Dance is all about feeling the sound and its emotions" K.O. tells SBS Japanese.

Compared to his performance in the 2019 Australian Championship, K.O. says there was an improvement in his ability to "sense and capture the sound and to control the crowd", who were the judges for the championship.

"To me, winning or losing doesn't matter. I am more conscious about having fun"

And this will be the very attitude K.O. will be taking with him to Johannesburg for the world final.

K.O. wins the Red Bull Dance Your Style Australian Finals in Sydney, Australia on September 10, 2022 // Ken Leanfore Credit: Ken Leanfore

Adding to his list of achievements, K.O. was recently announced as one of the three finalist for 2022 Telstra Emerging Choreographer (TEC), an initiative created by the Australian Ballet last year to develop and foster the talents and skills of young choreographers.

Winners will be announced in October.

Listen to the full interview with K.O. from below.

LISTEN TO

『Red Bull Dance Your Style』オーストラリアチャンピオン　山田航さん

11:47

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