One of my most recent conventions was to the iDance Convention at the Sheraton Hotel in Guildford! :) This was a two-day convention on November 28th-29th, 2015 (Saturday and Sunday). There were two main categories for the convention: 12 & under and 13 & over. The day started out with registration from 7-8:30am with merchandise near the front entrance and the main dance room. To start off, there was a warm up with everyone from 8:30-9am, and then a ballet class with Kirsten Wicklund from "So You Think You Can Dance Canada" Season 3. The ballet class was from 9-10am and was a great warm up class with lots of tendus, plies, and arabesques in the centre. As for the second senior class we had a lyrical class with Melissa Mitro from "So You Think You Can Dance Canada" Season 4 Runner-Up. Although, this was a lyrical class it was more of a "contempical" style, as Melissa put it, as it was combination of both contemporary and jazz. Then after lyrical or "contempical class" from 10-11am, came lunch time!
Then at 12pm-1pm came my favourite class of the convention, Street Jazz with Anthony 'Kanec' Carr, a dancer, teacher, and choreographer, who has performed in Step Up, Step Up 3D, Hairspray, and on Justin Bieber's World Tour. This was a super upbeat and fun class that was a great way to bring up the energy after lunch! Then for one of the most interesting classes of the day, Dancehall with Tyger B, a dancer for Raven Symone, MTV, and more! My friends and I were both curious and nervous about this class, as we had never heard of Dancehall before, but we quickly learned (Jamaican Reggae)! It was a great class where we were able to learn a lot! By the way, dancehall, is a fast dance style, and I would recommend trying it at least once, in your lifetime!
Finally, came the Combined FreeStyle Class with All Faculty from 2-3pm, which was realy interesting. They had multiple techniques and activities, to shape each freestyle around, with dancers dancing in any of their favourite dance styles. Then they had partner groups where one dancer would say a word and then the other dancer would have to dance/ interpret it. This went back and forth for quite awhile until, we had another activity, where they had 3 groups with a different instructor and they would play a different style of music and each group would have to emulate what their faculty member danced. Eventually, the class ended with about 10-15 dancers on the floor in rotating shifts to improv whenever they "felt the moment". Overall, I thought day 1 was a success, and at the end of Day 1, I was able to buy an iDance Convention T-shirt. :)
For Day 2, registration started once again at 7-8:30am, but if you had already registered the previous day, all you needed was to show your wristband. Then at 8:30-9am there was a warm up done by each group separately. Quickly after that came a Contemporary class with Kirsten from 9-10am. This combo was definitely one of my favourite classes, and I was able to learn a lot. As for the next class, we had a salsa class instead of a jazz class with Melissa from 10-11am, which I LOVED! It was so much fun and I loved the quick footwork that went with it, especially since I had only done some of the steps once or twice beforehand. After learning some initial salsa steps and turns, we quickly moved on to the combo, which was a lot of fun, until lunch time at 11-12pm.
After lunch time, cam Hip Hop with Tyger B, where we learned an interesting combo that involved precision and technique, from 12-1pm. For our fourth class we had a Commercial class with Anthony, which was amazingly fun, as it was a combination of every style of dance. Commercial dance is basically a style of dance to help us to learn how to demonstrate all of our styles of dance in an audition setting, if we were to go on to audition for dance jobs. We were then split into four groups, with a different set of simple steps that led up into a group setting, with a combo done by everyone. We then proceeded onto our fifth class from 2-3pm, which was a SURPRISE class with all of the faculty, dancers, and parents. This ended up being a dance done to the song, "I Had the Time of My Life" from the movie, "Dirty Dancing". All of this was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it, as it was a combination of the technique we had learn throughout the convention.
Right after that, came the awards/scholarships for the Paris/Barcelona Dance Tour 2016. Then came the presentation of the instructors and assistants dancing to their own solos. The day ended with autographs and photos with all of the instructors, which was optional, ending the day at approximately 4pm. Overall, I thought that this was a great convention, and I especially loved the second day of Salsa, Contemporary, and Commercial. Thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed it!
Check out the photos down below that I took at the event:
