A pair of Bradford dancers have demonstrated their elite skills to the world.
Two students from Bradford’s Elite Dance Corps recently returned from competing as part of World Performers Canada at the Dance World Cup in Braga, Portugal, from June 30 to July 8.
Isabel Ferreira, 12, competed in the 11-14 children's group performing hip hop, contemporary and tap dance styles.
“It was really fun. It was surreal because all the rehearsal leading up to it doesn’t feel as real, but when you get there it’s finally real,” Isabel said.
Samantha Martin, 15, competed in the 15-17 junior group as well as the senior group performing tap, contemporary and jazz styles.
“It was cool because I got to dance with adults. At first it was nerve wracking because in March you’re thinking ‘In three months, I’m leaving across the globe to go dance for my country,’ but then when we were there it was actually really fun,” Samantha said.
Isabel’s tap group took bronze and while Samantha’s group didn’t medal she did come in the top 20 for all of her routines, and her tap group came in eighth.
“The stage was huge and the audience was huge, so looking outward into the audience was crazy,” Samantha said of the of the Altice Forum Braga, a multi-purpose event venue which can hold 20,000 people.
“It never ended. There were rows beyond row beyond rows, and when you think it’s done, there’s more. There were three different stages and all of them were huge,” Isabel added.
Tania Ferreira, Isabel’s mother and the studio director at Elite Dance Corps, which has been operating in Bradford for 21 years, estimated there were about 7,500 competitors and about 500 on stage during the awards.
Luckily the girls were no strangers to audiences watching them compete, as Isabel started dancing when she two and competing when she was five, giving her about seven years of experience, and Samantha started dancing when she was two and competing when she was five or six, giving her about 10 years of experience.
Tania said the students at the competition ranged in age from eight to early 20s and that out of 50 countries, Canada came in twelfth.
“It was pretty amazing. It was quite an honour. Considering how little they rehearsed, their results were outstanding,” Tania said.
That limited rehearsal time was a result of dancers only being able to meet for one day once or twice a month in the 10 months leading up to the competition.
“These girls learned these routines on top of everything they learned here at their home studio. These kids on average are doing 10-12 routines here, and then they’re learning a bunch of other routines with World Performers Canada. It’s a lot, but I can honestly say the girls handled it so well,” Tania said.
Each routine was about three minutes long and each competitor had anywhere from two to 10 routines to perform at the competition.
Samantha said her favourite part of the trip was the welcoming parade on June 30 in which the dancers walked from Braga City Hall, through the streets to the Praca da Republica town square.
“We all had our team wear on and got dressed up to represent our countries. They announced all the countries and played all our anthems and we walked through Braga. We got to see a lot of things — it was beautiful — and there were all these people and we could hand stuff out to them,” she said.
Tania said the parade felt similar to the Olympics, with a marching band taking the dancer to the square where they were met by the mayor, the Dance World Cup director and the judges before “huge confetti canons set off.”
Isabel also liked the parade, but her favourite part was the awards.
“I really liked the awards, because they would take the certain countries and you would walk out and you would have the flag and you could wave them. When your country came out you could cheer for them. It was also really exciting,” she said.
Samantha added that during the awards the audience would get so excited that their cheering and flag waving would shake the bleacher seating, and Tania compared the energy to a European soccer match.
“It was so incredible to see how patriotic everyone was for their country. Whether it was your country or not, you were cheering just as loud because it was infectious. Everyone was just so happy,” Tania said.
While in Braga, the girls also went on a trip to the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, a Catholic shrine from 1722 with a stairway that climbs 116 meters.
“It was very historical city and we got to go to the Bom Jesus, and that was beautiful,” Samantha said.
“There was a little garden cave that we could go into and it was really pretty,” Isabel added.
An added bonus to the trip was meeting dancers from around the world.
“Another thing that was very exciting is we met some people from the other countries and we took some pictures with people from Ireland and everyone I talked to was so nice from other countries,” Samantha said.
“In the airport at Portugal we also saw some dancers from other countries,” Isabel said, recalling England, Scotland and Wales in particular.
While they both said they were proud to represent Canada abroad, they admitted most people hadn’t heard of Bradford, including some of the other members on the Canada team, which included dancers from studios from all over Ontario as well the maritimes.
“It’s a small town,” Samantha said of Bradford.
Isabel found the best description was to tell people it’s just north of Newmarket or just north of Toronto.
The girls were initially accepted to the team based on their performance in a competition in March of 2022, and then in July 2022, World Performers Canada invited them to attend an audition from which they were selected to perform routines at the global competition.
“I was over the moon. It was crazy,” Samantha said of receiving her acceptance email in July of 2022, while practising at the studio.
She said her mom was so proud that she couldn’t stop telling people.
“We would be at the farmers market and she would be like ‘Oh, my daughter is on Team Canada.’ You know what, it’s her bragging right,” Samantha laughed.
She added that all of the dancers at the studio in Bradford were very supportive too, and three instructors, including Tania, flew out to watch them.
Isabel was on vacation with her family in Wasaga Beach when the good news arrived.
“We were walking on the beach and my dad and I went to go get beaver tails and when we came back my mom was like ‘Guess what? You’re on the team!’ ” she said.
Being Portuguese, Isabel said her family was “ecstatic” to hear she was visiting the country.
“The day we found out, we spent like two hours watching videos of Portugal,” she said.
Both girls agreed it was a life-changing opportunity.
“It’s so exciting and it’s memories that I’m going to keep for the rest of my life. I’m never going to forget that ever. It’s such such such a good experience. If anyone ever has the opportunity, I would say ‘Go do it.’ There’s so many memories that I’ll never forget,” Samantha said.
Tania called the trip a bit of a “tear-jerker.”
“It’s such an amazing experience for these kids to get to be in another country and work along side kids from other countries and be united in dance,” she said.
