The Jasper Dance Program has come full-circle as Serana Wilson prepares to leave for school on the coast, in January.

Serana, along with her 70 peers in the program, will be performing their annual Christmas concert on Dec. 12, to celebrate the half-way mark of the program’s 2010/11 run, and the holiday season. 

The Jasper Dance Program has been running since 2000 – the year Serana was finally old enough to take her first classes with instructor Nicole Koebel. It’s been an entire decade of dancing, but Nicole still remembers Serana as a three-year-old toddler copying her mother’s dance moves.

“[She] had a gorgeous point when [she was] three,” Nicole laughs. 

Nicole has a connection to the Wilson’s that could only happen in Jasper. Serana’s mother Shawnee taught Nicole and her sister dance for 10 years when they were teenagers in Jasper in the ’70s. 

Serana began dancing in the program at age four and has taken a variety of different styles over the years. She has a hard time deciding which is her favourite, but narrows it down to contemporary and hip hop. 

The Grade 10 student is leaving for Shawnagan Lake School after Christmas, to attend the dance program there. Besides adjusting to life outside of Jasper, Serana will have to get used to a different, more intense style of dancing.

“It’s going to be a lot of different dancing,” she said. 

But before she heads for the coast, Serana will have one last chance to show Jasper what she has accomplished over the 10 years learning to dance here. She will perform a solo and several group dances – six to be exact. This year she will perform a difficult bollywood-style dance as well. 

With one less student, Nicole’s schedule certainly won’t get any less hectic. She splits her 70 students between classes from Sunday to Friday at the Jasper Activity Centre. She has one other instructor who takes one class off her list.

“This year I am teaching a lot of classes,” she says. 

Nicole is looking forward to the annual Christmas concert, but as she starts to tick off the things on her growing to do list, the Dec. 12 deadline seems to be looming. 

The concert will feature all of Nicole’s students, from toddlers right up to Grade 12. 

“There’ll be something for everyone,” Nicole said. 

Styles will travel the world, with routines featuring African, bollywood, tap and hip hop styles. 

Classes will restart in the New Year, with registration the first week of January. This year the program is starting a week early. Students continuing into 2011 will switch styles and learn something completely new. 

“Some things change,” Nicole said. 

She will also be teaching a number of new adult classes focusing on fun and fitness. A new favourite this year has been the belly dance, zumba and pilates class. The class is set to fun, fast, latin music. The zumba style provides cardio, pilates strengthens the core and belly dancing tones the body. 

“It was great,” Nicole said. “It’s fitness but it’s all to latin music, really high energy.”

The class ranged from 18-year-olds to women in their 50s. Nicole said no dance experience is necessary, as the class begins with basic movements. Many of the students have found the easy steps fun, and were surprised at their own abilities.

“It’s like going to a party,” Nicole said.

The annual Jasper Dance Program Christmas Concert will take place at the Jasper Activity Centre at 5 p.m. on Dec. 12.