More than 700 dancers from 12 dance studios across Saskatchewan where tapping and twirling across the E.A. Rawlinson Stage on Friday for the third day of the Prince Albert Festival of Dance.
The event began on Wednesday night and continues until Sunday. In total, 709 dancers are taking part. “It’s pretty wonderful when we get together as this volunteer group through the year and create this,” Volunteer Coordinator and Social Media Coordinator Erin Hall said. “We knew what we were getting into but when the excitement and all the people started rushing in, it’s just amazing and so satisfying.”
Hall said the festival provides Saskatchewan dance students with an opportunity to showcase their talents while also competing for awards. More than $20,000 in scholarships will be given out to dancers thanks to generous community sponsors who are supporting the event. Hall said it’s also great for Prince Albert dancers to have a big festival closer to home. “The local dancers are lucky to be able to keep going to school as much as they can to have their home bed to sleep in at night, and to not have to worry about the travel and everything else that comes with that,” she explained. “For the (visiting) dancers, they get this really amazing experience and just dance in general is so good for these kids. They are not just learning how to be great dancers, they are learning how to be great human beings”. This year the festival has an award for the team with the cleanest room tagged the Dazzle broom award. Two adjudicators will be screening the 709 dancers to get the top three at the end of the festival.
“They get right up there. We line up all of the dancers who have just performed for them. The top three placings get their marks and adjudications on stage, so (it’s) immediate feedback,” Hall said.
Eighteen-year-old Halle Twyver was among the many dancers taking part in the festival. She dances with Bold Dance Productions out of Prince Albert, and said it’s always exiting to take part in the festival. “It’s an awesome community,” Twyver said. “Everyone is uplifting and having fun. Even people who are not from the same studios are cheering each other on, saying ‘good job, good luck, have fun’. It’s really fun to be at your home town festival and at such a beautiful facility.” Twyver started dancing when she was 2 years old. She trains in all styles, but her favorite being Ballet. After graduation, she hopes to do some sort of dancing in future either choreography, teaching or dancing herself, so she values the opportunity to perform in front of adjudicators.
“It’s always nice to have critiques from someone who has never seen your dancing before and maybe sees something your teachers haven’t picked up on,” she said. “I helps to find tune your dancing, and help you improve in the future.”
The dancing continues at the E.A. Rawlinson on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. nd on Sunday from 8 a.m. to noon.
–with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald
