{"id":80773,"date":"2015-02-23T18:26:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T09:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=59320"},"modified":"2016-04-01T02:46:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T17:46:52","slug":"kagoshima-high-schooler-is-world-champion-freestyle-dancer","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/kagoshima-high-schooler-is-world-champion-freestyle-dancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Kagoshima High Schooler Is World Champion Freestyle Dancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yuki Kato, a 17-year old resident of Kagoshima City, took home top prize in the freestyle division of Snipes Funkin\u2019 Style, a hip-hop dance competition held in Berlin last November. In the semi-final, she defeated the reigning champ, a German contestant, before advancing to a dance-off with a Russian finalist. Each performer danced three times, and a panel of six judges chose Kato unanimously.  Af 17 years and two months, Kato became the youngest winner in the contests\u2019 history. \u201cThe joy of just being able to dance at the contest eliminated any tension I had,\u201d said Kato. Kato began dancing when she was seven, spurred on by her love of idol group Morning Musume. She joined her elder brother\u2019s dance class and rose through the ranks quickly. In Grade 6, she won the Japan nationals, and in junior high, she won the Asian championship. \u201cI may have been a shut-in if I hadn\u2019t been exposed to street dancing,\u201d admits Kato. Her dream is to make street dancing as popular as baseball and soccer.  Source: Nishinippon Shimbun 2\/17<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-23-at-6.14.32-PM-e1424683429670.png?resize=630%2C406\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-23 at 6.14.32 PM\" width=\"630\" height=\"406\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-59321\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yuki Kato, a 17-year old resident of Kagoshima City, took home top prize in the freestyle division of Snipes Funkin\u2019 Style, a hip-hop dance competition held in Berlin last November. In the semi-final, she defeated the reigning champ, a German contestant, before advancing to a dance-off with a Russian finalist. Each performer danced three times, and a panel of six judges chose Kato unanimously.  Af 17 years and two months, Kato became&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":59321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-80773","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-category-general","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/80773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}