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Soul Funktion teams win top award

Hip-hop, jazz teams earn $6,000 for nationals, club

One week after winning gold medals in every category they entered at the Dance Power competition in North Vancouver, the Soul Funktion Dance Studio was back in action in Whistler in the regional 5-6-7-8 Showtime competition. Almost 1,000 girls from across B.C., Alberta and Washington took part in three days of high-energy contests.

Soul Funktion’s teams won first place overall in the competition, earning the $6,000 first place prize and an invitation to the nationals in Niagara Falls in July.

According to Soul Funktion founder Codi Dalen, the group will instead go to a dance competition in Banff, and will spend the next year fundraising for the nationals and looking for a sponsor to help cover costs. A portion of the prize money will go towards registration for that event, while the other half will go towards a new floor for the studio.

It’s been a busy few weeks for the dancers who say they’ve been training seven days a week for the competitions and an upcoming dance studio performance. Still, with gold medals from Dance Power and the overall title from the Showtime competition to show for their hard work, they say it was worth it.

At 17, Alix Rusimovich is one of the most experienced girls in the studio ("I’m basically the grandma," she jokes) as well as one of the most ambitious. In January she plans to audition for the dance program at Ryerson University in Toronto, one of the top programs in the country.

After four years in competitive dance, she says it’s still fun for her and she enjoys dancing as part of a team. "We do like to give’r out there. This year I’d say a lot of our success was because we were confident, we trained really hard to get to where we are and the judges liked us," she said.

"Another difference is that now we have our own studio. We got a lot more serious when that happened."

Putting together winning routines meant practically living at the studio, going to school, going to dance, then going home to sleep. They would rehearse for up to four hours at a time, combining training, routines, and practice for their upcoming studio production "The Sun Thief and the Cloud Queen…Elements of Love," which will take place June 16-17 with 200 dancers taking part, ages 3 and up.

Nikki Sadler is 13 and has also been dancing competitively for about four years.

"I was just so happy," she said of winning the overall title. "At first I was really honoured they chose us, but after looking back at how hard we’ve worked it was like, ‘sweet’, we did it.

"The best part was at the end when all the other girls from other teams came up to us and told us how much we improved compared to last year.

"We had a really good choreographer, a lot of style, a bit of attitude, and some really hard working little girls."

Sadler one day plans to try out for dance academies in Vancouver. "I want to go far in dance," she said.

Jillian Duggan is 13, but is one of the most experienced dancers in the group – she started dancing when she was five, and competing when she was seven. She moved to Whistler from Vernon four years ago, and says she has seen a huge improvement from year to year.

"This year especially has been a lot better… a lot more professional," she said. "The coaches Codi (Dalen) and Heather (Stremlaw) are great, they’re really energetic and they’re still young so they understand us."

Right now Duggan has no ambitions in dance. "I just like to do it, I couldn’t imagine my life without dance in it. Some day I may look into making it my job, but right now it’s something I do for fun.

"Winning that contest was fun. I like competing because you get to… show off a bit, you trained so much and this is your chance to have fun with it. Last year we weren’t that great out there, but this year we were really good, we had more fun, and everybody was complimenting us."

Frances Moody, 13, recently made the move from competitive gymnastics and dance, winning the provincial Level 2 beam championship along the way and finishing sixth overall.

"It is fun, but it’s rather overwhelming with all the training and winning something this big," she said.

She credits her gymnastics foundation for helping her catch up to the group quickly, and says she likes competing as part of a team.

"Because of my gymnastics I also get to do a lot of tumbling in dancing, and some really cool tricks, so I’m glad that I have that in my background."

Megan McSkimming has been dancing for four years. "The commitment is huge, but it’s been really fun. It’s amazing, to get a two-minute dance right we probably spend a hundred hours practicing and… it’s never good enough, there’s always something you could do better. It makes it worth it when someone notices how much you improved in a year," she said.

Competing at home helped – unlike the other teams who had to crowd into the chaotic change rooms, the Whistler girls were able to get ready before coming to the show. "We had to do the change room thing the week before, and it’s just gross, there’s paper towel everywhere, everywhere you look there’s someone changing or putting on makeup, coaches are running around, everyone’s all stressed out. We showed up totally relaxed."

Meanwhile Abigail Winter-Culliford, a Whistler dancer who recently moved to Vancouver with her parents, won the Dancer of the Year category for 12 and Under after first place results in the solo Song and Dance, Interpretive and Demi Character categories.

For her efforts she won a $500 cash prize and a $500 scholarship to the nationals.

Abigail also competed in three group dance numbers with Royal City Youth Ballet Company, all of which placed first in their respective categories.