Kuipers Julie

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17 June 2015
Article by Lois Ann Baker

After 10 years of hard work and one setback, a local dancer is about to go on the trip of a life- time. Julia Kuipers has been dancing since she was 8 and this year she was invited as one of 10 from among 2,100 dancers to go the Paris Dance Tour.

Kuipers specializes in hip-hop and contemporary dance and recently was in Mont Tremblant to take part in the 5-6-7-8 Show- time competition. Kuipers said she has been
entered in the competition about five or six times.

We thought maybe last year I had a chance, but that didn't happen, she said. "And this year it was completely out of the blue.'' Kuipers said a few days before she received her invite to Paris, her friend Julianne Wray had been asked to go.

"So I thought good for her. She made it and it was all so awesome," said Kuipers who celebrated Wray's victory with the members of her dance troop. "But then we were leaving on Sunday and the director of my studio came-out and said I got invited to Paris so we had another celebration.''

"We found in Julia's case, Julia danced a solo, but she was in three group dances,'' said mom Dianne Kuipers."You're not as easily identifiable as when you do solos or duos. That was part of the thing. They were tracking her. The director knew Julia's name was on the list, but we didn't know what was happening.'' Kuipers said the judges of the
competition needed to add up all the points she made in order to determine if the invitation could be offered.

"All the teachers knew I was on the list and they were trying to hold us back from leaving,'' said Kuipers. A total of 30 dancers from three competitions are invited to the
Paris Dance Tour each year. While in Paris, the dancers will be taking part in four full days of dance workshops. "The workshops are with some really cool choreographers and then we are going to do some visiting,'' said Kuipers."I know we are having supper in
the Eiffel Tower. So that's going to be cool. I'm so excited for that,'' Kuipers said although they hadn't been given the names of the choreographers, they are all
acclaimed in Europe. "That alone is quite the honour,'' said Dianne.

Kuipers said she was really looking forward to the contemporary and the hip-hop dance workshops. "I'd like to see how different they do it over there,'' she said. One thing Kuipers is thankful for is she is able to share her Paris experience with Wray, a fellow dancer and good friend. "The minute we found out we were both invited, we said we had to go because we got invited together,'' she said."I'm looking forward to taking the workshops with her. It will be a lot of fun.''

The journey to Paris was not always an easy one. In 2010, Kuipers suffered a knee injury
that put her in the wings for about six months and almost quashed her chances of getting invited to Paris. "I had to take a half year off because of a knee injury," she
said.

The valedictorian of her high school class, Kuipers is planning on attending the University of Ottawa in the fall to study human kinetics to become a physiotherapist. The career path was chosen in part because of a teacher, but also because of her experience with the knee injury. "I had to go to physio and I just loved it.'' she said. "I thought that's what I want to do.''

Because the invitation didn't come with more than a $500 scholarship, Julia and her mom Dianne have to pay their own way to Paris and are already planning on holding some fundraisers both with Julie's dance club and on their own. "Just to say I was in a studio in Paris because I got invited is just awesome,'' said Kuipers. "I can't wait. I'm so excited:'