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'Dance is strong': Dancers from across Sask. move as one in virtual collaboration

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More than a thousand dancers from across the province have joined forces virtually to celebrate dance and the contribution the community has made during the pandemic.

“Everybody knows that dance can be competitive, and we go to competitions, and we compete against each other, but when it comes down to it, when we were all struggling through the pandemic, we really rallied together and came together and really helped each other. Dance is strong today because we all did come together,” Karrie-Ann Puderak, Owner of Pure Energy Dance Company told CTV News.

After two dance seasons being altered by COVID-19, with cancelled competitions, smaller in-person classes and mask-wearing, dance teachers from across Saskatchewan wanted to honour dancers and instructors with the project.

Dance experts from all areas of the province met via Zoom video since the beginning of the pandemic to offer support to each other and decided through those meetings to embark on a collaboration with 120 studios in our province.

One group of students from Pure Energy Dance Company performing their #skdancestogether piece.

One group of students from Pure Energy Dance Company performing their #skdancestogether piece.

Choreographer Dana Mutimer from Estevan created one dance piece which all studios learned and recorded individually. Those were posted to social media pages with the common hashtag #skdancestogether.

Puderak says the goal is to recognize how significant dance has been in the lives of so many throughout the many changes of the pandemic.

“It was really important to also let the public know how important dance is not just for physical fitness, but for kids’ mental health and to have a place to socialize and get away from it all,” she said.

Pure Energy Dance Company student Elyana Benjamin has been dancing for 9 years and says dance has helped her a lot over the past two years.

Students from Brenda’s School of Baton and Dance 

“It affected my mental health I would say just because I started more getting lazy. When the pandemic started, school became hard with online learning so that was a big challenge. Dancing helps me express myself so when I’m feeling low or down it helps me,” Benjamin said.

Cadynce Eremondi has been dancing for 8 years and says she’s proud to be part of the project because it shows that dancers are united no matter what’s happening in the world.

“It was nice to see other groups from other cities and learn from them. It showed that we can still communicate through dance even though it’s not in person.”

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