Students from a small local dance studio have big plans for the summer.
Fourteen-year-old Josh Williams, a student at the Shuswap Dance Center, is returning to summer school at the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto.
Williams turned down an invitation last year to remain in Toronto for the National Ballet’s regular school but is contemplating staying for the full school term this year, says Shuswap Dance Center owner and teacher Carolyn Wonacott.
She says the National Ballet likes to enrol dancers by the time they are 10-years-old so they can train them the way they want them.
“For him to be asked to stay at a later stage is quite the honour,” Wonacott says. “They told him to stay studying with his teacher because they felt he was getting good training at our little studio. So they just said he needn’t audition this year; he could just go to summer school.”
Along with the invitation to the National Ballet School, Williams won a scholarship to the Edge Performing Arts and will try to squeeze in a week in Los Angeles as well.
Eleven-year-old student, Mackennzie Mount, was the only female in the B.C. Interior to be accepted to the National Ballet’s summer school.
Proud to have two of her students be accepted by the national school, Wonacott says out of thousands who audition across the country, the National Ballet School takes fewer than 100.
“At Mackennzie’s audition in Kelowna there were probably 40 to 50 kids,” says Wonacott. “From the past few years, we’ve had several from our little studio accepted, both for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada.”
Other students on their way to new adventures include 11-year-old Sophie Hamilton, who will be taking lessons in the recreational division of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet school.
Morgan Paiement, 16, is going to Harbour Dance Intensive in Vancouver as is Wonacott’s daughter, Shea, who will also travel to New York City for 10 days of training at the Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway.
Wonacott says she hasn’t organized any big trips this year because the studio will offer two summer school sessions.
A two-week session from Aug. 8 to 18 will be taught by a commercial jazz and hip hop teacher, from Vernon, who danced in Los Angeles for 10 years, appearing in many movies and music videos.
A one-week session for students four to 10 years of age will be held from 9 a.m. to noon from July 18 to 22.
These lessons will feature a bit of everything from musical theatre, jazz, ballet, hip hop and tap.
