In under a year, a Prince George dancer will be taking the world stage in Prague for the 2024 Dance World Cup.
10-year-old Abigail Travers was selected to Team Canada’s Junior Division for tap dance after a strong showing at a festival in Edmonton earlier this year.
When they heard the reaction, Abby and Ashleigh Travers, Abby’s mother, said they were “honestly in disbelief.”
Abby has been dancing at Prince George’s Excalibur Theatre Arts for “5 or 6 years,” and is “super excited” to travel to Europe next summer to compete.
“I am most excited for meeting people and dancing in a different place that is not just here at home,” Abby told My PG Now.
“I usually practice, right now about 3 times a week,” Abby said – outside of regular dance classes.
That practice schedule will be kicked up a notch over the next 10 months, with regular trips to either Vancouver or Edmonton required to meet and practice with western members of team Canada.
“It looks like we will have to travel to Vancouver, two or three days in Vancouver training with the world performers dance team. They’ll be training in tap with other people who are in the group,” Ashleigh explained. “Abby will get to meet the rest of the team just before they travel to Prague when we travel to Toronto.”
Ashleigh has set up a GoFundMe page to try and help cover the costs of travel and accommodations that will come with these regular trips.
“I quit my job two years ago so I could study to become a teacher,” she explained. “This year I am starting in the education program and can’t work” – “and that kind of takes up a lot of money,” Abby added.
They have also been selling crafts and collecting bottles as additional fundraising efforts. Ashleigh predicted the total cost of going to world’s will be around $10,000.
You can find a link to the GoFundMe page here.
Abby is not the only Excalibur dancer going to worlds in Prague next year, their friend, Faiyth Boldt, will also be going to Europe as a part of Team Canada, competing in the lyric division.
You can read about her here.