The sounds of music and happy feet could be heard throughout the Winston High School gym, as Watrous School of Dance hosted their 25th annual Watrous Dance Festival.
The festival, which ran April 13-15, featured over 550 dancers and over 600 dances from 17 schools, and 15 communities, including Watson, Hudson Bay, St. Brieux, Saskatoon, Bruno, Cudworth, Kelvington, Viscount, Imperial, Humboldt, Warman, Clavet, Allan, Raymore, and Watrous.
Dancers competed in a number of different competitions including classical ballet pointe, musical theatre, modern, contemporary, tap, classical ballet, demi-character ballet, hip hop, jazz, song and dance, lyrical, acrodance, open, production, character ballet, student choreography, and teacher feature.
With the club celebrating their silver jubilee, they decided to add some silver star awards this year, says dance fest co-chair Gaylene Sundquist.
Silver stars were handed out to 44 dancers for anything the judge wanted, including some for having wavey hips.
The stars carried a minimum of $25, says Sundquist, who notes the stars were a way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the festival.
“They were just to add a little bit more excitement. We also had the adjudicators themselves present it so there was a little bit more interaction between the adjudicators and the dancers.”
With the festival celebrating its 25th anniversary, Sundquist says looking back it is a testament of the community that they have been able to last for 25 years.
“They support us a lot. Without them we wouldn’t have such a successful dance festival every year.”
In terms of success, this year was no different, says Sundquist, who noted the club had so many teams looking to enter they actually had to turn some of them away.
“I think it just speaks to our level of awards. We have really good awards. We have a great facility, Winston High, we’re so grateful that they let us use their facility for the weekend because if they didn’t we wouldn’t be able to host such a large scale event,” says Sundquist
Of course, the festival is also a major fundraiser for the club, with Sundquist noting all money raised helps cover club costs.
“It keeps costs down. It gets funneled directly back into the club to pay for mileage and teachers. And we own our own building so that’s always an expense as well… every dollar that we earn goes right back into the club.”
The festival, can also serve as a bit of a recruiting tool, says Sundquist who says they try to encourage young kids to come watch the dances in hopes that they too will become interested in dance.
Overall, Sundquist was pleased with how the weekend went, noting they were busy right from day one.
“The gym was full all weekend. And our food booth was really busy and the clubs that came were great. We have really good clubs that come they’re easy to deal with and we really enjoy interacting with them.”
Next year’s date has already been picked, with the 26th annual dance festival set for April 5-7 but Sundquist says they will be taking some time before ramping up for next year.
“We’d just like to take a breath for a couple of weeks and go back to our own life,” she laughed.
“And then by fall, early fall, we’ll have our packages available.”
