The William Glesby Centre was on 'poente' earlier this week when the Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancers hit the stage. 

Vanessa Leonard is the director of the Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program and mentions what the program is all about. 

"This program is a 2-year postsecondary program where students are transitioning from being a student into professional dancers. They train as a group. But, they also work a lot with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company and join in their big productions of Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, for example."

She mentions that seeing all of her students dance in front of the City of Portage la Prairie makes her feel so proud. 

"They've trained so hard for this and it's so great for them to be able to do many performances on this tour. We have 12 performances in 12 different places throughout Manitoba. That alone is an amazing experience for them because they need that stage time to continue their training and to keep growing as artists."

 Stephanie Dunn, Executive Director at Prairie Fusion Arts and Entertainment, says they are so thankful to have these dancers come out. 

"It's important for us to bring community things that we might not see normally. It's a good opportunity for people to come and see a professional ballet without maybe the intimidation factor of going to a big hall," she continues. "We just feel it's so important for our dance students and any other dance or aspiring dance students in our community to be able to see what a professional dancing does look like. It's hard to chase a dream if you don't know that dream."

They plan on continuing to bring events like this to Portage for many years to come.