The Move Dance Centre had a busy summer with dancers traveling all over Canada and the U.S. to showcase their skills.

Five Move dancers, Tristen Jackman, Nicole Schoepp, Hillary Gessner, Selena Wiebe, and Alyssa Gessner, got the chance to attend the Triple Threat workshop/competition in Los Angeles. Jackman won third place for her solo jazz performance, while Schoepp earned a gold level for a contemporary solo with Gessner taking a silver level for in lyrical solo. Wiebe attended the workshop as a non-competitor.

“It was incredible,” said Schoepp, “We got to meet a lot of famous choreographers that you see on TV.”

Those choreographers included Tyce Diorio, Lil’ C, and Stacey Tookey from So You Think You Can Dance, as well as others from Dancing With The Stars.

The girls said they worked a lot harder in L.A. than they would at home, dancing between five and seven hours per day.

“It was challenging,” said Jackman.

Other girls involved in the dance studio had the opportunity to attend an array of prestigious dance workshops. Elissa Miranda and Keily Stewart attended the Royal Winnipeg Ballet summer program. Maegan Woodall and Jeannie Norman spent a week at the Harbour Dance Centre in Vancouver, while Shiau Shan Kao-Phan and Milanne Desfosses were at the Goh Ballet Academy, also in Vancouver.

Sonja Beale went to the School of Alberta Ballet in Calgary, and Ashtyn Lockyer attended a summer dance ‘intensive’ in Grande Prairie winning a scholarship.

The Move dancers are winding down their summer workshop on technique and choreography, trying out different dance styles they wouldn’t normally have the chance to do. The dancers focus on jazz and ballet, but with these workshops, where guest choreographers Amy Gardner of Montreal, Rock Mejia of Calgary and Stephen Agisilaou of Melbourne, Australia were brought in, they get to try their hand at hip-hop and other styles.

Gardner herself was a competitor on So You Think You Can Dance Canada, while Agisilaou is the director of Vertical Shadows dance company in Australia.

Jackman, Schoepp and Gessner all agree that this workshop was just as grueling as L.A.

Mother of a dancer and long-time supporter of dance in the community, Arla Jackman,

said it says a lot about the dance community in Fort St. John that these girls were selected to go to this level of workshops and competitions.

“These kids are really dedicated to dance, the dance community is a very small community, but it’s a very large community at the same time,” she said. “You can’t get this quality of dance in one small area, a lot of these kids travel so far even out of the country to go enhance their learning for the fine arts.”