Elevate resting after ‘whirlwind’ experience at Dance World Cup

Síofra Grant

Fifteen students of the Elevate Academy of Dance enjoyed taking part, and tasted success, in the Dance World Cup, at the Convention Centre in Dublin. The Westmeath dancers joined 1300 fellow dancers on the Ireland team and after a gruelling few days came out of the competition with some serious achievements.

Aimee MacManus, founder of Elevate, in Canada when she answers the phone, taking a well deserved break. She recounts the competition, and she’s still over the moon. “It was a whirlwind, it was great.

“We started off with the first few medals with our younger dancers.

“So going into the competition our expectations were reasonable and we were hoping to place top 10, and that is reasonable.”

Elevate started the competition with a bang as younger dancers medalled in the first few days. “Conrad and Hannah won silver and bronze. They won silver in their separate solos and bronze in a duo and I know that expectations rose massively throughout the whole team.”

The Elevate Junior team then claimed sixth in the world for their group dance. Week one was highly successful.

“It was difficult to keep everyone’s expectations at bay and remind them that the initial goal was just to qualify and represent team Ireland,” said Aimee.

“They all wanted a medal, because they’d be used to winning and we’d be one of the top studios in Ireland.” Regardless, the students did well and many achieved their top 10 goal or close to it. “It was great, as I said, we were hoping for top 10 and a lot of our solos came 11th or 12th in the world, so that was a massive achievement.

“Bearing in mind that each country picked their top five dancers in each age group and category so we were going up against the best of the best.”

The Elevate senior team also did well, despite having a much younger age profile than other senior teams. “Every category was like walking into a professional show. The standard was just insane so we were proud of them and they were all proud of themselves.

“A few students dropped in points compared to the qualifiers so they were a little bit upset with that but then their placement was still good.

“We had to dive into the results properly to compare it. It wasn’t just as simple as, ‘I placed 10th or my score is 79’.”

The senior group competition was a highpoint for the dancers and Aimee, especially since the group faced far more experienced teams. “Our senior team was going up against 18-25-year-olds. Now, we had two 19-year-olds on the team so that brought all of our teenagers up into that higher age group.

“Basically that means you’re going up against pre-professional and professional dancers. They would be dancers that are either in full-time training or have completed full-time training.

“It was just, in my head, an impossible task. The level of maturity, even the way they looked was just so different. We had 14- and 15-year-olds but we ended on a complete high because they were just 1% off earning a bronze medal. They came fourth.”

“It was amazing, and it was really difficult. As the competition went on, the age range kept going up and it was just harder to win a medal so for them to finish fourth in the world in jazz with an average age of 16 – that was the high for us.

“I was so proud of them and, as I said, there’s grown women coming out in jazz heels and then we had our skinny little 14-year-olds coming out, it was just such a difference you could really see the maturity level, and we pulled it off.”

‘We stood out’

In the commercial category the same team came sixth. “That’s another great achievement because commercial dance is what you see at concerts, like background dancers. It’s what a lot of people aspire to do after their full-time training.

“So for that young team to come sixth, like the category was insane. I was looking at the Americans and Canadians coming out and they just have so much more to their training. But we stood out, we looked different, we did a K-Pop thing and it worked.

“That same team are very young, so it was another massive achievement. “It was so good for them because they had so many… what they saw as knockbacks… throughout the 11 days, when in reality they were doing so well. It was perfect, just a lovely way to end the whole competition.”

On top of their achievements the event was also a chance for the students so meet dancers their age from all over the world.

“Part of the Dance World Cup, they have a tradition where dancers swap pins. You could have a little shamrock or an Irish flag and you can go up to a Canadian team member and say ‘do you want to swap pins?.’

“Things like that were really special as well, to see the dancers interact with each other and network.”

The Elevate Dancers were invited to a party by some members of the Nordic teams. There was also a cultural aspect to the Dance World Cup thanks to the folk dance category, and teams had the chance to show off their heritage as well as their traditional clothing.

“You’d walk down the corridor and you’d see all the Asian teams dressed up in their cultural clothing ready to go on stage to do folk, then you’d turn the corner and see the Americans getting ready for tap. Everywhere there were different types of dance and styles and everyone came together.”

Aimee has confirmed that she and the Elevate dancers will return to the World Cup, though not next year’s, as it is so expensive.

“I think that even though our standard of training is good, the kids have learned that if you want to really achieve, you have to put the head down even more. For me, I would definitely go back and the team would definitely go back, but I think it will be in two years.”

For now she and the dancers are enjoying a rest.