How many young girls have the opportunity to compete overseas in the World Line Dancing Championships?

For eleven-years-old Charlotte McCarthy, daughter of Clint and Alecia McCarthy (formerly Alecia Campbell) this dream became a reality, when on July 12 Charlotte and Alecia jetted over to Blackpool in the UK to join twelve other girls from the Lennox Head “Heart of Dance School”.

At age eleven, Charlotte is the youngest in the troupe with the oldest being twenty-seven. Charlotte commenced her dancing career on the Gold Coast at age four and continued on when the family moved to Lennox Head six years ago. She dances three nights a week, and has been training for the World Championships on the weekends. As well as line-dancing she does hip hop, ballet, lyrical, jazz and musical theatre.

As a warm up for the Championships the troupe flew to Melbourne in May for the Southern States Line Dancing Championships, where Charlotte won seven medals and was also adjudged the Rising Star for 2024. She had previously won the same award in 2023 at “The Stomp” Line Dance Eisteddfod in Wollongong. Mum, Alecia, said she had loved dancing in the Collette May school of Dance when she was growing up in Donald, and therefore had supported Charlotte when she wanted to take it up.

The girls have been very busy over the last eight months fundraising to help with the cost of their trip. They ran a trivia night, a garage sale, a cake stall, a movie night, a car wash and an on-line goods and services auction, all of which raised a massive $50,000.

Charlotte hopes to continue dancing till Year 12, when she can take it as an official school subject. We wish Charlotte and the rest of the troupe all the best in Blackpool.

This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 19 July 2024.