Cochrane’s Snap Performance Team, comprised of 29 dancers ages six to 17, is offering a sneak preview of their dance show before they head off to be the nightly entertainment at Mexico’s Bahia Principe Resorts on the Mayan Riviera during the Easter break, April 8 to 15.
The team has put together a 30-minute dance show that includes jazz, contemporary, musical theatre, and more. They will unveil their show on Friday, March 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cochrane RancheHouse. Admission is open to the public, at $15 before March 17 and $17 after. Tickets are available at showpass.com/snapfest-2023-mexico-trip-unveiling/
At a dress rehearsal on a on a snowy Sunday afternoon, program graduate Elliot Strawson, 17, said she can’t wait to head south.
“I’m really, really excited – it’s my first dance trip with the studio,” she said. “I’m really excited to spend time down there doing something I’m really passionate about, and I get to do it with all my friends.”
Strawson said there are no real cliques on the team – they are all friends and they’re all close.
The timing is good, too, she added, since the “the weather’s pretty nasty (here) right now.”
Brielle Delaney, 11, has been dancing since she was three, and has never been further from home than Lake Louise.
She didn’t hesitate when asked if she planned to spend time on the beach between performances next month.
“Definitely,” she said.
Delaney’s been dancing for eight years, and had lots of praise for her coaches and fellow dancers.
“It’s a good community here,” she said.
Snap Dance director Alison Stutz said the dancers are particularly excited for the trip this year, as they’ve been prevented from travelling due to COVID restrictions in the last three years.
Although they will perform nightly in Mexico, they will also have some vacation time thrown in, which Stutz said is all part of the life experience.
“It’s very cool. The kids are really thrilled, it’s been a three-year hiatus. They’re pumped – they’ve been working hard to get the show together,” Stutz said.
She added the trips are as important for the camaraderie and team development as they are for the performance experience.
“The whole reason we do these trips is it’s important for us to show our kids all the different aspects and elements of what you can do as a performer,” Stutz said.
“But it really also is about (creating) memories of a lifetime with some of your best friends and family.”
All the performers are part of what Stutz called ‘the intensive team.’ All the dancers at Snap Dance Studios train anywhere from five to upwards of 12 hours a week, depending on their age, from September to June. In addition to that, the ‘intensive team’ trains for this show.
The variety performance includes everything from a pair of six-year-old tap dancers doing a duet to a section called Ready to Fly, which includes most of the entire group.
Snap Dance performers have dazzled audiences in Disneyland, at numerous all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, throughout England, and aboard Carnival Cruise Lines. They’ve also taken classes at Broadway Dance Center in New York, the Edge in Los Angeles, and Pineapple Dance Studios in London, England.
They also performed in London in 2014 in Hyde Park and in front of Buckingham Palace, where Queen Elizabeth ll would’ve been able to enjoy the show by looking out her window.
