Tap champions conquer world

Two local dancers bring home gold for Canada

Two young women from Winnipeg have triumphed at the World Dance Championships held in Riesa, Germany.

In the tap dancing equivalent of the Olympics, Christine Croswell of Cooks Creek and Caitlan Dyck of Birds Hill both brought home gold in the Formations event as part of the national team.

The Canadians outdid 31 other countries to claim top spot and for the girls it was the pay off from years of hard work.

“It was amazing,” said Dyck, a dancer for 10 years.

“Because we worked so hard, it made the trip so much more worth it.”

“It was like a shock,” added Croswell, who has been dancing for 14 years.

The road to the national squad involved qualifying at a provincial level and a further national qualification dance event.

Once they made the national team, they flew to Toronto four weekends straight to work on a choreographed routine by the renowned Matthew Clarke.

The Formations team was made up of 24 members from across Canada, 22 female and two male.

The theme was Matadors performed to a piece of music called ‘Ole, Ole.’

Despite all the preparation, there were still some pre-show jitters and few interesting ways of dealing with them.

“We ran around singing before the competition and we did the Hokey Pokey,” said Dyck.

And Croswell said she had butterflies and the whole team had three group huddles.

This was news to chaperones – and moms – Elaine Dyck and Janice Croswell.

They were both taken aback by the sheer scale of the competition.

“It was bigger than we thought,” said Elaine.

“We thought it would be big, but once we got there it was like, ‘Wow’.”

When both daughters claimed gold, the awards ceremony included a podium presentation, and raising the Canadian flag accompanied by the national anthem.

“We’re very proud of both of them,” said Croswell.