Heather Dennis will be heading to Prague later this month to take part in International Dance Organization (IDO) World Tap Dance Championship
Heather Dennis has spent nearly her entire life in a dance studio, but this fall the 35‑year‑old tap instructor from Barrie will step onto one of the biggest stages in her sport — representing Canada at the International Dance Organization (IDO) World Tap Dance Championship in Prague.
Dennis, who has spent the past decade teaching at Moving Art in the city’s south end, started dancing when she was just three years old.
Over the years, she has trained in a wide range of styles — ballet, jazz, musical theatre, acro and hip‑hop among them — but tap has always held a special place in her heart, she told BarrieToday.
“When I was a kid, I found it easy enough with just the right amount of challenge, but I found that if I worked at it and practised it, then it got easier versus that was not the same case for some other styles.”
Now, as an adult who teaches both children and adults, Dennis says tap’s accessibility is one of the things she loves most about the style. The benefits — exercise, co-ordination and the mental challenge of rhythm work — apply no matter your age, she said, and she’s seen that firsthand in her classes.
“As an adult, we have our days where we can move a little bit better than some other days. And tap is nice because you can really modify it to whatever your ability is in that moment and still get the same amount of benefits, whether that’s a challenge with your brain because of all the rhythm patterns or basic cardio doing your tap steps across the floor,” she said.
“I feel like it is a style where you can really practise it and put the time in and it’s achievable versus sometimes something more technical like ballet for example,” Dennis added. “Sometimes, no matter how much you practise your arabesque, your leg isn’t going to get higher because that’s just the way your body is built … but everyone can do a shuffle if they practise hard enough.”
Dennis learned about the opportunity through social media, where Team Canada Dance announced it was accepting video auditions for its Adult 2 tap teams. She decided to record a short submission of herself dancing and send it in.
“I just did a combination from the Advanced 2 tap syllabus — a little amalgamation with their set music,” she explained. “It was just a quick 30‑second routine, and then I added a little ‘Hi, my name’s Heather, this is how old I am, this is what I teach.’”
At the end of June, Dennis received an email from Team Canada Dance letting her know she’d been accepted to the Adult 2 Tap East team, which will travel more than 6,700 kilometres to compete at the world championships, scheduled for Oct. 20 to 25.
Dennis says she was “super excited” when the acceptance email arrived, followed quickly by the realization that she needed to decide whether she could make the commitment.
“Every dancer has to pay their own way. Team Canada Dance isn’t able to fund any part of it, so you’re thinking, financially, can I swing it? Can I make it to all the rehearsals, especially with the commute to a different studio?”
After talking it over with her husband and family, she says the answer became clear.
“We decided this is a once‑in‑a‑lifetime opportunity,” Dennis said. “They told me, ‘You’ve got to do it. We’ll figure out the rest of the details, but you’ve got to go.’”
Dennis noted that unlike many mainstream sports, dance is not recognized as a sport by the Canadian government. As a result, nonprofit organizations like Team Canada Dance don’t have access to federal funding for their athletes, meaning each dancer must cover their own costs to compete internationally. So she created a GoFundMe earlier this year to try to help cover some of the costs associated with the competition.
Dennis says the opportunity feels especially meaningful because dance was always her sport growing up.
“I was never going to be on the hockey team or the soccer team or anything like that … so it’s really cool to have that feeling that we see a lot for other sports,” she said. “In Canada, the mainstream doesn’t necessarily view dance as a sport, but as all dancers know that dance is a sport.
“The IDO Tap Championships is known as the Olympics of tap dance, so it’s cool to say I’m going to go compete on this world stage and represent Canada, along with other people from all over,” Dennis added. “I’m really excited to say that I got to do that and be a part of that.”
Dennis says one of the things that makes the Adult 2 Tap team unique is its age range.
“I believe we have some people in their 60s, so it ranges from the early 30s to 60s,” she said.
As for what she’s looking forward to most, it’s simply being surrounded by tap dancers from around the world.
“I’m excited to meet other adult dancers from different countries, see what their style of tap is like and watch them perform,” she said.
Getting to know her teammates over the last few months has made the upcoming trip even more meaningful.
“I didn’t know anyone going into it, and now that I’ve gotten to know a bunch of my teammates, I’m really excited to go on stage with this group and feel that moment of, ‘We’re here and we’re doing it.’”
Being part of the team has also allowed her to reconnect with the feeling of being a student again — something she told BarrieToday she didn’t even realize she missed.
“After my first rehearsal, (while I was) driving home, I hadn’t had that feeling in a long time of going to a dance class and just showing up to learn and do,” she said. “You forget what that’s like. It’s so fun to be able to go and be a student again.”
The experience has also allowed her to show her own students what continuing to pursue dance can look like.
“I’ve had students do the same kind of event with Team Canada Dance in other genres, but I never really thought this opportunity would be available to me as an adult,” Dennis said. “It’s been really fun to be that example for them (and) to show that just because you grow up doesn’t mean you stop dancing or stop going after opportunities.”
She added that it’s been meaningful to model something different than her usual role in the studio.
“It’s neat to be an example in a performance way, not just in a teaching way.”
Barrie dance instructor Heather Dennis and her red tap shoes will represent Canada in October at the The IDO World Tap Dance Championship 2026 in Prague. | Nikki Cole/BarrieToday