A Portage dance group brought home gold at the Manitoba Provincial Dance Festival last weekend. Portage and District Art Centre Executive Director Paul Legris says the win is great news for not only the art centre but for the community as well.

"It says great things for our program. It says that we offer a fantastic program in dance that is obviously winning awards. That's really thrilling. That says lots not just about this organization but also about Portage la Prairie. Again it's more about the idea that within every community there is a desire to express themselves through culture, through arts. "

He notes the gold medal performance means great things for the PDAC.

"This kind of material that we use in order to not just promote the organization for membership but it helps us with things like fundraising, it helps us with things like writing grants. When we write grants to the province, when we grants to the federal government they want to see that we're not just doing art but we are having success stories as well. This is one of the success stories we can enjoy."

Legris notes the PDAC is proud of the groups work.

"This is great stuff for us. We are immensely proud. It says that we have a great asset within our community. The dance group is part of that and PDAC is in some ways the stage for that. It says great things in terms of how the community has priorities in terms of arts and culture development."