Dancer earns international opportunity

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This article was published 18/07/2019 (2369 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local girl has danced her way into the opportunity of a lifetime.

Hannah German, a 13-year-old dancer from Transcona, is headed to Athens, Greece this weekend to take part in an intensive, eight-day workshop, which culminates in a performance next weekend.

“I’ve travelled before for dance, but like road trips,” said German, who will attend Murdoch MacKay Collegiate in the fall. “I’m really looking forward to getting into the routine, starting early and going, and dancing somewhere else.”

German was one of 20 dancers from Canada and Australia who were invited to attend the master classes as part of the VIEW Dance Challenge. At the annual competition, German presented a contemporary jazz solo to Ruelle’s Madness, which she choreographed herself. 

“It was my first year choreographing anything by myself,” German said. “I was drawn to the song. I started dancing to it, then started choreographing it in my basement, step by step.”

Although she did the work herself, German said she was grateful for the guidance her teacher, Mickaela Maxwell, assistance director at the Doreen Bissett School of Dance.

“She really took me under her wing,” German said. “I would get stuck and I’d ask her what I should do, and she’d be like, ‘I don’t know, figure it out!’ Which is what I needed.”

German started dancing at the Doreen Bissett School in Transcona when she was three years old. 

“I was really bad, at first. I could never remember anything. I would just stand on the stage,” she recalled with a laugh. “One year, my parents said if I was just going to keep on standing there they would take me out of dance. So then I started taking it seriously.”

Ten years later, German considers herself a “pretty well-rounded dancer,” with an eye to working professionally down the line.

“I love just expressing myself,” German admitted. “Sometimes you can’t put how you feel into words, but dancing helps me express it. It’s fun. When you go to dance with your friends, it’s even better, because you’re all just doing the thing that you love, together.”

Because German is under 15, her mother Ainsley will be accompanying her to Greece as a chaperone, doubling the cost of the venture.

“It’s not cheap,” Ainsley admitted, adding that there are no government grants available to cover travel costs associated with dance. “But it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

At the Bissett School’s annual recital this year, a small fundraiser was held to help cover German’s travel costs, as well as those of two other tap dancers who will be travelling to Germany to compete later this month. A GoFundMe Campaign has also been set up to help.

For more information, or to contribute, visit www.gofundme.com/f/get-hannah-to-greece

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112

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