“Parris Goebel is the leader of The Royal Family,” Pyan adds. “She’s like the number one choreographer (in the world) – she works with Nike at the moment, and celebrities like J-Lo (Jennifer Lopez), Rhianna and Justin Bieber.” David explains that his reason for pursuing dance is not for fame or glory, but to find a positive direction after surviving a tough childhood. One of four children raised by a single mother after his father left, money struggles forced the family to move often to stay with relatives or in settlements until his cousin’s family took them in. “I’m so grateful for Joel and his family because back then, every day I felt hungry but there was nothing in my stomach. So I was feeling I should go and steal or I should just end my life or something. I was really young, probably 14 or 15. When I see all these boys here, it’s like family. When I’m down, seeing everyone together keeps me going without thinking about all that negative stuff.” David now has a good job as the operations manager at Nings Agencies. everyone’s emotions and feelings,” Pyan agrees. “That’s why we’re very grateful to have a way to express that – struggles and everything. No one really appreciates “This dance group is like an outlet for
Shots from Wan Squad’s highly viewed dance videos
dancers. It’s so hard and I think it’s really great that you guys are writing up about it too because no one ever understands the struggles that dancers go through – not just rugby players and soccer players.” Although the COVID-19 new group in that all public performances had to be cancelled, Pyan describes it as a blessing in disguise as it enabled the crew to further its online presence and find a much bigger audience. pandemic in 2020 was a blow for the “Their videos attract a minimum of 100,000 views each, with one posted in 2020 watched an incredible 1.7 million times”
“We were working with Lae Biscuit as ambassadors for Liklik Totti (biscuits) and then we discovered TikTok and ended up being TikTok famous,” Pyan said. From there, Wan Squad became brand ambassadors for Fone Haus and its JBL electronic products, Jack’s of PNG, and Mountain Dew soft drink, distributed by Pacific Industries. After COVID ended, they continued exclusively with Mountain Dew, which Pyan describes as “the only brand we’ve worked with
that’s actually helping the dance community”. Both Mountain Dew and NCD Governor Powes Parkop paid for Wan Squad to travel to Arizona for their first US World Dance Championships in 2019 where they came a respectable 10th. Since then Mountain Dew has funded all their trips, including the US for the world championships again in 2022 where they placed 12th, and last year where they secured their thrilling fourth place. “It’s very difficult to find sponsors because they
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