News Archives

Festival of Trees saw lots of rhythmic gymnasts performing for crowds of people in Edmonton. All the Edmonton clubs generally participate in this annual event.

Congratulations to our Alberta team at Happy Cup in Belgium. It was an incredible competition for Bree Chelle, Amanda Greenwell and Hannah Parry, who competed against gymnasts from throughout Europe, including Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria. Special recognition goes to Hannah who finished 7th in the Ribbon final.

Deadline for registration is December 8. A maximum of 12 athletes per class are allowed, and will be assigned by flexibility level. Athletes will be informed as to which time block they will be assigned. Coaches are welcome to attend for the full day on December 28 in Calgary and December 30 in Edmonton. Coaches who are interested may also attend the Edmonton Children's Dance Theatre workshop on December 29th, and should contact Lee Porta directly to reserve a place. (dancetheatre@shaw.ca) The session on the 29th will focus entirely on dancers and dance flexibility. Thanks to Lee and to Dance Theatre for the opportunity to partner with them and use their facility for the Rhythmic Gymnastics Alberta day in Edmonton. Click here for registration form.

Taken from article by Stacy O'Brien - Red Deer Advocate
This year, CentreFest had a number of local performers, including the Red Deer Rhythmic Gymnastics Club.
Stephanie Fleming, 16, of Red Deer, performed with a group of other young women. Dressed in vibrant green costumes with decorations in their hair and painted faces, they looked like a group of fairies, showing off acrobatic and dance moves, while incorporating hula hoops, ribbons, ropes and even a ball into their routine.
Fleming has been doing gymnastics since she was four, but the group worked on the routine for just two weeks before trying it out on the Red Deer audience.
"I always seem to do better in front of crowds, especially when they are clapping," Fleming said.
CentreFest Festival Director Randy Butler estimated that the event drew around 13,000 people on Saturday and they were hoping for another 7,000 to 8,000 people to take part on Sunday. CentreFest is put on with the help of more than 50 volunteers and is supported by the Red Deer Downtown Business Association.

We are pleased to announce that Lauren Wig will be working at the RGA offices for the summer as the Program Assistant. We are looking forward to having Lauren take over some of Katie's responsibilities while Katie enjoys the start of her maternity leave.

Welcome home to the Edmonton RG Team from Warsaw in Poland and Budapest in Hungary with lots of medals and a successful All-Around Event (Junior). On the 3rd picture at Budapest CSEPEL CUP, Amanda Sha came in 3rd overall, Hannah Parry 4th and Amanda Greenwell 7th in all-around.

Provincial Gymnaestrada 2010 - South Zone Medley

Special Olympics Team from the Sprites Club in Edmonton - Winterfest Show with Alpha Rhythmic Gymnastics

Congratulations to Capital City Gymnastics Club, Edmonton Rhythmics, Sprites Special Olympics and the Alpha Rhythmic Gymnastics Club who shared a great display of our sport during the National Gymnastics Week demo at Londonderry Mall.

Recreational gymnastics from the Arabesque Rhythmics performed in the Olympic Torch Relay ceremonies in Devon on January 15th. Congratulations gymnasts on a great performance!

Amanda medalled in the team all-around event at the Junior Pan Am Gymnastics Championships at Havana, Cuba. St. Albert Gazette did a profile story on her. Click here for article.

Congratulations to all the Festival of Trees participants, December 27 and 28, 2009. Rhythmicana, Alpha, Sprites, Edmonton Rhythmics, Capital City and Elena's Rhythmic Gymnastics Clubs all performed during this very popular Edmonton event. It was great to hear lots of cheers and appreciation from the packed audience! More photos to come.

Rhythmic Gymnasts from Alberta continue to show impressive results at the 12th Annual Happy Cup in Ghent second international competition of the season. Hannah Parry, in her first major international competition, came 6th All-Around in her age group, and placed an impressive 6th in Hoop and 5th in Ball in finals. Bree Chelle, a Canadian National Team member, started her first season as a senior with a solid 12th place finish All-Around, and came 6th in the Hoop final. The team traveling to Ghent, Belgium for the 2009 Happy Cup also included 1 Pre-Junior (Alexandra Fomina, Montreal) and 3 juniors (Amanda Greenwell from Edmonton and Lourenca Agla and Noémie Guay, both from Montreal.) Judit Berecz of Edmonton was Canada's assigned judge, and Jacynthe Larivière of Montreal was the team coach.

Competition was strong from the rhythmic gymnastics strongholds of Bulgaria, Russia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaidjan, Japan and the Ukraine, and competitors represented twenty-seven different countries and over fifty different clubs.

Alberta is making a strong start to the season, with these results following the silver medals brought home by Elizabeth Kazakov (Calgary) and Amanda Sha (St. Albert) from the Junior Pan-American Championships. To see these top gymnasts compete for national titles, mark your calendars for June 2-6, 2010, and join us in Edmonton at Grant MacEwan Centre for Sport and Wellness.

Congratulations to the Canadian Team at the Junior Pan Am Championships. Team Silver, Three Group Golds (AA and two apparatus finals), Individual Bronze AA, 1 silver apparatus final and 3 bronze apparatus final medals.

Capital City's rhythmic gymnasts are sharing their Halloween loot at their upcoming parent's show.

Capital City Gymnastics Club shows how they combine rhythmic and artistic gymnastics in their recreational classes. Click here.

It is nice to see the PRISM program being used in the North West Territory. Details here.

Click here for great article about the non-competitive and competitive aspects of rhythmic gymnastics, and what parents should look for when assessing a rhythmic gymnastics club

Congratulations to Chantell Slatcher Hugill on her recent marriage to Scott Hugill. She is a long time gymnast with Norglen Gymnastics Club, treasurer of the club, and daughter of club president (and gymnast) Dwila Slatcher.

A fully packed house of audience and lots of gymnasts is a sign of an awesome show - 46 coaches and 230 gymnasts at the provincial gymnaestrada with News coverage! Please click on picture to see the picture gallery for the event.

Results from the Western Regional Championships in Winnipeg have been posted.
Congratulations to Team Alberta, leaping away with 57 medals! (19 Gold, 25 Silver, 13 Bronze) Our National Stream Seniors "owned" the podium (Caitlin Marchak 1st, Olivia Jack 2nd, Caitlane Tarun 3rd, Hannah Whitford 9th), while our PreNovices and Novices (Marina Lavrentier 4th, Nina Pavlovic 7th, Hannah Parry 2nd, Iveta Milciute 5th) blew the competition away with stellar performances. Our Juniors rocked the rotation by taking the two top spots (Amanda Sha 1st, Bree Chelle 2nd, Amanda Greenwell 4th, Katarina Yakimchuk 12th, Leah Gasparovic 13th, Maddy Fraser 18th) and our Provincial Stream athletes twirled around the competition.(Gayle Laird 2nd, Natalia Pavlovic 3rd, Lilian Dang 10th, Nicole Shteinbah 13th, Londyn Franko 14th, Jenna Matijevic 20th, Brooklyn Fedoretz-Maxwell 1st, Erica Teghtmeyer 6th, Mathilde Ruth 8th, Caitlyn French 1st, Meika Wong 11th, Sylvia Cao 13th, Jenny Wang 14th, Chelsea Tran 15th, Katelyn Malayko 6th, Kristin Dombroski 7th, Cecilie Fenger-Anderson 2nd, Andrea Virag 3rd, Isabella Englert 5th)

Bree Chelle, Elizabeth Kazakov and Olivia Jack made the national team! Results are available here. More news and pictures to follow.

Gymnasts of all levels gathered in Calgary for the Provincial Championship hosted by Chinook Rhythmics. Results are available here. Pictures of the awards are available at Tom Hamp's Prairie Light Photography website:

• Friday
• Saturday Morning
• Saturday Afternoon

Please also mention that competition images are available by downloading from a private webpage for each gymnast. Images are at full resolution, so can be printed up to poster size, without copyright marks. Cost of each gymnast's package, which contains 20-40 images depending on suitability, is $45.00 + GST = $47.25. Payment can be made by VISA.

Parents and gymnasts should please contact Tom directly at TomHamp@PrairieLight.org. (On request, a set of contact sheets (thumbnails) of the images can be made available prior to ordering.)

Special Olympic athletes in pursuit of their personal goals in St. Albert. Click here for full story from The Journal - July 2nd 2009.
(Photo courtesy of The Journal).

Alpha Rhythmics sent two AGG groups to attend the Red Ribbon AGG Invitational in Markham, Onatario on June 20, 2009. Alpha also attended the Fort Worth Sport and Cultural Festival June 22-28. They achieved spectacular results in both events. For a detailed report, please click here.

Thank you Alex for being such a great representative of rhythmic gymnastics in Canada both before and during the Olympics!

A nice article from NBC about rhythmic gymnastics. Click here.

Congratulations to Olivia Jack and Caitlin Marchak for their Gold and Silver performances at Western Regionals.

Congratulations to all competitors - you were amazing! Tom Hamp - our incredible photographer - has picture packages for sale. Please contact him directly at Prairie Light Photography (TomHamp@PrairieLight.org) to purchase your competition package of photographs. To order photos or video, please follow the instructions here.

Congratulations to all athletes, coaches and volunteers. For results please click here. For a slideshow of the event, please click here. (The file is 5M in size and so will take a little while to download).

Congratulations to Capital City Gymnastics Club for their fun rhythmic gymnastics spring show. Alpha Gymnastics Club, the Capital City Gym club and Connie Bramer’s RG classes all joined together at the end to do a small scarf routine. Participants ranged in age from 3 to 76!

Results from Elite Canada have been posted! Elizabeth Kazakov of Calgary placed eighth AA in Junior (with 6th place in both Hoop and Ball. Bree Chelle is in 10th place. Amanda Sha placed 13th, (8th place in both Clubs and rope). The seniors placed well in a tight senior competition, with Olivia Jack (15th), Caitlin Marchak (16th) and Caitlane Tarun (18th). Congratulations to the gymnasts and coaches who placed in the top 10! They will be meeting with the national team advisory team immediately after Elite Canada.

Photos by Brian Neufeld at the Edmonton Rhythmics Gala.

The University of Alberta Panda and U of A Bears basketball teams were treated to a demo by Alpha’s AGG and Performing teams.

Congratulations to all who participated in LA Lights 2009. We look forward to posting photos of our Alberta gymnasts, but here is a taste of who they were able to see when they weren't competing. Photos courtesy of Tom Theobold.

National Gymnastics Week celebrates the positive benefits of gymnastics in all its forms. National Gymnastics Week provides your school, club, or organization with the perfect opportunity to promote its activities to the local community. Join clubs and gymnasts from across the country in a celebration of GYMNASTICS!

Alberta clubs will be celebrating by taking part in activities through the week of February 9-16. Some clubs have already registered their National Gymnastics Week activities with RGA. Gymnasts will be participating in Alberta Winter Games (including both Rhythmic and Artistic Gymnastics competition) and there will be demonstrations at AWG 2008 by Parkland Rhythmics, Alpha Rhythmic Gymnastics and Sprites Special Olympians. Gymnasts ranging in age from 6 – 75 will participate in AWG as competitors and performers. Other events throughout the province include:

Illusions RG Club will be performing at Northlands Agricom for the Lunar New Year and at West Edmonton Mall, just prior to the start of National Gymnastics Week.

Be sure to send your photos to Rhythmic Gymnastics Alberta (rga@rgalberta.com) for inclusion on the website and in upcoming newsletters..

Fun meet at the Talisman Centre in Calgary

Gymnasts performing in front of families and friends.

Edmonton Rhythmic Gymnastics at West Edmonton Mall demo

Congratulations to the first two recipients of the Brittney Rose Hunt Memorial Award. Presented by Rosemary Hunt, this is a peer award was based on the consistent qualities of kindness and good sportsmanship shown by national level gymansts. Amanda Sha and Dakota Fancey received this award based on the votes of provincial and national level gymnasts in Alberta zones with national level gymnasts. Thank you to the Hunt family for donating the trophies in Brittney's memory. The trophies were specially commissioned in Brittney's memory, and represent Brittney's rhythmic gymnastics skillsfrom her last competitions in 2006. Thanks to Alberta artist, Everett Keogh.