A Penticton bellydancer is headed to Quebec to compete in a televised dance competition.
Celine Blais, a dancer at Get Bent Yoga & Dance, will head to Gatineau, Que. this week in hopes of wowing a panel of judges with 90 seconds of her best Bollywood belly dancing to earn a spot on the show Revolution.
“I’m ready to show the world what a powerful art form belly dance can be. Belly dance embodies such beautiful elements: grace, power, elegance, confidence, and strength. However, along with these qualities, it carries a heavy sexual connotation and has been stigmatized for decades.” said Blais in a press release.
Get Bent Yoga & Dance, the studio which Celine has been a part of for over ten years, has made it their mission to elevate belly dance as a “respected and respectful art form,” the press release goes on to state.
Wendy Goudie, director at Get Bent, said she happy to see Blais spread her wings.
“To represent belly dance on a platform with dance styles seen as ‘formal or traditional’ is crucial in fulfilling this mission.”
As part of the show Revolution, which is Quebec’s largest televised dance competition, dancers of all styles square off against each other in hopes of winning a grand prize of a $100,000 scholarship. If she makes it into further rounds of the show she will spend two months filming in Quebec this summer.
Blais is no strange to the spotlight. She was the face of the I AM CANADIAN campaign in Vancouver this winter and over the past two years has performed across the country.
“Having belly dancers in their late teens and early twenties, that perform to Celine’s level, with her experience, is new to the art in Canada,” Goudie said in the press release.
Blais is currently in her second year of an apprentice program, where she is learning business skills and receiving support to break into the world of professional dance.
“At first it was scary to tell people that I was a dancer. When people ask what you are doing out of high school, they expect to hear about university or a mainstream job. Most people don’t take it seriously when I say I’m belly dancing. But it can be done. I’m doing it,” Blais stated.