From the home of the Penrith Panthers to the world stage, a Glenmore Park athlete has been invited to Seoul, Korea, for the International Cheer Union (ICU) World Cup.
Pantherette Brianna Thurling will be competing in pom alongside her duo partner Isabelle Louise.
Pom is a form of dance that involves cheerleading motions like sharp arms and synchronised movements, with the addition of pom-poms held in the hands throughout the routine.
“This is our second ever year of actually doing pom, so we wanted to do a duo ourselves to see how it would go given it’s quite new to us,” Thurling explained.
“We got contacted by the Australian Cheer Union saying they would like to put us forward to represent Australia at the ICU World Cup.
“It took us a little bit to actually click that we were really going to represent Australia after only two years of doing a certain style of dance, that was something that we didn’t think would be possible.”
The duo is based out of ROAR Talent in Richmond, and they said growing up in western Sydney has influenced their cheer careers.
“There’s New South Wales competitions and there’s numerous studios within Penrith, and then there’s more studios in Sydney as well,” Thurling said.
“I think being exposed to that has made us want to push more because we’ve seen how good the talent is where we’re from, so we know we need to push to be better.”
Both dancers are teachers by day, so it’s no surprise they had some wisdom to impart on the younger generation.
“Don’t give up,” Louise said.
“Believe in yourself because you can do great things, and once you put your mind to it and actually work towards it, that’s when great opportunities like this come.”
Thurling expanded on Louise’s advice.
“Allow yourself to expand what you want to work in and expand your knowledge of dance as well, because we didn’t even know pom existed until two to three years ago… and here we are now,” she said.
Ally Hall
Ally Hall joined the Weekender in 2024, and focuses on entertainment and community stories. She's a graduate of the University of South Australia and has previously worked as a Video Journalist with Southern Cross Austereo and as a News Reader with Australian Radio Network.