Main photo: (front row from left) Kaitlyn Watson, Kailey May, Kira Smith, Shea Cooper, Emma Harvey, Emma McLellan, Mackenzie Ritchie; (middle row from left) Bella Main, Allie Peace, Brenna Smith, Darian Adams, Will Demain, Morgan May, Claire Quinlan, Cali Turnbull, Maiya Nadrofsky; (back from left) Kaitlyn Wright, Courtney Lemon, Emma-Grace Joiner, Alexus Banks, Cara Brown, Ocea Harris, Briar Arndt-Summers, Ashley Nadrofsky. Missing: Noah Banks.
It was a stellar weekend for some of Huntsville’s young dancers at the Dance Canada competition April 1-3 in Collingwood.
Twenty-five dancers from JJ Dance Performing Arts Studio made the trek for the competition and won multiple awards and top marks for their effort.
All of the athletes participating were aged six to 16 and were competing in the Novice and Pre-Competitive categories, meaning they are beginners or spend less than six hours per week in competitive dance practice.
The group won top marks for both of those categories, taking first and second place in Pre-Competitive and first in Novice, besting 15 other dance schools in the process.
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- Noah Banks (left) and Will Demaine strike a pose
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- The Intermediate/Senior Jazz company performed “Love runs Out.” (Front from left) Emma Grace-Joiner, Cara Brown; (back from left) Briar Summers-Arndt, Courtney Lemon, Alexus Banks, Ocea Harris, Kaitlyn Wright
Above left, Noah Banks (left) and Will Demaine strike a pose.
Above right, The Intermediate/Senior Jazz company, (front from left) Emma Grace-Joiner, Cara Brown; (back from left) Briar Summers-Arndt, Courtney Lemon, Alexus Banks, Ocea Harris, and Kaitlyn Wright, performed “Love runs Out.”
“We did really well this year,” said Jennifer Johns-Main, dance instructor and owner of the studio. “We had a great time – it’s always a fun competition. But the thing that most impressed me was the director of the competition was impressed by their energy and positive attitudes and how polite they were.”
A special shout-out goes to Alexus Banks for her first place high score overall for her acro solo in the Novice category; to Alexus, Cara Brown, and Ocea Harris for their first place high score overall as an acro trio; and to the full company musical theatre number “Twist that frown upside down” which took second place top score overall. The dance school also won several special awards during the weekend.
The Junior Ballet company, (clockwise from bottom left)
Shea Cooper, Mackenzie Ritchie, Emma McLellan, Kaitlyn Watson, Allie Peace, Kailey May, Brenna Smith, Maiya Nadrofsky, Bella Main, Emma Harvey, and Kira Smith, performed “Flying South”
Next up for the dancers is the Luv 2 Dance competition at Deerhurst Resort, April 21-24.
Photos courtesy of JJ Dance Performing Arts Studio
It will only get better with ” The Will ” there more often. Congrats Kids and Staff !
Congratulations to all dancers on such a successful weekend !
It’s so nice to see some boys involved. I hope they continue and I want to encourage more to join in.