Fifteen dancers ages 10-16 with four qualifying choreographies recently represented the region in the Portuguese team that travelled to Jersey, Channel Islands for the Bloch Dance World Cup.
Whilst once upon a time the cry ‘the Cossacks are coming’ would have induced panic, the Cossack troupe of the Escola de Dança de Lagos came back to the city of Lagos to cheers and congratulations for bringing with them silver medals in their Junior category with 87.0 points and the Children’s duet of Afonso Gouveia and Sara Nascimento won bronze medals with 85.0 points.
The two soloists Alexandra Kolkina and Melanie Calado also put on sparkling performances with 81.7 and 83.7 points respectively but were pipped for medals. Generally the Portuguese team proved very strong in classical ballet, contemporary and national dances, winning many medals and trophies and finishing second behind a much larger Team England in the junior country trophy and third in the senior level.
The youngsters had some free time between performances to explore the island and discover some of the history of the WW2 Atlantic Wall and the underground hospital, which is all part of the experience of participating in such championships.
All of the Escola de Dança would like to publically thank all those kind supporters who directly or indirectly contributed to the fundraising effort for this trip these last months by attending the many events and shows.
The pupils would like to thank the teachers Marina Khametova, Nina Minkova, Tatiana Ursu, Veronique Vicente, Margaret Marques and Daniel Matos for their coaching and choreographies throughout the year.
For anyone who would like to join the school , from 3 years old upwards including adults, and maybe join in such opportunities or just learn to dance, classes will resume on 1st September.
For details of classes, call the school secretary on 915 812 055 after 1st September. Check out the Facebook page for videos and other examples of the school’s work, including highlights of the summer show Brisa do Amor.
Press release by Carolyn Ellison
