Hello, I’m Maria, I’m 16 going 17 on the 27th of December and my passion is DANCE. I have been dancing since the age of 12 with Kristy from RIX KIX ARTS. I’m born bred in Darwin, and currently in year 11 at Casuarina Senior Collage. I have been lucky enough to get chosen to complete a Certificate II in Business (VET course) at Charles Darwin University.

I’m an energetic person and in my spare time I love to dance.

I have participated and performed in:

· Nightcliff Seabreeze Festival (2016-2018)

· Beat Festival (2017,2018)

· Arafura Closing Ceremony (2019)

· RIX KIX ARTS Karnivool (2016)

· RIX KIX ARTS Who Did It? (2017)

· RIX KIX ARTS The [BLANK] Canvas (2018)

I am a dancer as well as an assistant dance teacher for RIX KIX teaching junior students.

Dance is important to me because dance is much more than exploring the different ways to make a shape or learning a number of steps to music, it’s a way of moving that uses the body as an instrument of expression and message. Through dance I have learnt teamwork, focus, and improvisational skills. Last year February, I was diagnosed with anxiety after two hospital visits. It was a hard week to go through, having panic attacks everyday (I didn’t know they were panic attacks at the time) they lasted 20 minutes and I remember Valentine’s Day night I had two painful panic attacks in a row that night which both lasted for 20 minutes. Dance really helped me through last year, it really helped me express myself and it really helped me cope with it, still to this day anxiety is still kicking my ass but I’m kicking it back. My style is Hip-hop and contemporary. With my hip-hop I really channel my inner bad girl. I’m a very energetic person so I put all my energy to my hip-hop choreography’s we learn. Contemporary I love doing because there are many messages you can send through it. For me personally I love choreographing contemporary dances just because I really express myself through it, but I love both my hip-hop and contemporary.

My aspirations are to go to America and join some dance classes that are really popular and to just simply improve my dancing and to also be in a music video one day.

https://www.instagram.com/maria_panatos/