SCHOOLBOY by day, grand final-ing TV star by night. Young Highlander Benny Turland and his dance troop, Lil' Banditz Krew, won the grand final of Young Talent Time (YTT) on Friday night. The Mittagong teenager and his group won the $100,000 prize with their dance that sent up Justin Beiber and One Direction. The dance was choreographed by Ben Stokes of Commotion School of Performing Arts in Mount Annan. Commotion is one of seven leading Sydney-based studios that have formed an alliance, known as Project Dance, which aims to nurture young talent. Lil' Banditz Krew was formed mid last year, bringing together 17 talented young dancers from 10 studios in the Sydney and surrounding areas. Benny hailed from RAW Performance Studio in Mittagong. And it seems the young performer and the other Krew members are winning fans and inspiring other youngsters to follow in their footsteps. Judge Ian "Dicko" Dickson said he particularly liked the Lil' Banditz Krew's association with pop culture. Fellow judge Tina Arena said her son had been inspired to take up dancing after watching the group throughout the series. Benny said he wasn't expecting Lil' Banditz to be announced the winner. "I was expecting Amanuael to win; he was really good and the semi final song (he sung) was amazing," he said. Benny said that when the winner was announced and it was Lil' Banditz, it was "the best feeling ever". "It was awesome. I went crazy. I was jumping and I cried. It was so awesome." The $100,000 prize money will be used to provide dance tuition and scholarships for the boys individually and to further promote and develop the Krew, which will tour with YTT in the July school holidays. The episode was filmed last week and Benny had to keep the news a secret until the screening of the grand final on Friday night. It was an expectation he said was "not easy". After filming wrapped up, the group was congratulated by family and the judges all night. "After the show the judges said the semi finals dance was good, but they thought our grand final performance was awesome." Benny said it was weird to go back to school "when no-one knew yet". "It was so weird coming to school and everyone says, 'oh I hope you win'," he said. "It was so hard to keep a secret. I'm glad it was only for a week." He said it was like being in two different worlds, going from Fox Studios back to school. Seeing himself on television for the first time was a shock, but a good one. "I just thought - oh my God, millions of people are watching this right now," he said. "In my life I never thought I'd be on TV dancing, if anything I thought I'd be someone walking through a background scene." Benny said Young Talent Time was the best opportunity and experience he'd ever had and he wanted to dance professionally. <#start#> (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
