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World champion dancers win gold for Canada By Joanne McDonald NewsNow Scouted during a spring dance competition and invited to join Team Canada for the IDO – Dance World Championships was a dream that has turned to pure gold for five dancers with the Niagara Dance and Fitness Studio in Beamsville. Born to dance – Helene Lemmen, 18, Ava Seca, 17, Julianna Watt, 17, Natalie Alford, 16, and Addison Gray, 12, competed against the global elite and have returned home world champions, putting their dance studio and their country on the world’s stage. Brenda Dykun, owner and director of the NDFS was beaming with pride and joy and a tumult of emotions that was hard to wrap around one sentence Saturday as the dancers gathered to share the incredible experience of the competition held in Slovenia. Just to put the magnitude of their wins into perspective, the International Dance Organization (IDO) is the Olympics of dance. It has more than 90 member nations and contacts on all six continents,
Born to dance (L-R) Niagara Dance and Fitness Studio dancers Ava Seca, Helene Lemmen, Julianna Watt, Addison Gray and Natalie Alford brought home gold with Team Canada from the IDO – Dance World Championships held in Slovenia. representing more than pected it. We would have very surreal and having 250,000 dancers world- been happy with any out- the gold medals placed come, but getting to sing around our necks was a wide. “I don’t think we ex- the national anthem was very proud moment,” said
Lemmen. “This was a once in a lifetime experience. It was incredible to hear our national anthem played for us as we received the gold medals. It was truly a moment we will never forget,” said Watt. Alford, Lemmen, Seca and Watt, four of the seven-member Team Canada adult division dancers, came home with gold in the adult ballet group. Lemmen and Watt won silver for their ballet duet. Gray won gold in the children’s ballet formation and silver in the small group. “It was a very positive challenge being around dancers so highly skilled and it was intimidating,” said Alford. “We were competing against dancers who live in ballet schools and that was a testament to the hard work and training we receive from Miss Brenda,” said Gray. “It was super inspiring to see all the dancers from around the world. There was a sense of connection with strangers all together to dance. We understood each other in a way, in a bond that dancers share,” See WORLD GOLD, Page 3