Snap Dance Studios hosted its annual Spring Showcase on March 16 at Cochrane High School in order to get ready for the upcoming competition season which starts on April 11.
The showcase featured soloists, duets and trios, giving the students the opportunity to hit the stage for the first time this season, in front of family and friends.
"So our Spring Showcase is our first show of the year and it features almost all of our dancers in different capacities," said Alison Stutz, an instructor at Snap Dance. "We have a rehearsal all day and then it's just an opportunity for those kids to get a bit of their own recital and hit the stage before we go to competition."
"We always do stage rehearsal, even with our competitive groups. It just gives them a chance to get outside the studio and into a new space ... it's great for blocking and learning how to dance in a different space because that's what will be happening during competitions. It's definitely important and we want to give them that chance before they hit the stage in a legitimate competition."
"We had 74 routines in the show and just overall with myself and studio director Courtney (Sproule) we're just really impressed with all the kids. They work really hard from September until now putting all the pieces together."
With the Spring Showcase as well as a local seniors tour where the dancers put on a performance for all the retirement homes in town, Stutz said it's important for the studio to get out in the community.
"It's not even so much about showing what we're about here at Snap Dance ... just the community piece is really important to us. With the seniors, it really brightens their day and to see the smiles on their faces is awesome," Stutz said.
"It's yet another opportunity for our kids, which only helps them in the long run before they get into competition but for us, it's really about giving back and getting out into the community."
Stutz is excited about what the competition season is going to bring when the group starts performing for keeps on April 11.
"We're doing three different competitions this year. The first one is called Dance Revolution which will be held at Rock Pointe Church in Bearspaw ... it's a great local competition with kids from Cochrane, Springbank and Calgary. It's always great to see other kids from surrounding area," Stutz said.
"Then we head into Calgary for the Great Canadian Dance Challenge in the first week of May. It's really great exposure for our kids as they'll be seeing all the different studios in the city and then our last competition is May 10 and 12 in Lake Louise. We've done competitions with that company before but never at the Chateau Lake Louise so it will be great to get into a new space. We try to do three different types of competitions to give the group exposure to different types of studios to really get a sense of what else is out there."
