The Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) was the site of a dance recital on Saturday.
Hundreds of people came to see a beautiful, sometimes hilarious and full of surprises show organized by the Estevan Recreational Dance Club (ERDC).
There were little ladybugs, Mario superheroes, sunflowers, a skater boy surrounded by fragile ballerinas and many other themes, compositions and costumes.
One of the organizers of the ERDC Brooke Wilson admitted on Sunday that she couldn’t be happier with the performances.
“Yesterday was amazing, all the students did super well, we are so proud of all of them… The little ones did super good. By the end of the second show, a lot of them were pretty tired and ready to go to bed but they were pretty happy,” Wilson said.
ERDC participants and their instructors started preparation for the recital over half a year ago.
“We started our rehearsals in September, so we would have practices every week on Sundays. Each class would get half an hour or 45 minutes every week to practise the routine. Our costumes came in in January. Closer and closer to recital we just kept practising. We had a couple of practices on the big stage at ECS before the recital. The kids really pulled it together. It was awesome,” Wilson said.
Not only did Wilson organize a great event and taught all the classes along with her co-teacher Victoria Utman, but she also performed on stage along with different age groups throughout the entire day.
“We had two performances, so by the end of the 7 p.m. (performance) we were all pretty exhausted, but it was so rewarding,” she noticed.
As part of this job, Wilson comes up with the many dances and costume ideas for the show. And every time it’s a unique process.
“I find a song and I just say, ‘Hey, that’s good for this age group or this kind of dance.’ I go off of them, have concepts for the dances, sometimes I find a costume that I want to use, sometimes I find a song first. They are all different,” Wilson said.
ERDC has options for everybody from three years of age to Grade 12, and an adult group as well. And teachers find a unique joy in working with any group.
“I love them all for different reasons. The three-fours they are just… they are so cute. You can dress them up in any costume and they are just so cute. And the older they get, the more their personality comes through and you can build your relationship with the students. It’s amazing to work with all the different age groups,” Wilson said.
Wilson started the ERDC in 2016 at the age of 15, and through the past three years, it has been nothing but success, with the annual recital attracting more and more people every year.
“Our numbers have been growing. Our first year we had 39 students, the next year we had 79 and then this year we hit 150,” she said.
ERDC keeps growing as well, with inclusiveness being one of the core ideas of the project.
“When we started up our club, it was about three years ago now, it was myself, my sister and my mother. We wanted a place to dance that was just for fun, and more affordable for families. With our economy these days we wanted to be as inclusive and as accessible to anyone who wanted to dance. We just started renting Pleasantdale School and using space in the gym, and hosting classes just to see who would be interested and who would come out. And we’ve seen so much support in the community and we’ve had a ton of fun,” she said.
ERDC also tries to offer a variety of styles and keeps developing more classes and having more options available, so they can have a place for everybody. And Wilson’s experience allows her to experiment and indulge in anything the world of dance has to offer.
“I started dancing when I was three years old. At that time we lived in Prince Albert, and as a young kid I could not stop moving, I could not stop dancing, so my mom put me in classes. I started off as a little tiny ballerina and I just kept saying, “I want to do more classes.” I joined jazz, and I joined tap, and hip-hop, contemporary and musical theatre. I did it all. I loved every second of it. It is truly my passion,” Wilson shared.
Now ERDC is going into their off-season to evaluate all the successes and plan for the next year. They are hoping to have a pre-registration for all of the returning open students in about a month. And then they will open the registration for the public sometime in August.
“We have a website: www.erdc.ca, as well as our Facebook page Estevan Recreational Dance Club. We have a lot of information there and if anybody has any questions, a great way to get a hold of us is to message us through our Facebook page, we will see those and answer as quickly as we can,” Wilson said.
