Dr. Hendrik van der Watt and partner Kasha Pinel wowed the audience with their stunning dance moves Saturday night on their way to being crowned champions of Bonnyville's first Dancing with the Stars competition.
“It was awesome. That was the best we have ever performed the whole routine,” said Pinel, an instructor with the Keeping Time School of Dance (KTSD).
The pair performed a Broadway Jazz styled routine to Grease's Summer Nights, even wearing themed outfits and bringing in 1950's diner-styled props.
“I don't think you can really place an reward on the amount of fun we had; that is what I am going to take out of tonight, whether we won or not it was a lot of fun,” said van der Watt.
Their routine hit a snag midway through when van der Watt tossed Pinel so high she got caught up in one of the decorative streamers hanging from the ceiling. Both dancers were able to shake it off and finish the routine unscathed.
“The lift we did when we took the ribbons down; I had never got her that high before,” said van der Watt. “The adrenaline was pumping. Everybody brought it tonight and it was a lot of fun to be a part of it.”
Van der Watt and Pinel won the audience over with their throws, lifts, spins and rhythm and were awarded first place after those in the crowd voted for their favourite pair. Mayor Gene Sobolewski and Sandy Sunborg who waltzed to Welcome to Mystery; Kyle Moore and Gennice Spanier tap danced to Emergency; and Cody Malbeuf and Heidi Silver who performed a jazz routine to Black Betty were the other three pairs in the competition.
Moore and Spanier tapped their way to a second place finish, being edged out by van der Watt and Pinel for the title.
Each pair of dancers spent the past few months working on their routines practicing as much as they could. Van der Watt and Pinel practiced once a week for about an hour trying to nail down their routine.
“He was awesome. He picked up everything I gave him really quickly,” said Pinel of van der Watt. “Any ideas I had he was totally on board with. He was really awesome to work with.”
All of the local “stars” came into the competition with little to no previous dance experience meaning the KTSD instructors had their work cut out for them during the weeks leading up to the main event.
“It was hard work. I thought you needed to be fit but apparently you need to be extremely fit,” said van der Watt.
While the event was built around the Dancing with the Stars competition featuring the four pairs of dancers, students from the Keeping Time School of Dance took the floor in between the “stars” routines and showed off their moves. A group of 40 dancers between the ages of five and 18 performed their routines as a warm-up before heading off to competition.
“This was awesome for the kids to get a dress rehearsal in front of all of their friends and family before they head off to competition,” said Pinel. “I thought the kids did an amazing job. There was great energy from the crowd.”
All of the money raised from the event will go to the competition team to help them pay their fees and costumes. This year the team will be competition in Edmonton, Cold Lake and Saskatoon.
“I think it went really awesome,” said Pinel. “All of the feedback I have heard has been really amazing. People are talking about next year already.”