Turning Pointe dancers celebrate stellar year
By Contributor
Turning Pointe Performance Company dancers have had a very successful competitive year. TPPC is a volunteer run competitive dance company from Castlegar that is led by artistic director Julie Teindl. The 55 company dancers, ranging in age from eight to 18, competed in three dance competitions for the 2015 season and excelled in each of them. They performed in all styles of dance including ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, lyrical, musical theatre and acro.
The first competition of the year was “Just Dance – A Kootenay Dance Festival” in Castlegar April 10 and 11. Held at the Brilliant Cultural Center the “Just Dance Festival” was a local competition with dancers from Castlegar, Rossland, Trail and Nakusp. An adjudicator and professional dancer from Vancouver was brought in to provide corrections and encouragement for the dancers. The TPPC dancers succeeded in impressing her and were given numerous high score awards. Some of the highlights included winning both high score junior groups, high score junior solo for Janaeya Baher, high score senior solo for Mackenzie Grantham, both high score senior groups, high score junior trio and high score senior duo. TPPC dancers also won the adjudicators choice – top overall junior dancers for Emma Conley and Meigan Croteau, and top overall adjudicator’s choice to Bri-Anne Zubick.
The second competition of the year for TPPC dancers was the Shine Dance Festival in Vernon from April 16 to 19. This large dance competition hosts dancers from all over the Okanagan and the lower mainland. With three professional dancers/adjudicators viewing every dance the competition was very strong and for a dance company from a small Kootenay town the dancers did Castlegar proud.
TPPC dance teachers and choreographers, Jessika Dobie and Julie Teindl, both won two special choreography awards. Special achievement and group awards were won by 11 different group numbers and solo awards were also won by Amanada Bradbury and Janaeya Baher. Two group numbers, an acro trio “Made in Japan” and a ballet group “The Hungarian Dance”, were given high score awards for the entire dance weekend.
The last dance competition for the season was held in Calgary on April 30 to May 3. The Gravity Dance Competition had a large number of competitive dance studios from all over Alberta. The TPPC dancers did incredibly well and won many of the top overall awards. Eight TPPC group numbers received a 1st place, seven group numbers received a 2nd place standing and six received a 3rd place placement. Three TPPC group numbers made it into the “Dance Off”, a show that contained the best dances of the weekend. Of the top 12 dances that made it into the dance off “Dive into the Pool” placed third overall. Dance teacher and choreographer, Jessika Dobie, won a top overall choreography award for “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” and also won choreography awards for 6 of her other dance group numbers. TPPC dancer, Bri-Anne Zubick, won a dance intensive scholarship given out at the awards at the end of the competition.
Overall the dancers from TPPC performed this year with both grace and athleticism. Adjudicators were impressed with their high level of training and performance. For 55 local dancers and their two amazing teachers it has been an outstanding year.
Over the last few years TPPC dancers have visited local elementary schools and given performances so the greater community can see these talented local dancers. On June 10, they will again be doing a tour at schools in the Castlegar area.
Every year TPPC says good-bye to graduating dancers. This year we would like to recognize Emily Ryan, Jade May, Aleksey Jmaeff, and Anna Scheulin for their years of dedication to dance. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors and know that they will be successful in all that they do. The parent executive of TPPC would like to extend a huge thank you to the dance teachers, Julie and Jessika, for all of their dedication and hard work. They gave our dancers a wonderful and memorable year of dancing!
