Fifteen-year-old Jayden Adler will be heading to Philadelphia Oct. 8th to Stage 2 of the qualifying process for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
“My mind hasn’t really processed it yet,” said Adler, adding that it’s nerve wrecking, but exciting at the same time.
Growing up in Lacombe, Adler started dancing in Grade 5 and has been hooked ever since.
She started dancing at a studio in her hometown, and it was a friend of hers who told her to try out hip hop classes.
“It tried it with her and I thought it was fun so I stayed with it, and it was the only one that I stayed with through all the years. I went through two other classes to do jazz and Acro and all that kind of stuff, but I never really liked it. Hip hop was the only one I liked,” she said.
It was one year at a competition that her previous studio went to that she saw a group on stage who she thought was amazing, which, flash forward to today, led her to dancing at Pound It Dance Studio in Red Deer, her home away from home.
“They were doing popping and they were animating and everything and so my mom did research on them and found that they were doing a summer camp that year. I went to the summer camp and fell in love with them so that’s how I got to this studio and I’ve been here for two years. This is my third year.”
Her mother Sharon said she’s very proud of her for making it to the second stage of the qualifying process.
“We’ve watched her grow as a dancer and her confidence and ability has really expanded since she started with Pound It,” she said.
Owner of B1 and Pound it Dance Studio and coach to Adler, Rico Martinez shared his thoughts and excitement on the dancer’s accomplishment.
“I’m just beyond proud of her. This is what we do and we love what we do, and our goal is for these kids to achieve something great, and she’s done it in a very short period of time, which is really great. It makes us super proud, especially because she’s from our studio and it’s a big deal,” he said.
Martinez said it’s also great to see, as this is the first year Breaking Olympics is taking place around the world.
There will be 99 girls travelling to Philadelphia in October, and Adler happens to be in the top three already, representing Canada. She is also the only one from Alberta going to compete.
Although Adler doesn’t know exactly what it is that draws her to this particular style of dance, she believes it to be more than just dance.
“It’s also a culture, so that gives it a lot more interest to me – there’s story behind it,” she said.
She added that’s not to say other dance styles don’t have a story, but every move in breakdancing has a story behind it.
“Every OG, which is an original gangster, they’re like the fathers of hip hop, they come, they teach us and that’s something that you don’t really experience much, so it’s really cool.”
As good practice for her upcoming qualifying process, Adler will be taking part in the Street Style Dance Camp, running Aug. 21st to 27th at Pound It. While there, she will be in contact with some great dancers, including Poppin Pete, Storm, Caleaf and Buddha Stetch.
If Adler does successfully in Philadelphia, she will then move onto the third round in Japan. If successful there too, she will go onto the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.
Adler will be attending Lacombe Composite High School this fall.
