Tom Henihan
Express Staff
@SmokyRiverExprs
On the afternoon of December 5, Smoky River Dance Society (SRDS) put on its third annual performance at the Villa Beausejour.
The 45-minute recital was greatly appreciated by the residents, family and community members who attended.
Approximately 50 dance society students of all levels and ranging in age from the very young to approximately 17 years old, performed various dance routines to Christmas themed music.
As in previous years, the show was well coordinated with swift transitions from one group to the next and everyone performed with fluency and charm.
“This is our third time coming to the Villa. It is something we decided to start because the community gives us so much and we wanted to give something back to the community,” says SRDS board member Jeannine Labrecque. “The kids like to perform and the seniors enjoy seeing the dance so it is a win-win situation. It gives the kids something to look forward to before we start rehearsing for our festivals and our recital in the spring.”
This is the SRDS’ fifth season, so the oldest group this year will be the dance societies first graduating class.
“They started pretty much the same year that we started,” says Labrecque. “We also have kids who started dancing at seven and eight years old, who are now twelve and thirteen so there is a sense of real continuity.
“The reason we got together in the first place is that we had daughters who wanted to dance, we were just a group of moms and our girls wanted to dance so we started the dance society.”
With the success of the annual performances at the Villa Beausejour, Smoky River Dance Society also did its first performance at Manoir du Lac on Friday December 8.
