Dance Team Recruits for 2023-24 Competitions
By Liam Prendergast
Oct 16, 2023
Vancouver Island University’s student-run Dance Team, recognized as an official club by the VIU Students’ Union, is gearing up for the upcoming dance season and recruiting new students.
Katelyn Kurtz, 24, a member of the team for 5 years and current co-coach, explains that the Dance Team is “a community within the school that focuses on an interest in dance and being an athlete.… We’re very similar to other student-athletes, like basketball and volleyball, because we still also have multiple practices a week and go to competitions, put on shows, and hold fundraisers.”
Kurtz says being part of the team offers many benefits: “I think the team has created a good atmosphere for finding friends and building community. It’s just a lot of people who want to…find like-minded people.”
A Cabaret will be held on March 20th, “a burlesque show… some jazz, some hip hop, all kind of mixed together. It will showcase all of our dances for the whole year,” says Kurtz.
The team’s first competition is February 21st-25th at the Port Theatre, Nanaimo. Those in the audience can expect “studio type dances like jazz, lyrical, contemporary, tap, and some hip hop,” says Kurtz.
Kurtz says, “You can see us at almost every [VIU] hockey game. We do the bartending and the ticket sales and the merch sales” in order to raise funds to go “toward registration fees for competitions, buying costumes, renting studio space, renting the theatre, buying decorations and things for our events and shows.” Kurtz says the financial goal is to raise enough money to cover the team’s operations.
Scarlett Loyer-Beswick, 17, is one of the many newcomers to the team this year. She has experience with ballet, hip-hop, tap, lyrical, contemporary, acro, and jazz. She credits Jane Dean, one of the team’s senior co-coaches, for convincing her to join the team. “Jane was the person I talked to during the welcome week and she encouraged me to try out.”
Loyer-Beswick encourages others to check out the team if they love to dance: “It’s a really good, really positive environment and you can see people helping that have different skills, and the coaches are really positive.”
Former VIU student Kyan Leduc, 22, recalls his time as a dancer in the city over 10 years ago and wishes he knew there was a team while he was a VIU student. “In 2010, I started dance at Vibe Studios. We did mostly hip-hop, breakdancing, and animation.”
Leduc says he’s “used to dancing with mixed classes. I once did a dance where I was the only boy in the class, but I did not enjoy it as much as a more 50/50 split. The choreography would speak to me a bit more when there was a better gender mix.” Leduc says he would be interested in joining the team if he were to return to VIU.
If you’re interested in joining or supporting the dance team, Kurtz invites you to attend the “fundraiser for country night at the Student Union Pub on November 3rd.” See their Instagram for more information and upcoming events.
