Four young dancers from Chatham-Kent (CK) and Windsor-Essex have been selected to represent Canada in the Dance World Cup.
The ten-day competition being held in Dublin, Ireland is recognized as the world’s largest international youth dance competition, with performers from over 50 countries coming to compete.
Among those on Team Canada are Finley Stedman from Tecumseh, Mattia Klinger and Lauren Murphy from Belle River, and Gabriella Hesse from CK, who are all members of the Pure Dance Academy.
“This is honestly such an honor, I'm so grateful that I have gotten chosen for this opportunity,” said Hesse. “I've been working so hard and working towards this for a long time.”
Hesse, 14, has been dancing at a competitive level since she was nine-years-old.
“I just feel like [dancing] it’s part of her; she just has the natural talent,” said Hesse’s mom, Kayla Williams. “I know I can speak on behalf of all the other moms, too. We're so excited and proud of the girls.”
According to Williams, the Dance World Cup is the second largest dance competition, behind the Olympics.
“It's pretty major and they have opportunities to take master classes from people in the industry like Abby Lee,” said Williams.
Hesse received a ‘golden ticket’ after her performance in Chatham at the Bedazzle dance competition. Three of these tickets were handed out at the competition and gave the recipients an automatic placement on Team Canada.
Hesse practices for roughly 20 hours a week on top of high school, and instead of finding it exhausting, it has been an outlet for her.
“Right now in my competitive dance life, I'm just working on improving,” Hesse added. “I would love to eventually be a backup dancer for a big name, that’s what I'm working towards.”
The girls will be holding a fundraiser in the spring for costs associated with the competition, before they head to Dublin for the performance from July 8 -19, 2026.
