WESTLOCK — Dancers from Westlock’s Silhouette Dance Productions are once again on top of the dance world.
The group “Pizzacato Polka” won first place in the 2023 Just Dance Festival in Morinville April 15-16 and consists of dancers ages nine to 12.
“They were the adjudicator’s No. 1 pick out of about 200 performances,” said Silhouette Dance Productions owner Leslie Critchley, noting the studio has participated in the festival for the past eight years.
Festival adjudicator, Sheri Lagace gave an oral and written adjudication to almost 200 routines from five different dance studios across the region including those from Stony Plain, Tofield, Mayerthorpe, Calahoo and Westlock.
While there were no performances or festival in 2020 or 2021, Silhouette finished in second place in 2022 and are thrilled to be back on top of the dance world for the first time in three years. “The last time our dancers received a first place finish was in 2019,” she said.
At this year’s festival, they entered 25 groups consisting of 170 dancers, ranging in age from six to 71. Each received a medal, with the first-place winners also receiving a trophy and a $200 prize.
“There were about 600 dancers in total and the event ran for two full days,” she said, explaining that the adjudicator invited her 12 favourite routines from the
event to return for an encore performance April 16, and they had three groups including "A Mermaid Party", "Snap Clap” and “Pizzacato Polka".
“We are very fortunate in our studio to have children and adults who love to dance. They work very hard, they practice very hard, they attend regularly and it shows in their performance,” said Critchley, noting their recreational dancers practice between one to three hours a week and “start their preparations in the fall learning their routines” to be ready for the performance season in April.
In addition to a festival in St. Albert April 22-23 the studio will wrap its performance season with their year-end recital in May.
“It was joyous to be in the classroom, in contact with everyone. It’s been a fabulous season … I am overjoyed to see everyone enjoying what they love best which is dance,” she said.
