‘Community spirit’ during six-day Festival of Dance
THIS year’s Guernsey Festival of Dance has been heralded as a ‘huge success’ by its organisers as it comes to a close today.
A total of 677 dancers have been wowing audiences across more than 2,500 performances at Beau Sejour this week, while being assessed by specialist dance style adjudicator Kay Ball and main adjudicator Tracey Lee.
Festival organiser Jane Smith said the week had been really busy, but some ‘fantastic’ dancing had been on show.
‘Parking has been a bit of an issue, it’s been crazy how many people have turned up, but the performances have been great to watch and Kay and particularly Tracey have really been put through their paces,' she said.
There were 778 entries for this year’s competition, which Mrs Smith said was a similar size to last year’s festival and close to maximum capacity.
‘I don’t think we could take any more entries.’
She reserved special praise for the younger dancers taking part in the event – some of whom had not even started school – while she was excited to watch dances from some of the older performers close out the event today.
‘Some of them look professional, that’s how good they are.’
Ms Lee, a UK-based adjudicator who is visiting the island for the first time, said it had been a busy but enjoyable week.
‘The dancing has been such a good standard that I’ve been able to cope with how busy it’s been,’ she said.
She singled out the musical theatre performances for special praise, adding she was impressed at the younger talent that seemed to be coming through.
‘There’s a real community spirit, everyone seems very supportive of one another from where I’ve been sitting and that has been reflected in the dancing.’
While the dancers have been the stars of the show, Mrs Smith expressed her gratitude to parents, who she said had reliably kitted their children out with costumes and then come along to support and watch.
‘So much work goes on behind the scenes, the dancers have been training hard since September and it really is a joint effort between them, parents and the organisers to get everything together.’
‘I’m proud of how it’s all turned out.’
