Mayfield dancers compete at World Dance Olympics
By ALAN LICZYK Staff Reporter

Sarah Chapman of Mayfield secondary school won a silver medal at the World Dance Olympics in Germany recently.

Two dancers from Mayfield secondary school got a chance to perform on the world stage recently as members of Team Canada at the World Dance Olympics in Riesa, Germany.

Sarah Chapman, 16, and Shelby Hagymasy, 14, are in the dance program at Mayfield and this was the first time they’ve been on Team Canada. The World Dance Olympics were put on by the International Dance Organization and held Nov. 20-27.

Team Canada - made up of 20 girls and two boys ranging from age 14 to 21 - advanced through the preliminaries and semifinals to reach the final where it placed fourth. Sarah was also chosen for a small group with four other people from Team Canada and won a silver medal. Russia won both the large and small group competitions.

“It was amazing and a great opportunity,” Sarah said. “I got to see how other countries trained and the ideas they had.”

There were about 20 countries involved in the competition.

In the large group competition, Team Canada performed to the song “Rama Lama.” The dancers started out dressed as zombies, then took off their masks and black suits. They had a costume underneath which had spiders and snakes on their legs. Their faces had white

makeup on with black lines under the eyes. The routine lasted four minutes.

“It was supposed to represent we’re coming out,” Sarah explained.

There were seven judges who marked the teams on theme, presentation, technique, overall performance, costumes, ideas and props.

Sarah and Shelby both had to audition for Team Canada along with 300 other kids at the Canadian Dance Company in Oakville. The owner of the studio, Allan Lupien, choreographed Team Canada.

Sarah, a Georgetown resident, has danced since she was five years old. She trained for 10 years at the Joanne Chapman School of Dance in Brampton. Joanne Chapman is her aunt. Since September she’s been dancing at Centre Stage in Georgetown.

Shelby, a resident of Orangeville, trains at Ann Marie’s Dance Academy in Orangeville.

Both girls train in jazz, tap, ballet, acrobatics, hip hop, lyrical, point and musical theatre. Sarah also does ballroom dancing.

Team Canada’s large group performed jazz and acrobatics. Its small group was a musical theatre.