Chelsea Condon, Gorja Rooks, Lucy Mangion, Chelsea Conn, Chloe Bast, Hannah McKenna, Grace Stanton, Katherina Bast and Cailyn Yole from the Berwick Calisthenic Club are in the Victorian state calisthenic team. 48684Picture: Kim Cartmell
By Kelly Yates
BERWICK dancer Hannah McKenna is one of nine local girls to have been selected for the Victorian State calisthenics team.
The 12-year-old and her fellow team mates, Katherina Bast, Chloe Bast, Chelsea Condon, Lucy Mangion, Gorja Rooks, Grace Stanton, Cailyn Yole and Chelsea Conn from the Berwick Calisthenic Club, will compete at the national titles in Canberra next month.
Hannah, who has been perfecting her calisthenic moves for the past nine years, said this year would be the fourth time she has been part of the state team.
She has travelled all around Australia, competing in various calisthenic competitions.
“I’ve been to Queensland, Perth, Darwin and Adelaide,” she said.
“And now I’m off to Canberra.”
Hannah said she was looking forward to working with her state coaches at the Australian Calisthenic Federations National Titles in July.
Club secretary Melinda Conn said the club was thrilled to have nine of its girls in the state team.
“Over the past few years, we’ve only had one or two lucky enough to make the team. This shows the strength of our club at the moment,” she said.
The Berwick Calisthenic Club has been operating for 41 years and now has 135 members, aged from three years to adults.
Ms Conn said it was one of the biggest calisthenics clubs in the state.
She described calisthenics as an “artistic sport.”
“It’s a competitive sport with aspects of dance in it. The girls do modified ballet and gymnastics,” Ms Conn said.
The team will perform six new dance routines at the titles.
“We’re hoping to win this year,” Hannah said.
“I have new costumes for each routine. My favourite is the green, purple and blue one.”
Hannah and her teammates have been training for the national competition every Sunday since December at Jason Coleman’s Ministry of Dance in North Melbourne.
Hannah hopes to one day be a calisthenics teacher.
“Everyone should do calisthenics because its fun, you get to learn new tricks and you make new friends.”
The state team will spend a week in Canberra preparing for the competition.
