Metro dancers welcomed back on anniversary
West Gippsland Dance Festival organisers are excited to present the event in its 30th year next month
From September 16 to September 25 dancers from all over Victoria will take over the West Gippsland Arts Centre for the high-energy competition.
At the end of the nine-day event, monetary prizes and scholarships will be awarded to stand-out performers.
Festival president Chloe Smethurst said due to the pandemic, last year only regional dancers were able to be part of the competition and no troupes were able to perform.
“We are really excited to have our metropolitan competitors come back and join the regional dancers, and also to have troupes back on stage,” she said.
“Because of the social distancing and limitations last year we were only able to have solos last year and no audience.”
The volunteer committee members have been hard at work all year to get the festival up and running.
“We are really please with how it’s come together,” Ms Smethurst said. “We think that’s a really big achievement for a volunteer organisation and committee to be able to keep such a big event year after year for 30 years.”
Ms Smethurst said the committee have organised a balloon art sculpture for competitors to take photos in front of to celebrate the special anniversary.
She said organisers will also hold a celebratory get-together with the festival’s founders.
There are now no original committee members involved with the day-to-day running of the committee, however, Ms Smethurst said there were a number of life members who were still involved that had made significant contributions to the organisation over the years.
The number of competitors this year is slightly down from competitions before the pandemic, according to Ms Smethurst.
“We know that quite a lot of kids found it difficult to continue with their dance lessons remotely. So that has affected our dance schools as well as our festival.”
Ms Smethurst said the committee and volunteers are excited to see the event get going again and get everyone back together - especially the children who have developed friendships over the years.
“They develop strong relationships across difference dance schools, so that’s really exciting to facilitate those opportunities,” she said.