Alyona dance students celebrate wins

PHOTO: Tasha Troughton

Students at Alyona Dance Studio on Queen Street East recently wrapped up a successful season. Dancers from the school competed at three competitions: Star Catchers – Toronto, and Dance Canada and Dance Odyssey, both held in Brantford.

Twenty-one dancers performed in 27 dances at each competition in a variety of formats, including solo, duet, trio and small group. Genres included ballet, jazz, acro, lyrical, contemporary/modern, tap and breakdance. The 11 full-time competitive dancers at Alyona average 10 to 14 hours a week, while the recreational girls jazz and boys breakdance groups train about three hours a week.

At the Star Catchers competition, Beatrice Johnson was the Junior Superstar, a top four open junior soloist and scholarship winner – Hollywood Tour. Catriona Von Sluytman and Avery Makos both won the Fresh Scholarship at Dance Canada. Von Sluytman picked up senior soloist overall first and second place at Dance Odyssey, while Makos did the same in junior. Camille Durot was a top three novice junior soloist at Star Catchers, first place 13 and over novice soloist and overall novice third place at Dance Canada and first place novice intermediate solo at Dance Odyssey. Joshua Vaux was third place mini recreational overall at Dance Odyssey. The school’s duets, trios and groups won too many awards to list.

Alyona trained in St. Petersburg, Russia, and performed around the world before moving to Toronto and opening her studio in 1996.