Gymnaestrada is set to take Richmond by storm this week.
Gymnaestrada combines the beauty of dance with the excitement of gymnastics skills and acrobatics. It provide participants the opportunity to be part of a team and display their gymnastics and dance talent. Teams can be as small as 10 or up to as many as 100 gymnasts.
The Richmond Olympic Oval is not only hosting Canadian Gymnaestrada, starting on Wednesday, but thre will also be performances by various groups at the Steveston Salmon Festival on Canada Day.
While it might not be too familiar in North America, this non-competitive form of gymnastics is immensely popular world-wide, especially in Europe.
The World Gymnaestrada takes place every four years with the last event held in 2015 in Finland which attracted 50 countries and 21,000 participants. The 2019 Worlds are slated for Austria.
Canadian Gymnaestrada is a national celebration of gymnastics and movement where participants from across the country come together for performances, workshops and festivities.
This year's theme is "Diversity through Movement" which captures the true nature of the event.
Teams will demonstrate their physical, technical and creative abilities while showcasing traditional and non-traditional gymnastics disciplines and apparatus. Just like the Canadian landscape, each group contributes unique ideas, concepts and movements and this diversity and creativity is what makes the Canadian Gymnaestrada a special and memorable event for all involved.
Following the opening ceremonies on Thursday night and a couple of days of rehearsals, performances are slated to get underway on Friday morning at the Oval with clubs from Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. slated to participate right through until Saturday afternoon.
An action-packed schedule is set for the Salmon Festival, with 26 five-minute performances on the Canada Day stage, starting at 1 p.m.
Among the teams slated to participate is Richmond’s own Ultra Gymnastics Club which has been offering its popular gymnaestrada program for many years. The club’s provincial team will be doing a ribbon performance at 3:42 p.m.
Gymnaestrada has also been a big part of nearby Delta Gymnastics. The club sent a team to the last world event and hopes to be selected to go to Austria next year.
“We love offering Gymnaestrada at our gym as it gives participants a chance to bond and experience the camaraderie and pleasure of performing as one team,” says Jennifer Watts-Turner, Delta Gymnastics team manager. “It is a celebration of movement that encourages creativity for male and female gymnasts of all ages. Each person brings something special to the team which allows for a very rich and multi-facetted performance.”
