Edmonton dance team with Sask. connection makes it to final of America’s Got Talent

An Edmonton acro dance team owned and choreographed by a woman from Regina has made it to the final of one of the world’s biggest talent shows.

The dance team from Supernova Acro Studio was given a golden buzzer during their performance on the show on Tuesday night, putting them into the finals. The team’s owner and choreographer, Jill Ford, is the daughter of Saskatchewan Roughriders legend Al Ford.

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The performance featured acrobatic dancers accompanied by acrobatic dogs, which impressed the celebrity judging panel.

“I’ve never seen an act like this before,” show host Howie Mandel wrote on social media, sharing a video of the team’s performance.

After heading to Los Angeles simply hoping to perform well, Ford said earning the golden buzzer was beyond anything the group expected

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting that at all. We went into this just trying to think ‘OK, let’s just try something different, let’s just go for it.’”

Ford said seeing the dancers succeed under the pressure of performing for celebrity judges was her proudest moment.

“I was just so happy for them, and proud of them, because that was so much pressure,” Ford said.

She said the moment was years in the making, built on early mornings and sacrifices by dancers, coaches and parents

“We did a lot to prepare for this, and a lot of sacrifice, both the parents, the kids. It was a lot on everybody,” Ford said.

She said one of the most emotional parts of the team’s watch party on Tuesday night came when she realized two dancers who joined after spotting the group practicing outside during the COVID-19 pandemic were now being celebrated on a national television stage in the same community hall where the dance studio once rented space.

“We were on the grass at Blue Quill, this community center, and this mom of a girls came up to me and said, ‘What is this?’ And then from there put her girls in it, and now we’re at the same hall watching your daughters on AGT. Super, like, full-circle moment.”

Despite nerves backstage, Ford said the dancers delivered the performance of their lives when the spotlight came on.

“As soon as they walked onto that stage, it was like ‘game on,’ and they nailed it,” she said.

Ford said her father, a well known figure in Saskatchewan, is a huge fan of the show, and he was excited to watch the team perform on Tuesday.

The team will now return to L.A. for the next round of competition.

–with files from 980 CJME’s Abby Zieverink and Jacob Bamhour