A full house on Saturday, April 27, at Prairie Place Hall in Arcola was captivated by the wonderful talent of local dancers during Marley's Dance Effex Arcola and Area Recital.
A group of 60 youth ranging in ages from three to 20 participated during this year's dancing season from the area. Dancers came from Carlyle, Arcola, Manor, White Bear, Kenosee, Wawota, Storthoaks, and Kennedy to enjoy classes provided by Marley Brown who runs her main studio out of Weyburn as well as classes in Radville.
The recital held at Prairie Place was very well attended by the family and friends of the dancers.
The dancers took to the stage at 2 p.m. enthralling the crowd with their variety of dances performed including ballet, lyrical, tap, jazz and hip hop. Overall 18 classes were held in Arcola, which produced 36 performances for the recital followed by all dancers on-stage for the finale.
They were pleased to have dancers from both Weyburn and Radville in attendance in order to perform Team Effex dances, as well as the local dancers performances.
Dances included the very adorable Tiny Tots class to the extremely impressive solo acts of the older dance students. Most notably a very touching performance by senior student and dance teacher Jackie Van Dresar with a lyrical dance to "Who You'd Be Today" in memory of her brother, Eric.
All of the dancers did a wonderful job, however, and were very entertaining to watch.
Following the performances awards were given out by the teachers Brown and Van Dresar. The first was the Rising Star Award, which was given to two deserving individuals, Brielle and Emilee Wagner. The Most Improved Award went to Brooke Valentine, while the Most Dedicated Award went to Mackenzie Carley.
This year only one of the dancers will be graduating high school and the class said goodbye to Kelsey Hengen.
The Arcola dancers partook in three competitions this year, so far, including one held in Weyburn, Ogema, and Moose Jaw.
"The dancers did great at all [three]!" Brown explained. "Sometimes we had to change things right before they had to perform as the weather made our season and competition season really tough this year."
Throughout the year many of the competitors took first and second place with a number of performances. Their passion and dedication showing each time they took to the stage.
Brown, who owns and operates Marley's Dance Effex, has been teaching since she was 15-years-old and has gained much experience. With this experience and knowledge she also teaches a dance team, Team Effex, which consists of 43 dancers from the Arcola area, her Weyburn dance group, as well as the Radville dancers she teaches. Out of these 43 dance students, 11 dancers hail from the Arcola/Carlyle area.
This group allows dance students a chance to experience opportunities they otherwise would not have. Previously they have participated in the Disneyland parade and have travelled to Las Vegas where they learned from celebrity dancers.
Team Effex will be travelling to St. Paul, Minnesota, to take part in their final competition of the year, which will be held on May 11 and 12.
"St. Paul's is our last competition, we have entered 68 numbers and I think the girls and myself are all excited for the experience," Brown stated. "A lot of times we run into the same studios at all our competitions, [s]o it will be a nice change to meet up with some different studios! It will also be a good time for all our team members to bond [a]nd hang out! We may regret saying this after a 12 [hour] bus ride, [b]ut I think we will have a lot of fun!"
Overall, Brown is extremely happy with the past season and how well all of her students did.
"I think our season has gone pretty well!" Brown said. "Again this season was tough on all of us with the weather, but we did the best we could with our winter."
Having started the Arcola studio a mere three years ago, it has been a great success, and with the experimentation of both competitive and recreational classes in Weyburn this year, next year will see this option available to those in the Arcola area as well.
"We do offer competitive and recreational classes, we just started that this past year in Weyburn and it worked out well for a lot of our students who are busy with other activities!" Brown stated. "So, we are excited to add that option to our Arcola/Carlyle studio next year."
