Nowra dance teacher Johnathon Hardy formed his performance team less than 12 months ago with six members; Johnathon Hardy, Elise O’Connor, Nikki Austin, Stephanie Moorley, Leanne Perry and Stephanie Perry.

Already the team have proved they have that ‘something special’.

In August 2015 the team competed in their first competition at Leeton and came home with nine gold, three silver and four bronze medals, a combined total of 24.

Stephanie Perry caught the judges attention and took out the Judges Encouragement Award.

In October 2015 the team travelled to Sydney for the NSW Championships. They achieved two gold, four silver, three bronze medals with a combined total of 18. 

The judges once again saw something promising in young Stephanie and was awarded the Judge’s Encouragement Award.

At the Australian Championships in January, the Shoalhaven was represented by Johnathon, Elise, Nikki, Leanne and Steph Perry. Injury meant that Stephanie Moorley was unable to compete

The Championship competition was held over four days and includes Solo, Duo, Trio, Team events and choreography.

The young team with less than 12 months of experience proved victorious against dancers with 15 plus years of competition behind them.

The team scooped an amazing 10 gold, 14 silver and 15 bronze medals with an astounding combined medal tally of 95.

The team is also now the Australian Champions.

Johnathon and Stephanie (the youngest team member at just 14) are now both six time Australian Champions.

Elise holds four Australian Championship titles and sisters Nikki and Leanne, both one Australian Championship title each.

So what is next for the team? They are already training for their next competition in May.

During this competition, the qualifying heats for Masters will be held. Masters is the World championships that are held in England later this year.