Why did you decide to start this club?

I started it because there’s not really any way for advanced dancers to dance at MacEwan University, and continue to perform and have classes and stuff like that. So, I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and I was like, “Well, if I want to dance in university, I’m going to need to do it myself,” so I decided to start and we got a lot of positive feedback from people who wanted to join, so that’s why I started the club.

Who can join?

It’s senior to advanced dancers for the most part. We had auditions in September. Senior to advanced dancers would be if they were considered to be advanced dancers throughout their dancing careers. So, probably if you danced around three or four times a week in highschool and stuff like that. And if you took ballet, lyrical, contemporary, jazz, and high levels of dance like that.

What kind of performances will you do?

We were offered to perform at an Oil Kings game, so we’ll probably do that around January or February. Then we’re also doing just a showcase at the end of the year, those are the two things that we have for sure. And then we want to find more performances that we can be guest performers at throughout the year, so we’ve been reaching out to a bunch of different organizations and seeing if they’d be interested in having us.

What style of dance will you be performing?

We’re going to be focusing mostly on contemporary, lyrical, and jazz. And depending on the members and what they want to do we might change our focus to tap or hip hop, or anything like that that they want to do, it’s all up to our members.

What sets your club apart from other dance groups?

There’s no Griffins dance team or anything. MacEwan has a couple dance groups, like they have a hip hop dance group, but that one’s just centred to hip hop and breakdancing, and then there’s a bunch of more cultural dance groups, but nothing that I’ve ever done and a lot of dancers growing up have ever done. It’s the style mostly that sets us apart.

Will it cost students anything to join?

We’re still figuring out the finances for it, but I’m pretty sure there will be a small fee to join. That’s just to cover the costuming, venues, and booking things, and apparel, team apparel if we want that.

Is the club a substitute to taking classes, or something different all together?

It can be seen as both. You can continue to take dance classes all throughout Edmonton pretty much, but there’s not as many adult classes in Edmonton that are at the same calibre as if you joined a company or something. The club can be kind of an in-between of if you dropped it and just took dance classes and being in a dance company.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

We’re super excited to start it. I know that I’ve been looking forward to having an opportunity to continue dancing throughout university and not having to dedicate a whole lot of time to it. That’s what’s nice, I think, about this club, is that it’ll be minimum four hours a week for students. It’ll give them an opportunity to release stress and do what they love and still be able to commit themselves to school. Another thing I’ve really noticed is missing the social aspect of dancing, which is something this club will provide. 

Edited for length and clarity.

Photography by Lydia Fleming.