DANCE TROUPE DAUNTED WHEN AUSSIE AUDIENCES DON'T CLAP

Imagine going more than 9,000 miles to perform for dozens of people and having no one clap!

That's what happened to the girls of Stage One Dance Academy in Greenwood, but they soon found out that the natives considered it rude to clap during a performance, and the girls became accustomed to the quiet audience.

Stephanie Groves, 16; Hannah Hanlin, 17; Allison Acres, 13; Stephanie Keele, 12; and Amber Wilson, 16, traveled to Australia during the summer of 1990 to perform various dance routines at locations ranging from high schools to a dinner theater to a shopping mall.

The girls got the opportunity through the New Olympians, a variety show team based in Grand Rapids, Mich., which scouts different competitions to find potential dancers to perform in different countries. Dancers sponsored by the New Olympians have traveled to such countries as the Soviet Union and Denmark, as well as Australia.

One of the first things the girls had to do in Australia was to adjust to some strange customs.

"When we were doing kicks or something," Hannah said, "they would just sit there, and I'm going, `God, they don't like us.' "

"It's rude to clap in the middle of a song," explained Stephanie Groves.

That was just one example of the cultural differences they found in Australia.

"At the schools, the girls kind of dressed sloppy. You know, they didn't really care about the way they looked and wore no makeup and didn't do their hair. It looks like they had just gotten up out of bed and came to school or something," Allison said.

"Then when we got there, we had to have all our stage makeup on and our hair done and we stood out, and everyone liked us and more people talked to us," she added.

"Everybody had long hair, no bangs, always pulled back," said Stephanie Groves.

Despite their many differences, the girls said the Australians made them feel comfortable.

"At one of the high schools, after we danced, some of the kids on our lunch break . . . would give us a tour and they walked around and talked to us," Stephanie Groves said.

The girls said they would usually get up at 6:30 a.m. and dance on the hotel tennis courts because there wasn't any other place to practice their routines. The girls also talked about the three cities they went to and compared them to some U.S. cities.

"First we went to Cairns (in northeastern Australia), and then to Brisbane (on the eastern coast) and then to Sydney (in the southeast). Sydney was the biggest. Brisbane was more like Indianapolis," said Hannah. "It was a smaller type city. Sydney was . . . not quite as big as New York (City) but pretty much the same."

The girls rarely had free time because of their busy schedules.

"We had different schedules every day," Allison said. "We'd have different times (that) a bus would pick us up to take us somewhere. But we'd get up and we'd eat and then we'd have to go out (to practice).

"So we'd go out there and we'd practice and the days we had shows, we'd go back and get ready and get on the bus and go and do our show. And then right after our show, we'd go somewhere else, like to a koala sanctuary."

Even though they are home now, the girls said their everyday dance schedules are still long and hectic.

"I'm there (at the dance studio) Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Tuesday right after school until about 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, now from 4:30 until 9 p.m. And Thursday it's not that bad. Saturdays is just in the morning. So it's real busy. And you just have to rest on the days that you don't have to go," Amber said.