From Tauranga to the top
In just four short years, Tauranga’s hip hop dance studio Space has made a big splash on the international scene. Founders Summer Tyson and Cameron Smith tell us they’re just getting started.
In just four short years, Tauranga’s hip hop dance studio Space has made a big splash on the international scene. Founders Summer Tyson and Cameron Smith tell us they’re just getting started.
words KARL PUSCHMANN | photos NINAG PHOTOGRAPHY
Space Dance Studios may have only opened its doors five years ago, but time is running out. They only have 12 months left on the clock to hit their goal, Cameron Smith tells UNO. The goal is a simple one: become the best hip hop dance studio in the world.
Easy, right?
“There’s a Tall Poppy Syndrome in New Zealand, where it sounds super outrageous to say we want to be the best in the world,” Cameron says, before smiling and adding, “We’re currently third.”
After speaking with Cameron and partner Summer Tyson, their wildly ambitious target seems not just doable, but entirely feasible. They are determined and focused, they are putting the work in and then putting in some more work, and they are achingly close to hitting it. “We’re proud, but not satisfied,” Cameron says. “There’s a deadline. It’s really important for us to cram and work hard to make things happen.”
Opening their own dance studio was their dream. When that became a reality, they simply added to the dream.
“It was like a script to a movie. Just boom! Let’s make this happen. We always say that it not working wasn’t an option,” Cameron says. “Failure was not an option. It’s the only thing in life that we do. It’s the only thing in life that we’re good at. It had to work. There was no way it couldn’t work.”
The pair worked hard to ensure Space launched successfully. They offered anybody who wanted to dance, regardless of skill or ability, free classes for an entire term, and worked seven days a week in the studio.
“When you’re building something from the ground up, it’s important,” Cameron says. “Summer and I love it. We weren’t looking at the clock or time watching, like, ‘Oh, it’s five o’clock, I’m off now’. We were doing it from a place of passion and a place of fire.”
Their arrival didn’t go unnoticed. Their unorthodox approach influenced every decision. While everyone was zigging, they zagged.
“Everybody else’s studio was white, so we said, ‘let’s paint ours black’. Everybody else was doing exam work, we said, ‘let’s not do exam work, and run open classes’. Everybody was competing locally, we said, ‘No, we’re going to compete internationally’. We tried to do something that didn't follow that formula. It was either going to work or it wasn’t. But we were going to make sure it did.”
And it has. Last year’s third place at the World of Dance Competition was the greatest endorsement of their unique methods. Which also extends to their teaching.
“We do treat our dancers like athletes. From what they eat, to how they sleep, to their training regime. Some of these dancers are sometimes training up to 14 to 16 hours a day,” Cameron says. “It is unbelievable for dancers who are sometimes aged 11 and 12. We’re super fortunate to have an incredible community of parents who support these kids. Their parents are the grounding and the roots of what makes these kids successful. It is very normal for Space to train until sometimes 2am. The next morning, they go to school at 9am, so it is a wild, wild, wild world that Space lives in.”
And while it is extremely full on, competition for one of the 40 spots on the Space Pro Team is fierce, with people flying from all over Aotearoa to audition. Needless to say, even getting into the team is gruelling.
“It’s a relentless audition. They come in and they train for a weekend, and we select the top 40 dancers.
This kind of training regime is simply what it takes to reach the international standard. At the Worlds, which can be considered the Olympics of dance, there are 53 countries, with over 100 teams and 500 dancers all competing in brutal knockout rounds. Just the document that tells you what the judges are looking for runs 200 pages. This provides the necessary context for their approach.
“We consider dancing a sport,” Summer says. “Someone’s got to win at the event and someone’s going to lose.”
“Our job is to pour gasoline on the fire,” Cameron adds. “These kids come in with this raw fire, and our job is to make it go crazy.”
The pair are straight-up in saying a place on the Pro Team isn’t for everyone. They tell hopefuls what’s in store and the physical and mental pressure involved. “If people can survive a year in Space, they can survive a year anywhere,” Cameron grins. “We try to create an environment that pushes life skills, learning and that work ethic. We feel so grateful that people believe in what we do and trust us with their kids and with their growth. It’s a big responsibility to not just train good dancers but to train good humans as well. Dance is purely the form that we use to teach life skills.”
“We always say hard work always pays off, and that luck doesn’t exist to us. The hardest-working team will win.”
With only 12 months remaining for the pair to achieve their goal of winning the World’s, their international rivals better be working bloody hard. Because Summer and Cameron certainly are. And they have every intention of making sure the competition has their work cut out for them.