The 34th annual North Island Festival of Performing Arts (NIFPA) has concluded with another successful year.
End of festival was celebrated with a recent Variety Showcase that encompassed all disciplines of the festival — Strings, Speech Arts, Guitar, Vocals, Piano and Dance. It was followed the next day with an entertainment-packed dance gala.
Both showcases were successful fundraisers for the non-profit festival and they were packed with performances geared to provide a glimpse into the talent that occurred during the four-week festival.
Students from across the Island performed in an adjudicated audience-based format. The adjudicators selected students across all disciplines to go on to perform in the Performing Arts of BC Festival (provincials) and they will compete against representatives selected from 34 other local festivals across the province. Provincials are being held in Kamloops from June 5 to 9. Non-provincial awards were also granted and the festival could not have granted all these awards without the gracious donations that are given by the communities.
Congratulations to NIFPA provincial representatives from the Comox Valley: Christian Taylor (Junior Speech Arts), Jordan Taylor (Intermediate Speech Arts), Sahara von Hattenberger (intermediate Strings-Comox Valley), Ryan Dawson (Junior Musical Theatre-Comox Valley), Hannah Galway (Ballet Level I-Comox Valley), Desi Rekrut (Stage Level III-Comox Valley) and Kennedy Ledingham (Modern Level I- Comox Valley).
Other awards recipients from our community are provincial observers Shana Wolfe (Dance-Modern Level II), Kailey Tinga (Dance-Modern Level III), Madison Lagan (Dance-Junior Stage).
Dance High Marks have been awarded to Charissa Desjardins and Tayler Whitehead for Junior Ballet Modern as well as Meghan Caine and Paige Whitehead for Intermediate Ballet Modern. Shannon Caine and Hannah Galway received High Marks for Junior Stage.
Courtney Chalk received an award for Intermediate combined Ballet Stage. Primary Awards were handed to Cassidy Chalk (Ballet), Livia Eni (Stage), and Megan Jones (Jazz).
Fiddle- Leah Reimer, Max Sander-Segriff, Tara Warkentin, and Daisy Squires received awards in the fiddle discipline. Vocals and Musical Theatre- Maia Sampson received High Marks for the 16 and under category.
Monique Collins received the Primary Poetry Award (10 & under) and Bryce Benton received High Marks for 8 & under.
Special awards were granted to Jessica Novecosky, Daisy Squires, Hayley Waldhaus, Nathaniel Young, and Katelin Pater for Piano- Own Composition. Dancers Charissa Desjardins, Ariel Dunsmore, Marisa Hintz, Desi Rekrut, and Cody Rodgers for Young Choreographers.
CYMC awarded scholarships to Ryan Dawson for Musical Theatre and Sahara von Hattenberger for Classical.
Many thanks to RBC for their generous support for the festival this year. Under RBC’s Emerging Artist Support Project, a $5,000 donation was made to support the festival. Many extra awards were presented this year to up and coming artists allowing the festival to recognize them and support them to further continue with their learning.
— North Island Festival of Performing Arts