by Sophie Kuijper Dickson
Mansfield and Pontefract
May 23, 2024
At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday evening, half an hour before the Corriveau School of Dance’s annual performance was set to take the stage at École secondaire Sieur de Coulonge, the hallways and classrooms surrounding the school’s auditorium were buzzing with activity.
Family and friends of the 81 dancers set to take the stage on the opening night had lined up hours in advance to get prime seats for the sold-out show.
Behind the scenes, tucked out of sight of the waiting audience, the show’s performers were frantic.
Some were getting the finishing touches done on their hair and makeup, while others were waiting for Julie Fortin-Delorme, wizard seamstress set up at a table in the hallway, to make last-minute alterations or mends to a dance costume.
Others still, all ready in their sequined leotards, were making use of a few free minutes to practice their steps.
The students of the dance school had been rehearsing the 33 pieces of this year’s performance, officially titled “Imagination,” since early January, at least.
Lead dance teacher Natacha Corriveau said this year the school attracted the most students it’s had in a long time. Luckily, she had help from her sisters Samantha and Geniviève (Geni) when it came to planning the routines.
In recent months, Corriveau has spent most of her waking hours and, she admitted, some of her sleeping ones, thinking through the choreography and troubleshooting sequences that were not working.
On Thursday, in the minutes before the show began, Corriveau found a short-lived moment of peace in tending to one of the last tiny details before dancers stepped out onto the stage – mopping its floor.
“I feel like I’m doing something right because I have some moms that I taught when they were younger and now they have children in dance,” Corriveau said, reflecting on the success of her family’s school, mop in hand.
“I just have been doing it for so long, so I just try to be a good role model, include everybody, and make everybody feel welcome.”
It wasn’t long before Corriveau’s moment was interrupted with the holler of “‘Tacha!” from some corner of the backstage area, only moments before the doors were set to open, letting in the eager crowd to find their seats.
Soon enough, the lights dimmed in the auditorium and the red curtains pulled back to reveal an empty stage onto which strutted Ryker Long, dressed in a purple tailcoat – a veritable Willy Wonka.
He was quickly joined by the story’s eclectic cast of characters, including an Oompa Lumpa played by Emmett Long, for the show’s first act, titled Chocolate like this.
From there, dancers of all ages sashayed, pliéd, pranced, box-stepped and tap-danced their way around the stage in ballet, jazz, Irish, African, and hip-hop dances, to name but a few of the styles showcased this year.
The older dancers seemingly seamlessly flew through the air, flipping, spinning and twisting their partners without evidence of slip-up or misstep.
Several of the Corriveau sisters graced the stage throughout the show including Geni who, eight-months pregnant, glided through hip-hop and tap sequences unphased.
Nearing the end of the evening, Marie-Josée Corriveau, who has seen significant successes through TV dance competitions like Quebec’s Révolution, performed a solo lyrical piece.
The evening also included the announcement of the first recipient of the Annabelle St-Cyr memorial award, presented by Lise and Gaétan St-Cyr to one student in honour of their daughter Annabelle.
Annabelle, a long time student with the Corriveau School of Dance, passed away in January 2023 at the age of 15 after contracting meningitis.
The $500 prize was awarded to Kamie Désormeaux, who in the Friday night’s dance show, announced she would be sharing the award with two fellow dancers who also knew and shared a stage with Annabelle.
In the final piece of the evening, every dancer crowded onto the stage for a routine choreographed by the students, which was met, unsurprisingly, by a standing ovation the second the curtains were drawn for the last time.
Burning Love.
