Chilliwack's Micaela Nyland danced her way to a silver medal at the World Dance Championships, with a dazzling debut that will be hard to top.
Nyland traveled to Mikolajki, Poland last week, and performed her first-ever solo ballet performance in the children's category.
Going against 11 other dancers, Nyland glided around the stage in flawless fashion. But Micaela and her mom, Jane, didn't know she'd won until the medal ceremony. They listened intently as the results were revealed.
“The sixth and fifth places were announced, and the moment fourth place was announced the entire room exploded into cheers,” Jane recalled. “It was a clean sweep for the Canadians, and my baby girl had a place on the podium.”
Eleven-year-old Rachel Kempenaar, representing Canada's Team East, won bronze. Representing Canada's Team West, Nyland was second. Her teammate, 11-year-old Clara Alexandrova was first.
Their competition included four dancers from Poland, two from Russia and one each from Serbia and the Czech Republic.
Nyland has been dancing since she was just three years old. She's been dancing competitively since she was seven years old. She is a student at Surrey's Flora Pigeau Dance Academy, and also dances for Chilliwack's Project Dance.
— Several Chilliwackians joined silver medalist Micaela Nyland at the World Dance Championships in Mikolajki, Poland.
Many competed in group dances.
Sierra Sward (Creative Outlet) was part of gold-medal winning teams in junior ballet small and junior ballet formations, adding a fourth place finish in junior jazz formation, a fifth place finish in junior modern small and a sixth place finish in junior modern formation.
Shelby Soderstrom’s (Project Dance) teams placed fourth in modern, fifth in large jazz and ninth in small jazz.
Kyera Fedoruk (Abbotsford Dance Center) placed fourth in modern and fifth in large jazz.
Each category had anywhere from 15 to 25 groups competing.