It’s not often that somebody from your school is named “the best in the world,” but that’s exactly what happened last October in Prague, Czech Republic.
Braelyn Schaffer and Presley Nava, two Danville students attending Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley respectively, won gold medals at the 2024 World Tap Dance Championships. Chosen from hundreds of talented people in California, it was incredibly difficult just to get into the championships.
However, they prevailed, with Schaffer and Nava beating out 1700 other dancers with their routine to Missy Elliot’s smash hit “Ratata.” Their dance was raved about, not just by the judges, but by audiences as well. Their dance was considered highly impressive as it “featured complex turns and acrobatic moves that are highly difficult to execute in tap shoes,” says journalist Michael Wittner for the online paper Patch.
The pair also won sixth place in a large group dancing to “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” by the Charlie Daniels Band, adding to their list of accolades.
Since Schaffer began, her dancing has become more than just a hobby. The young dancer is already considering a professional career in dancing, especially after her victory.
“I love dancing because it’s a different way to express myself, and tap specifically comes easier to me…I like making my own music, with my feet. Just dancing in general, I love doing all the styles.”
Tap actually isn’t her only area of expertise dance-wise, as she “does all styles.” However, it is the one that has remained the closest to her heart.
Schaffer says that, although she didn’t originally have a choice when her parents put her in at two years old, “I really enjoyed it and I just kept going.”
The road to Prague wasn’t easy, of course. Starting preparations late in August, they only had a month to learn their dance, which meant extremely rigorous training for the dancers.
“We would go down to L.A. a couple weekends a month and practice the dances,” Schaffer said. It was hard learning quickly.”
The dance itself only added to the difficulty, involving complex steps, including “a really cool hip-hop section…which I think the judges really enjoyed.”
Luckily for the girls, all their hard work and long hours paid off. But none of them expected to go as far to win the championship.
“When we got in [to the competition], our teacher said ‘there’s so many good people, you probably won’t even get top three. Don’t expect it.’ so I wasn’t going in with any high standards,” Schaffer said. “They announced us as gold, and…it was unreal.”
Schaffer highly encourages others to start dancing if they’re at all interested, emphasizing the therapeutic effect the stage has.
“I say just try it. It doesn’t matter how good you are,” Schaffer said. “If you can’t talk to someone about how you feel, you can just dance it out, no matter what style.”
