Maple Ridge dancers to represent Canada in acro at world Mexican competition

A trio of girls from Maple Ridge will be representing Canada in acro dance in Mexico next year.

Mia Chambers, 12, Brooklyn Wiseman, 16, and Nyima Hussein, 14, will be competing in the dance style that combines classical dance elements with acrobatics.

The girls describe it as a combination between gymnastics and dance.

Qualifiers were held Easter weekend in Langley, where the girls competed against around 200 other dancers from across the province for a spot on the national team.

They had to demonstrate their skills in the basics, like performing the splits, front and back walkovers, and other standard skills that are in all routines.

“We did across the floor like tumbling, back hand springs and aerials, and back flips,” explained Hussein.

Then they had to show their proficiency in trick variations.

“They’re basic tricks and then they change them to look cool,” Hussein noted, giving the example of a front walkover where you would put your hands on the floor and then kick your legs over your body. A variation on this would be to spiral your legs – like helicopter rotor blades – before standing up, said Hussein.

Hussein’s mother said the qualifying competition was more like an open audition. Competitors from every age group were invited to perform variations and tricks across the floor all together. From the group about 20 were chosen for the national team in three age categories: children team, junior team, and adult team.

However, the world competition was initially supposed to be held in August but was moved to July next year, because of the war in Ukraine.

“It got cancelled because the European countries didn’t want to come,” explained Kendall Hussein.

With the new date, teams have more time to prepare, and the Canadian team is hard at work.

The girls have been studying acro since about three-years-old. Chambers, who also takes lessons at Peggy Peat School of Dance in Maple Ridge, and Wiseman, who goes to Pulse Dance Centre in Port Coquitlam and Circus Lab in Langley, currently spend upwards of 18 hours a week practising. Hussein, who also takes dance at Rise 21 Dance Company in Port Coquitlam, spends upwards of 28 hours a week practising. The trio also study at Blue Crane Contortion in Maple Ridge.

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For the upcoming competition, the national team, made up of dancers from across B.C., gets together once a month in the Lower Mainland to practise together. Other provinces representing Canada go to other dance competitions around the world, explained Hussein’s mom.

Wiseman explained acro is her favourite style of dance.

“I just find it really fun and exciting, it’s just, like, what I enjoy the most,” said Wiseman, who shared that she has always enjoyed being upside down and enjoys hand-balancing the most. She will be competing with the large group of about 20 dancers, a small group, and she will also be performing a solo.

“I just think it’s really fun and you get to do so many things,” added Chambers who enjoys the contortion aspect. “And it’s like so much different than other dances,” she said, adding that she will be competing with the large group.

Hussein – who will be competing with the large group, a small group of about eight performers, and in a duo – enjoys the partnering element of the dance.

“There’s really cool lifts. You are able to go upside down and a lot more tumbling, like flips,” features that are not performed in other styles of dance, she said.

The trio are not only excited about going to Mexico and possibly enjoying the beaches while they are there, but also meeting other competitors from around the world.

They are excited about trading items from their country like pins, flags, and jackets.

“And some people may trade stuff from their country,” elaborated Wiseman.

The IDO World Acrobatic Championships are scheduled to take place July 22 and 23 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.