Wan Squad perform at a promotion for their sponsor Mountain Dew
moves from videos on the internet, so we need good knowledge from guys like this.” A highlight of his time with the squad came in 2019 while competing in New Zealand at the South Pacific qualifiers hip hop dancers, and his “all-time favourite crew”, The Bradas. He met one of the crew again when he came to Port Moresby last year. “I used to watch their videos, even when he met that country’s top male though they’re old, and think about how they came up with their sets (dance routines). They won back-to-back world championships, and they really inspired me,” Max said. Champions videos on YouTube – the same competition that Wan Squad has now won three years in a row, the latest in October 2023. “It was like a dream that one day I should go there!” Lloyd Lloyd says he used to watch House of is a certified builder who works fulltime for a contractor in the city but, like all the other members who hold down regular jobs, makes the time for rehearsals and fitness sessions for five hours every Saturday afternoon, and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5pm- 9pm. Still a teenager when the squad was first formed, Joel describes himself as, “like the new generation for dancing. I started
dancers who founded their own creative arts company District Studios. In July 2017, Pyan and three AOB members travelled to PNG for a three-day primary school tour by LOUD Cre8ive Workshops founded by Brisbane- based PNG musician couple Jagar and Jaime-Lee Renagi Va’a, with the series culminating in a ‘meet and greet’ with the Port Moresby dance community at the Taurama Aquatic Centre. Although invited to attend, David almost didn’t go as he was juggling after hours dancing in Buck Souljas with a bartender job at the Sanctuary Hotel, and the hours were killing him. “I was working and dancing at the same time, it was a bit tough, I was about to quit dancing and all of a sudden there’s this post (on Facebook), saying AOB was coming,” David said. “Some dancers used to come, like (Australian group) Justice Crew, and I was like, ‘Nah, it’s going to be the same. Nothing will change.’ So I said I’m not going to be there, you guys (Buck Souljas) can go. I don’t want to dance
anymore. I give up.” But he changed his mind after seeing another post, a video of Pyan and his AOB crew talking about their visit. “When I saw Pyan’s surname, I was like, ‘He must be my cousin!’,” David laughs. At the event, David got to talk to Pyan about his dream of developing a PNG dance crew to compete overseas. It was a start.
we can do it’. David is very hardworking, very humble, very quiet, but on the dance stage he’s really impressive.” Being asked to be part of Pyan and David’s new crew in 2018 was a thrilling moment for Max, who had been working as a solo dancer at Cosmo nightclub since the disbanding of his previous group Mannequins that used
“In the old days it would just be going out drinking every time we finished dancing. We’d get the coins (prize money) and buy alcohol. Wan Squad inspired me to stop all those negativities”
In 2018, David’s and Pyan’s paths crossed again when Pyan returned to Port Moresby to manage Nings Agencies. “David pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey I want to do this’,” says Pyan. “For me, I didn’t come here for dance, I came back to run my dad’s business, but I saw the heart in him (David) wanting to take this further, take it to the next level, so I told him, ‘If you can get me a team and you guys can commit to what I want you to be, then
to take part in local competitions. “Most of them got married and I was the only one sort of keeping the team together,” he said. Max was eager to see how far his dancing skills could take him so when he got a Facebook message inviting him to join the new group, he didn’t hesitate. “My goal is to stand on the international stage and dance and upgrade my skills. Here we’re stuck, there’s no good dancing studio, we’re just copying dance
VOLUME 38 2024
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