Regina highland dancer heads to national championship for 7th straight year
'We're just so excited, it's such an honour to represent Saskatchewan,' Horejda said. 'We get to wear the Saskatchewan tartan, and it's a great opportunity to see all different parts of Canada over the years and meet lots of different people.
Horejda has had an extensive career in the sport, starting at just three-years-old.
Growing up, she has been training at the Summerfield School of Highland Dance, with owner Anette Summerfield, who has been her instructor since she was five-years-old.
Horejda has also brought her own skills to the teaching world, where she teaches kids as young as two years of age. She teaches two classes: the 'Tartan Tots,' which teaches kids ages 2-4 the basics of dancing.
'We'll have certain songs that teach the foundations of highland dance,' she said. 'Sometimes there's nursery rhymes and stuff, so we make highland dance movements into something fun and digestible for toddlers.'
She also teaches a competitive class, which has a range of ages.
It's a full circle scenario for Anette Summerfield, who has seen Horejda develop into a star, as well as someone for younger kids to look up to in the studio.
'She is the role model in our dance studio, and she is definitely the ambassador of highland dancing in my mind,' Summerfield said. 'All of our little ones look up to Miss Court. They strive for the same level of dancing that she is able to do.'
Since the school opened in 2013, Summerfield sees some similarities that have been passed down.
'Courtney probably encompasses what I would call the 'all around talent dancer,' where she has an eagerness to be competitive,' Summerfield said. 'I think what helps Courtney is that there's a softness that comes as well, which is her love for dance. So she can kind of soften that sort of competitive edge with her passion for dancing.'
The Scotdance Canada Championship Series begins on July 5-9 in Ottawa, where participants will be evaluated on four dances: the sword dance, highland fling, the highland reel and the seann triubhas.
Horejda and 18 Saskatchewan participants, including four Regina participants, hope to return home with a little hardware and some lifelong memories.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
29 minutes ago
- CTV News
Northern Irish flute band visits Guelph to mark major anniversary
Members of the Blair Memorial Flute Band from Northern Ireland posed for a photo in Guelph, Ont. on July 7, 2025. (Karis Mapp/CTV News) The sound of flutes and drums cascaded over Guelph as a band from Northern Ireland made a stop to mark a major milestone. Fifty members of the Blair Memorial Flute Band from Omagh, Northern Ireland visited Orange Hall on Waterloo Avenue on Monday night as part of a Canadian Tour to celebrate their 50th anniversary. 'A lot of our members in the band are working class,' David Swann, Band Master of the Blair Memorial Flute Band, explained. 'Canada's probably somewhere they've dreamed of going to and they haven't been able to go.' Band members woke up before the sun had risen to hop onto a plane. They touched down in Canada on Monday. After a brief stop for a photo opportunity in Omagh, Ont., southeast of Milton, they headed to Guelph. 'We do know some people who have left Northern Ireland and emigrated and set up roots here,' Swann said. 'We have family members, extended family, here. And just the beauty of Canada. We've seen it on the television – we know about Niagara Falls, we know the people are very hospitable and they're very kind and warm and you get a good welcome.' Members of Guelph's Orange Lodge lived up to that reputation, greeting the band with open arms. Blair Memorial Flute Band performance Guelph, Ont. Members of the Blair Memorial Flute Band from Northern Ireland performed in Guelph, Ont. on July 7, 2025. (Karis Mapp/CTV News) The Orange Lodge organization was formed in memory of King William III, Prince of Orange. Orange Halls can be found in Ireland, Scotland and parts of the United States and Canada. 'We want them to go back to Northern Ireland and to parade and to tell people in Northern Ireland and in Scotland about what a fantastic welcome they had here in Guelph and in Canada and get other people to come see what a wonderful country we live in,' Paul Allen, Worshipful Master of the Guelph Orange Lodge said. After their stop in the Royal City, the musicians be heading to Stratford tomorrow and then they're off to Niagara Falls for Thursday. The trip culminates in a performance in Toronto on Saturday, known as the Twelfth of July Orange Parade at the Ted Reeve Arena. Despite their busy schedule, Swann said they have booked tickets to visit Canada's Wonderland before they head back to Northern Ireland.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Dartmouth event celebrates Black beauty on Viola Desmond's birthday
A celebration Sunday in Dartmouth to observe the birthday of civil rights icon Viola Desmond also highlighted her contributions to the Black business community in Nova Scotia. A crowd of around 200 people gathered for the event on what would have been Desmond's 111th birthday. It was dubbed Being Black and Beautiful in Downtown Dartmouth and was hosted by the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission in collaboration with the Black Beauty Culture Association. "We're together celebrating being our own kind of beautiful," said Samantha Dixon Slawter, co-founder of the association. Desmond rose to national prominence for challenging racial segregation after being arrested for refusing to leave a "whites-only" area at a New Glasgow movie theatre in 1946. The theatre was segregated at that time, with Black patrons relegated to the balcony while floor seating was reserved for whites. But she was also a trained beautician who started her practice specifically to address the absence of hair and skincare products for Black women. She was in New Glasgow because she was on a business trip for her successful hair cosmetics company. Slawter said Desmond's legacy as a businesswoman is just as important as her activism. "Black people, we had to actually in some cases we had to do without a beautician. We had to do our own hair. And Viola came up with teaching beauty culture, especially to Black women and for Black women," she said. "She actually changed culture for us." Through the Black Beauty Culture Association, an organization with the stated goal of encouraging equality and equity in the beauty industry, Slawter said she is honouring an under-explored aspect of Desmond's legacy. Mary Lukindo, an apprentice under the Black Beauty Culture Hair Innovator program, said that prior to working for the Black Beauty Culture Association and learning from Slawter, she learned in school about Desmond's activism, but was unaware of her work as a beautician. That aspect of Desmond's life made her more identifiable in Lukindo's eyes, she said. "She really represents what most Black people are," Lukindo said. "We are multifaceted, we are passionate, we are talented." Tim Rissesco is the CEO of the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission, which helped organize Sunday's event. "With working with the Black community, we can encourage other Black entrepreneurs to come to downtown Dartmouth as a place to do business, and we also want to make sure that everybody feels welcome in downtown," Rissesco said. After Desmond's arrest, the Halifax businesswoman was left in jail for 12 hours before being fined $26 for tax evasion. The fine, based on the one-cent difference in tax paid for floor and balcony tickets, was the only way local authorities could legally justify her jailing. Desmond, who died in 1965, was given a posthumous apology and pardon for her arrest by the province in April 2010. She was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2017 and a $10 bill bearing her likeness was issued in November 2018.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Toronto's Rogers Stadium welcomes Coldplay with crowd control 'adjustments'
Thousands of fans are flooding through the gates of Rogers Stadium for the first of four shows by British rock band Coldplay, as organizers say they are "making adjustments" to improve crowd control at Toronto's newest outdoor music venue. Transit and venue staff were directing fans getting off the subway at nearby Downsview Park station, as long lines formed in front of the stadium gates where a busker performed Coldplay's hits. After the venue's inaugural concert last Sunday, some attendees said it took up to two hours to exit the stadium as the site and transit services seemed ill-equipped to handle the large crowds. Live Nation Canada, which operates Rogers Stadium in the city's north end, has said it would add more signage, lighting, staff and water stations to improve the fan experience. Barb Lucas, who arrived from Oshawa, Ont., for the Coldplay show, says she is "terrified" after hearing about the long lines for bathrooms, limited water and swaying grandstands at the stadium's first concert. Once the Coldplay concert is over, she says she's planning on staying in her seat until the crowds file out to avoid congestion. "I thought this was at Rogers Centre," she said, referring to the similarly named stadium in downtown Toronto. "Had I known it was here, we wouldn't have been going." Fan report long walks, large crowds Brian Ellis, who drove four hours from Detroit, said he booked his accommodations right beside the Rogers Centre, thinking the concert was at the downtown venue. Instead of being steps away from the venue as planned, Ellis drove about 25 kilometres to the Sheppard West transit station parking lot and then walked for half an hour to get to the Rogers Stadium gates. "It's interesting how far you have to walk to get in this place," he said. But fans such as Emilio DeAngelis, who travelled from Quebec City, said he's embracing the large crowds as part of the experience. "It's Coldplay. It's normal that there's a lot of people," he said. Live Nation Canada has said that the stadium's exit routes will be reconfigured to disperse crowds to all three nearby subway stations in order to mitigate crowding at the Downsview Park station, which also serves GO train passengers. The Toronto Transit Commission has said it will be adding more staff to its Downsview Park and Wilson stations on concert nights, while Metrolinx only said it would "closely monitor" GO train ridership levels for events at the stadium. Meanwhile, Ticketmaster has sent an email to Coldplay ticket holders advising them that cellular reception at Rogers Stadium gates "will be limited as this is a large-capacity venue."
