Students shine at Dance Fest program at the University of Waterloo

Students are getting a chance to put their best foot forward at the University of Waterloo. CTV’s Ashley Bacon reports from Dance Fest.

Hundreds of high school students from around Ontario are taking part in Dance Fest this week at the University of Waterloo. The program combines education and art, with the teens taking creative control over their performances.

Katie Knowlton participated for the first time when she was in Grade 12. Now she’s the president of Ontario Secondary School Dance Fest.

“They put together student-choreographed dances and then they’re able to compete against each other,” Knowlton said.

This year, more than 400 teens are participating.

One of them is Ada Cang. She’s graduating next month so this will be her last year performing at Dance Fest.

For Cang, meeting and developing relationships with other dancers is more important than the actual competition.

“We have our scores and stuff but the community and all the different schools, we always cheer each other on,” she said.

The program provides a network of support to help performers build their confidence on and off the stage.

“Last year was my first experience doing a dance competition, which was great,” said student Luca Luccisano-Espoito. “It was very nerve-wracking, but it was a really good experience, and I got a lot more comfortable with it. Then this year I was like; I can do more. I choreographed my routine, I had a duet, I was in two other ones, so it was a big growth experience.”

Shawn Byfield is a professional dancer and author who flew in from British Columbia to be an adjudicator at the event.

“[The dancers] just keep growing,” she said. “That fuels their creativity. And then they put on something and then they’re now inspiring other dancers, and the cycle just keeps rolling.”

The students participate in a number of performances and categories, capped off with a day of professional workshops.

“A lot of kids don’t have the opportunity financially to be in an outside dance school so to have an event like this, to have schools that offer dance, means the world to them,” Byfield said.

Of course it is a competition, so the winners get a coveted trophy and bragging rights.

“We like to think of it as they feel a little bit a part of their own dance team separately, but after they leave Dance Fest, they feel part of a really huge communal supportive environment in Ontario,” Knowlton explained.