Serving lots of glitter and sass, the students of the Corriveau School of Dance packed a full house and danced the night away at this year’s 25th show.

Before the show, head dance teacher and founder of the dance school, Natacha Corriveau, highlighted that she enjoys . . .

seeing the kid’s moments of triumph when they’re practicing and when they land their kicks or jumps or flips. Seeing them make it to the finish line is why she does the work and loves teaching dance so much.

“As an audience member you just see the finished product, and sometimes people can be like, well, you know, that was okay, but I’m like that is awesome. Because I have seen when they started, you know, like, they started from this and now they’re here. So there’s a huge improvement,” said Corriveau with a smile.

Rehearsals for this year’s show began in February 2022. The theme for the opening and closing numbers was the musical Hairspray and the core group, referred to as the Ivy League dancers, were the ones performing those numbers, along with some of their peers.

There were about 33 different dance numbers all displaying the different types of dance such as jazz, tap, ballet, hip hop, swing, lyrical, african, musical theatre, skipping and acro. The show was held at ESSC in Fort-Coulonge.

For Natacha, planning this show gives her something to look forward to. “Some of the students just dance to do dance, just learn the steps. But for some, it’s about the attitude, it’s about the competence, the performance aspect of it as opposed to, you know, I can shuffle,” she said.

With all the covid restrictions the dance school has not been able to put on their show for two years, and so this is the 2020 show that they are finally getting to do, said, Natacha. “When things were able to open back up, then we opened back up gradually, like everybody with the masks with the limited class sizes, no parents, small groups, stuff like that,” said Corriveau.

Corriveau teaches people from ages two to 92 however-in this year’s show the ages range from 3 to 30, and included both male and female dancers.

This year they experienced a large number of dropouts due to the constant shutdown and reopening of the school. Going from having 14 kids in the Ivy league program to six, led them to rearrange the cast and shorten some of the routines.

Nonetheless, Natacha is very proud of the effort put into getting this show together.When asked if she had a favourite dance number she said she loved them all.

“They all have something special about each of their numbers. Each child has put in a big effort,” said Cindy Corriveau, Natacha’s mother and manager of the dance school.

Cindy decided to back her daughter when she made the decision to open her own dance studio because of how talented Natacha was, she said.

“She’s a great teacher, not because she’s my daughter just because she’s really talented and she sees things that we don’t see,” said Cindy.

Meet some of the Dancers

Lyanne Boisvert, 10-year-old, said she’s excited because her cousins came out to watch her and can’t wait to show off her tap dancing skills. “For me, it just makes me happy, I don’t know why,” she said.

Twelve-year-old Olivia Draper, who has been dancing for 10 season’s both Monday classes in Shawville as well as Saturday Ivy League classes, said she’s thrilled to show the audience all the different dances. Her favourite was the jazz number and was particularly excited about that one.

When asked what she loves most about dancing, Draper said, “I really like the creativity I get to do, I get to be my character, and it’s really fun. And also the challenges.”

For Draper, she hopes to one day be dancing on a professional level. The dance genre she hopes to get into is lyrical, which is a mix of jazz and ballet.

The opening act was from the musical Hairspray and all of the Ivy League dancers agreed that it was their favourite number because it also allows them to play a character and showcase their acting skills.

Ashley Poisson loves to dance because it keeps her active and she enjoys doing all the tricks that come with it. “I’m a little bit more nervous because I’ve never been up on the stage before,” she said. Much like her this year was a first for many students.

Shaylee Stanton was looking forward to her dance number to do her flip. She said ever since she was little she loved dancing and was influenced by her mother as she also danced at her age. Stanton can’t remember a time when she wasn’t dancing, she added.

Excited to do the Git Up, which was the closing number where all dancers came out on stage together, Emma Frobel was looking forward to being back on that stage with all her peers. “I danced here when I was three years old. But I stopped for a couple of years and I decided to rejoin because dance makes me happy,” she said.

Parents, grandparents and friends packed the auditorium and all waited eagerly as the curtains lifted. For many parents, it was exciting to see their kids on that stage for the first time, like China-Li Turner and Chelsea Declare who weren’t able to see their kids dance for the past two years due to covid.

“I’m just most excited to see her smiling and having fun up there. I think every parent’s favourite thing is to see their kids doing something that they love,” said Alina Holmes.

For her kids it was inevitable that they would get into dancing as she and her husband are both in musical theatre, said Holmes.

In mid-air doing a kick move, Olivia Draper performing Kung Fu Fighting with her peers wows the audience.

Sadie Corriveau and Ryker Long performing a swing dance to the song Great Balls of Fire in an electric performance.

A number full of grace performed by Alexie Savoie Morin and Léande Bonnerot.

Left to right, Eleanor Swenson, Eleanor Laframboise and Holly Hewitson grooving to the music in their sparkly outfits.

A lyrical dance number performed by Genivieve Corriveau, Alexie Savoie Morin and Léande Bonnerot.

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