Dedication makes a champ
By SARAH CODDINGTON - North Shore Times
HIGH-STEPPER: Eleven-year-old Harry Bartlett is a national Irish dancing champion.
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The North Shore may have its own Billy Elliot.
Pinehurst School student Harry Bartlett has been clicking his toes to the beat of Irish dancing since he was four years old.
The 11-year-old won the New Zealand national Irish dancing competition for his age group with the judges awarding him three perfect scores of 100.
He now qualifies for the world championships in Glasgow, Scotland, next year.
Harry says he just loves to dance. He has tried hip hop and a bit of ballroom but his favourite is Irish.
"I am just a normal boy who loves to play soccer on the Pinehurst School field but I also love to dance," he says.
Harry has been through about 10 pairs of shoes, five soft shoes and five hard shoes, over his short dancing career.
His mother Michele says Harry will probably not go to the world competition until he is a little bit older but they will continue to travel to competitions in Australia to represent New Zealand.
Each dance Harry performs in a competition is dedicated to a different person who is supportive of his dancing career.
Usually he dedicates it to his grandparents or his younger sister Emily who is always at the bottom of the stage waiting to give him a drink of water.
Harry has entered numerous competitions and has won 30 trophies and 70 medals and sashes.
He entered his first competition at the age of six and came first. The dance was dedicated to his nana who died recently.
About three times a week they travel from home in Mairangi Bay to Glen Innes to his dance school, Doyle Academy of Irish Dance.
"He must like it if he travels that far. We were soon going to know if he didn’t," says Mrs Bartlett.
Harry says he just wants to do his best and hopes to go to the world championships in 2012.
