X Company members danced their way to silver and gold recognition last weekend at the South Eastern Manitoba Festival in Steinbach.

Joel Byers is an X Company instructor who also performed on both contemporary and jazz teams. He talks about how he felt during the performances.

"I was kind of shocked. I went on stage extremely nervous," says Byers. "When I got on stage it went really well, and then they said we got high silver. I thought, wow, this is awesome! And then for contemporary, we went out there and gave it our all and got the gold. I was extremely surprised by that as well. It was awesome."

Byers says it makes him feel proud to able to represent X Company as an instructor and dancer. He notes they competed against five groups in the Jazz category, and for Contemporary they were one of four.

Katrina Macauley also competed during the festival, and enjoyed entertaining.

"Overall, I really love performing," says Macauley. "Going to a competitive thing is just another element and a little extra added challenge. It was a really great experience."

Macauley notes the groups performed one routine in each category and were judged on a variety of things.

"They score us on a few different categories," Macauley says. "Of course there's technique, but there's other elements that are important, too. There's our musicality, overall performance, and that sort of thing."

Joel Byers and Katrina Macauley (Photo by Renee Lilley)

X Company's Jazz Group at the SEMF (Submitted Photo)