In a dance season that was more or less just a chance to get back on stage and return to competition for many a studio, any kind of success was just an added bonus.
When you’ve been away from one of the best parts of the whole dance scene for a couple of years, getting back on stage was just as important to the youngsters and their teachers as anything else.
For Moose Jaw’s Doris Sitter School of Dance, they were able to do so in one of the biggest events of the season in the Friendly City this past weekend during the Dance Inspirations competition at Peacock Collegiate.
The local studio ended up taking first place in the prestigious Dance Challenge on Sunday afternoon, with their Jazz performance The Dark Knight taking first place in the Senior division.
The Dance Challenge acts as the final event of Dance Inspirations and features the top performers from throughout the week in a final showdown to determine the best-of-the-best, with thousands of dollars of scholarship money up for grabs.
“It was pretty exciting for us and the kids,” said Darla Zerff, director of Doris Sitter School of Dance. “Before COVID, they won it two years as well, so it was exciting to be back on stage and we were really happy for the kids to be in front of an audience and to do so well.”
The Dark Knight wasn’t just a one-off winner, either -- the DSSD also took their show on the road to Medicine Hat earlier this season and also landed first place that competition’s version of the Dance Challenge.
Having a program show as well as The Dark Knight did was a product of plenty of preparation and hard work, as was the case for the entire crew of successful and winning programs DSSD had throughout Dance Inspirations.
“It was just an idea that came to me that nobody had seen before, so I thought we’d give it a try,” said choreographer Anita Bauck. “I thought it would compliment our dancers, the music that was picked out and the kids that we were working with, it seemed like something they would be able to pull off quite well.”
Once the basics were in place, it was time to get rehearsing, with plenty of time and effort going into solidifying the end product.
“A lot of work goes into all the groups from the studio, it’s countless hours that go into picking out the music, working on the choreography and having the kids work as a team and in unison,” Bauck said. “It’s a lot of work and a lot of time gets put in, but it’s all worth it.”
Making the whole season especially worth it was the chance to see folks from other studios they hadn’t crossed paths with in two years. That, and a chance to show off to family and friends everything they’d learned in the long time away from full-on competition.
“A lot of the parents haven’t seen their children dance for the last two years, you had some of the little ones that were so young and now they’ve grown so much. Their parents see them on stage and they’re like ‘wow, when did she get that big and tall and older’,” Zerff said with a laugh.
“It was nice to see the other studios, too, because we know what they’ve been through the last couple of years and it was nice to see how they’ve come along,” Bauck added. “A lot of studios struggled through the last couple of years, as many businesses did, so it was nice to be able to support each other and see each other at the competition as well.”
The season isn’t quite done as of yet for Doris Sitter School of Dance.
They’ll have a couple of weeks of further refinement before holding their recital on Friday, May 27 and Saturday, May 28 at the Mae Wilson Theatre. It’ll be a chance to have fun in front of everyone who might not have had a chance to catch them at Dance Inspirations, and is certain to be an enjoyable pair of shows.
“That’s what’s been missing the last couple of years for the kids and it’ll be a lot of fun,” Zerff said.
Showtime for both events is 7 p.m.
