Sisters win Fiddle & Stepdance Championships
It was a Canada Day to remember for sisters Colleen and Alanna Jenish of Oshawa. They captured the 34th Southwestern Ontario Open Fiddle and Stepdance championships this past weekend at the annual event held at the Tavistock & District Recreation Centre.
Colleen, 24, took home the Cliff Adams Memorial Trophy and $1,000 cash as the Open Stepdance champion. Alanna Jenish, 22, earned the Graham Townsend Trophy and $1,000 cash in the Open Fiddle category. Alanna also received the Don Carswell’s Memorial Waltz Award as the Open Fiddler with the highest points awarded for her waltz. To top it off the girls also won the Duet Fiddle category for $300 cash and the Bob and Betty Tanner Trophy.
Sisters Alanna (left) and Colleen Jenish of Oshawa.
Kyle Waymouth of Stratford was second in open stepdance taking home $800 cash and the CJCS Trophy. Last year’s champion Becky Reid of Arnprior was third, Charlotte Clare of Orangeville was fourth and Emma March of Pembroke placed fifth.
Second place in open fiddle went to Celine Murray of Dorchester, third to Andrew Dawydchak of Etobicoke, fourth to Paul Lemelin of Val Therese and fifth to Emma March of Orangeville.
This was the first time back to the Tavistock contest in four years as the Jenish sisters have been studying at the University of Toronto. Colleen received her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology while Alanna earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Music and will be attending Teacher’s College in Oshawa.
The Jenish sisters have quite a record at the Southwestern Ontario event over the years and had competed ten years continuously from 2003 to 2012. They took home prizes in the duet fiddle category four times and twice in the junior duet category. The last time competeing here in Tavistock, Colleen placed first in the 19-49 Fiddle bracket in 2012 while Alanna placed second in the Fiddle category for 16-18 year olds. The pair have taken home many fiddle and step prizes in all age categories over the years. Alanna took first in stepdance in 2009 and 2nd in fiddle in the 13-15 year olds while Colleen was first in stepdance and third in fiddle for the 16-18 year olds. 2008 saw Colleen win first place in the 18 & under step dance category and fifth in fiddle; Colleen earned fourth place in step. Colleen was the 13-15 year olds stepdance champion in 2006 while Alanna picked up third in step and fifth in fiddle in the 12 & under class.
In the Open Group Stepdance class, ElectriCALL SToRM took home the grand prize of $500 and the Nieberlein Family Trophy. The group consists of Clara Roth of RR 2, Tavistock and Stratford residents Leo Stock, Anna Tigani and Louisa Mueller. The group placed second in their last two years as Junior Group Stepdancers. Second place went to UnReel of Orangeville, third to Rhythm of Kinburn and fourth to Can’t Stop Stepping of Stratford.
The youngest fiddler in this year’s competition was Tate Shortt, 6, of Drayton while the youngest step dancer was Lucy McFarlane, 4, of Stratford. The Junior Group Stepdance winners were Stratford Step Sisters with second place to Steptopia of Kinburn, third to Step This Way of Stratford and fourth to One More Time of Tavistock.
Kensington Ische of Stratford was the 9 & under Stepdance winner while Caoimhe Doyle of Oshawa was first in the fiddle category. Joelle Crigger and Charlene VanBarr of Toronto were the Junior Duet Fiddle winners. For 12 & under, Lucas Candelino of Kitchener was the fiddle winner and Andrew Herwig of Eganville was the step dance champion. For 13-15 years Joelle Crigger of Toronto was first in fiddle and Katie Paradis of Milverton was first in stepdance. For 16 to 18 year olds, Diana Dawydchak of Etobicoke was first in fiddle and Maria Peppler of Orangeville first in stepdance.
In the adult stepdance class, first place went to Marlene Hundert, Stratford for 50 & over; Jonathan Young, Kitchener for 30-49 and Katie Luckhardt of Milverton for 19-29. For adult fiddle classes 19-49 the winner was Courtney Drew of Cookshire-Eaton, Quebec; Bill Smith of Dunnville for 50-64; and Anton Toporowski of Burlington for 65 & over.
Competitor numbers were up again this year with 164 people registering. In 2016 there were 147 and in 2015 there were 138 registered.
Emcee once again for this year’s event was Judy Waymouth. Judges for the fiddle finals were Shane Cook, Greg Henry and Tyler Beckett and for the stepdance finals were Sarah Robinson, Tiffany Fewster Salt and Rhodina Turner. The house band musicians were Melika Lemelin and Dan Mighton.
– 30 –
Open Group Stepdance Champions at this year’s 34th Annual SWO Fiddle & Stepdance Championships were ElectriCALL SToRM – Clara Roth, Leo Stock, Anna Tigani and Louisa Mueller.
Kyle Waymouth of Stratford was second in the open stepdance class.
Kyle Waymouth of Stratford was second in the open stepdance class.
Last year’s champion Becky Reid of Arnprior was third in the open stepdance class.
Open Stepdance champion Colleen Jewish of Oshawa performs.
Emma March of Pembroke was 5th in the open fiddle class.
Charlotte Clare of Orangeville was fourth in the open stepdance class.
Celine Murray of Dorchester was second in the open fiddle class.
Celine Murray of Dorchester was second in the open fiddle class.
Paul lemelin of Val Therese, Quebec was 4th in the open fiddle class.
Andrew Dawydchak of Etobicoke was third in the open fiddle class.
Fiddle class judges, from the left, Shane Cook, Tyler Beckett and Greg Henry confer with statistical Marianne Huitema for the final scores.
_____________________________________
Photos by the Tavistock Gazette for Wednesday, July 5, 2017. For colour prints, please contact the Gazette at tavistockgazette@rogers.com or call 519-655-2341.
Tavistock Public School’s Grade 8 graduating class includes, from the left, seated: Isla Romano, Brianna Giroux, Maisy Weicker, Danielle Bast, Brooklyn Ross, Melanie Bender, Danielle Coddington; second row: Grace Sullivan, Emma O’Rourke, Chloe Hopkins, Nicole Martin, Hailey McMahon, Amy Danen, Patricia Suteu, Jordan Bartlett, Brooke Musgrave, Lindsey McWhirter, Mackenzie Longmire, Claire Yantzi; back row: Izac Blum, Sam Patton, Kaleb Albrecht, Michael Ropp, Dylan Haight, Owen McArthur, Carter McKay, Justin Nuessler, Kyle Burchatzki, Ben Reibling, Brady Griffi, Owen Hill, Caleb Kimpel.
Kim Wettlaufer and her daughter, Chloe, enjoy the primary picnic in the pavilion.
Left to right, Lexi Schultz, Lyric Brighton and Maisy Moore at the Tavistock Public School primary picnic.
Grade 3 boys, Rowan Bartlett, Cooper Yantzi, Scott Schweitzer and Tucker Otto enjoy some relaxation in the pavilion at the Tavistock Public School primary picnic on Wednesday, June 23rd.
Grade 3 students Jenna McWhirter, Zoey Shantz and Alexis Mueller keep warm at the Tavistock Public School primary picnic on Wednesday, June 23rd.
Hogg Construction, Thamesford, employees Mitchell Fitzmorris rakes out the ground as Jason Arts and Jake Elliott lay sod on the newly reconstructed Jacob Street East in Tavistock last Thursday morning.
Scotiabank’s Jimmy Phimsavanh, Hickson Trail Committee member Sharon Skevington and Sharon Walkom of Scotiabank.
Carolyn Wilker displays her new book which is available at carolynwilker.ca
Other stories in this week’s edition:
Read Full Post »
