REDVERS - Amber Sylvestre began teaching dance 24 years ago under her mentor and favourite dance teacher, Laurel Unger.
Once Unger moved to Moosomin, Phoebe Douglas and Sylvestre began teaching in Redvers, beginning with a small group of 14 kids.
With one name change in 20 years to Artemis Dance Redvers, they now have over 160 students and are still growing.
Operating four days a week, kids aged three to 18 years can take part, with lessons held in Redvers at Studio A. At times they have a few adults that also attend.
Sylvestre is the director and owner of the studio, but she said she has an incredibly talented team of teachers who are crucial to the studio’s success.
The main teachers are Chandler Mann, Ayla Schwandt – who also runs Artemis Moosomin – and Hayley Douglas, who is hired with the Melita Dance Club in Manitoba.
Sylvestre also stated that she has some up-and-coming assistant teachers: Jaryn Carriere, Laya Massy, Trinity Sylvestre, Emma Hymers and Lilli Husband.
On April 5-7, over 100 students from Artemis Dance Redvers attended the second annual DeFeet competition, hosted by De Tricky Feet in Weyburn at the Cugnet Centre. The youngest member they took was eight years old.
Their sister studio in Moosomin also attended the competition, which also has a growing crew.
This was the third competition that the Redvers group had attended this season.
While Dance Weyburn and Glam Regina inspired them, and took home some nice placings and awards, nothing would quite compare to the success they had at DeFeet.
Most of their solo and duet dancers received placements and high scores, as did the groups as well.
The competition is unique, as it features a dance-off at the end of the weekend to highlight the adjudicators' favourite numbers. To get into the dance-off, they must receive a VIP pass to the encore performance.
This is not an easy task as there were over 200 groups entered for the weekend, and all the other groups are top-notch dancers. Only 10 encore spots are held for minis and juniors, and the same is true for the intermediates and seniors.
Artemis Redvers was lucky enough to receive four callbacks to the dance-off. This included their intermediate group for tap and jazz, and the seniors for jazz and hip hop.
According to Sylvestre, the energy at the dance off is electric and everyone is cheering the entire time, including the adjudicators.
“It is such a rush for everyone on stage,” said Sylvestre.
“The DeFeet Competition director Tyla Rimmer does such a wonderful job on fostering a kind and sportsmanlike event,” said Sylvestre.
This is evident when other studios and teachers are cheering everyone on to lift the spirits.
The Redvers studio was fortunate to bring home the title for intermediate dancers' Vogue number and the seniors' hip hop routine, Rollin.
Sylvestre said this brought the dancers and teachers to tears with the joy and excitement of these winnings, and they felt a great deal of gratitude.
Taking home $750 in cash, they will be having a pizza party and also ordering some merchandise to commemorate this momentous and potentially once-in-a- lifetime event.
They believe that dance should be for everyone, as they feel it is a wonderful way to express themselves. It helps to build confidence and, at times, heal people.
Being a recreational studio, they do not do exams but still strive towards an elevated level of technique and performance, and they hope to continue to improve with each passing year.
Registration will once again take place in July, and although they are pretty booked up and they hold spots for returning dancers, they do try to accommodate as many dancers as they can.
