Love to Dance Academy dancers shine at Kamloops festival

from march 30 - 2023

Holmes coaches championship team though apprenticeship

Lane Robinson REPORTER@MERRITTHERALD.COM

After two years of virtual competitions, the Kamloops Festival of Performing Arts (KFPA) this year celebrated its 90th festival by providing a live festival experience to all the performers of its 11 disciplines for 2023. The festival ran from February 26 to March 18 and included disciplines such as piano, speech and dramatic arts, choral, strings and dance, and was judged by eight professional adjudicators, all experts in their fields of the performing arts.

Eight students of Merritt’s Love To Dance Academy (LTDA) once again excelled during the 2023 KFPA. Teacher Vanessa van Rensburg’s Spanish Dance Performance group presented a well-polished dance performance which was entertaining and inspiring. When teacher Kia Henriksen joined the LTDA team in September 2022, dancers had the opportunity to add five more dance styles to their well-established repertoire of ballet and Spanish, resulting in LTDA dancers receiving a balanced dance education with equal parts exposure, experience, and training, which creates true versatile dancers. Judging for a dance competition is scored on a scale up to 100. The key areas that judges look for are technique, performance, presentation, choreography, and overall impression.

GROUPS:

Ballet – Elements of Nature – 91% Spanish – Fire Dance – 88%

Contemporary –Ripple Effect – 84%

DUETS & TRIOS:

Tap – Megan Voigt, Kinley Stewart, Kate van Rensburg – 88%

Tap – Anina Miller, Sofia McCulloch – 85%

SOLOS:

Megan Voigt – Contemporary –86%

Megan Voigt –Ballet 85%

Megan Voigt –Tap 86%

Kinley Stewart –

Ballet – 89%

Kinley Stewart –Jazz – 87%

Zoë Andersen – Contemporary –85%

Kate van Rensburg - Ballet –90%

Kate van Rensburg –Contemporary - 85% Kate van Rensburg – Tap –88%

OWN:

Megan Voigt –92%

Kinley Stewart – 90%

“To these girls who participated in the Kamloops Festival, I love and appreciate your approach to this event, every time you stepped on stage, every time you accepted your award, and the way you conducted yourself throughout,” said Van Rensburg.

“You remained polite, true, and humble, and that is worth more than receiving first place - though there were many! You stepped out onto stage, and surrendered your whole being, leaving an imprint of your soul, creating a moment, a memory, taking the highs, and learning from the lows. I am forever proud to have played a part in your journeys. Congratulations on your exceptional results!”

Everybody at LTDA is looking forward to an exciting and busy spring session of dance which will include two spring dance camps and lots of dancing fun for recreational dancers, as well as exams, medal tests, and a wonderful end of year dance event.

Dancepiration 2023 will take place in the Civic Center, June 10.