The past weekend saw the return of the 18th annual OnStage Dance Festival, which hosted over 1,300 dancers from various communities.
“Even with the bad weather on Sunday … the excitement and momentum continued on with really no hindrance to the roster of events that continued,” said
Cori Norman, the main organizer of the event and the person who started it 18 years ago. “The Uniplex was full of dancers, the excitement mounted as the days progressed, the gold ticket recipients battled it out at the final competition.”
Each dance was only a couple minutes long each, but they were all full of high energy and grace. The categories included styles such as ballet, tap, contemporary, lyrical, jazz, acro, musical theatre, hip-hop, and modern. The ages of dancers ranged from as young as five to over 19. Many schools were invited to perform, but they had to be recreational, which is defined as one hour of theory per discipline per week, no more.
“They’re not going in there two to three hours a week because then they’re more of a competitive school, getting more than one hour (to practice,” said Norman. “We want this to be open to the recreational dancers to give them the opportunity to go on stage and win cash scholarships and go farther and go win conventions.”
Over the course of the festival, nine golden tickets were handed out by adjudicators to teams or performers they thought stood out and had something special. Those recipients then had to battle it out in a final competition for a cash prize.
“It’s very fast-paced; you see so much that it’s hard to remember,” said 24-year-old Sarah Tabler, one of the adjudicators.
“It just happens. You know when it happens,” said Angela Quinn, 38, another one of the adjudicators. “You’ve been there morning to night and one dance can look just like another, but you know it has that ‘it’ factor; it strikes a chord with you.”
For the 13 and over category, the Melfort Dance Centre won $1,000 in the golden ticket competition for their If You Seek performance. The junior recipients were the Pure Energy Dance Co. for their Jelico Cats acro performance. All golden ticket recipients’ performances are on the OnStage Dance Festival’s website at http://onstage.rockstardancemanager.com/
“I was pleasantly surprised to see such a strong and impressive representation of acro in the festival considering that it was a new category just added in this year,” said Quinn. “Selecting the award placements when there is so much talent to choose from (was the hardest part). You really want to award every dancer with their own gold medal because it takes so much courage just to step onto a stage and perform before a crowd, but awards and placements are part of the festival experience.”
Despite the difficulty in choosing the winners, Quinn said they were happy with the choices they made. As someone not from Saskatchewan, she also said the OnStage team was the “greatest” and that “the hospitality in Humboldt was very comforting.”
It wasn’t just assessments they did, either. The adjudicators had to watch each performance and provide commentary on what was done well and what could be improved upon. For each session, they would rotate so that two were assessing while the third observed.
“The adjudicators were phenomenal. They had 14-hour days and worked together as a really good team,” said Norman. “They got in there and knew what they had to do. They were true professionals. They enjoyed every moment of that and expressed that to us, even though they were exhausted when they left on Sunday night.”
Norman was especially proud this year because her son, 26-year-old Turner Norman, was the third adjudicator this time around. After being a part of the event at his mother’s side since he was just a child, the younger Norman went on to become a dancer and then an instructor. This was his first time adjudicating a big event, but it was the next step in his dancing progression. His mother said it was like seeing him come full circle as a dancer.
While that may have been her proudest moment, she said the hardest part for her was being forced to turn schools away due to a full lineup. Invitations for the event are sent out the previous year by mid-August and it’s first come, first served for who they accept.
“The hardest part for us was the fact that we couldn’t accommodate everyone that wanted to participate in the festival and had to send back registrations,” said Norman. “We don’t like to disappoint anyone, but with the time frame that we had, we couldn’t make it any longer.”
According to Norman, people who attended the event told her it was one of the most well organized events they had ever attended. People lined up at the doors to Jubilee Hall, which was transformed into a dance theatre with a stage and spotlights, and were only allowed in between performances. The doors were closed while dancers performed and there was a separate door for the exit to cycle people out. The curling rink was divided up with curtains and used as the communal change room for all the schools.
“I’m very proud of what has come about in the 18 years and the people I’ve worked with because without them, this would never have been what it is,” said Norman. “It’s really nice to know that the years of hard work has succeeded. It’s there and it’s going to continue on. Maybe my grandchildren will be able to come and dance in it.”
