Submitted to the Castlegar News
Turning Pointe Performance Company dancers have had a very successful competitive year. Turning Pointe is a volunteer-run competitive dance company from Castlegar, led by artistic director Julie Teindl.
The 55 company dancers, ranging in age from 8 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 on April 10 and 11. Held at the Brilliant Cultural Center the 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. The Turning Pointe dancers succeeded in impressing her and were given numerous high score awards.
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. Turning Pointe dancers also won the adjudicator’s 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 Turning Pointe dancers was the Shine Dance Festival in Vernon from April 16 to 19th.
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.
Turning Pointe dance teachers and choreographers Jessika Dobie and Julie Teindl both won special choreography awards. Eleven different group nubers won special achievement and group awards while Amanada Bradbury and Janaeya Baher also won solo awards.
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, April 30 to May 3. The Gravity Dance Competition had a large number of competitive dance studios from all over Alberta.
Turning Pointe dancers did incredibly well and won many of the top overall awards. Eight Turning Pointe group numbers achieved first place standing, seven group numbers achieved second place and six archieved third place.
Three Turning Pointe group numbers made it into the Dance Off, a show that contained the best dances of the weekend. Of the top 12 dances in 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 six of her other dance group numbers.
Turning Pointe dancer Bri-Anne Zubick won a dance intensive scholarship at the end of the competition.
Overall the dancers from Turning Pointe 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 Turning Pointe dancers have visited local elementary schools and performed so the greater community can see these talented local dancers. On June 10, they will again be touring schools in the Castlegar area.
Every year Turning Pointe says goodbye to graduating dancers. This year they recognize Emily Ryan, Jade May, Aleksey Jmaeff, and Anna Scheulin for their years of dedication to dance.
The parent executive of Turning Pointe extends a huge thank you to the dance teachers for all of their dedication and hard work that gave the dancers a wonderful and memorable year.