News del Mercado: Competitions

Two weeks ago Victoria's dance studio participated in the CRU dance competition in Dearborn, MI. It's a harder competition with more studios at the elite level. Dancin' Feet is at the intermediate level. The determining factor for what level a studio is is the amount of time they practice. At Dancin' Feet, Victoria participates in regular dance classes, 3 days a week for around 2-3 hours each class. On Fridays, they have competition practice for up to 5 hours. A couple of times there will be a Saturday 5-hour competition practice. This seems like a nice, load of practices, and a lot of them are even able to participate in other activities- like Victoria is on the track team and participated in the Winter Throws Club. She also has a job and church obligations. I can't imagine having to uphold an elite studio practice schedule!

At CRU Victoria and all the other dancers from our studio danced beautifully and claimed some amazing awards, despite going against some pretty tough competition. They weren't scored against the elite teams in all categories since they are on different levels, but they were in some. For all the numbers they danced, they scored from the top 10 to the top 2, which was Victoria's trio dance. They received all Ultimate Elite and Superior adjudications, which are the top in CRU. Their group number Jailhouse Rock was called back as part of the Entertainment Showdown. For Victoria's solo, she was invited to perform at the Broadway National Company in Universal Studios Florida, next January. We looked into sending her there since she'll be off track from BYU I in January, but it seems like the biggest honor is just to be invited. No one from our studio goes, or from a lot of studios this far away, because of the time commitment and cost. She's fine with that. In fact, she was looking forward to the next competition that occurred this past weekend, and then on to Nationals in July.

Saturday's competition was the Empire Dance Challenge. It's with pretty much all intermediate dance studios, so Dancin' Feet definitely "shows up" there. They have a different scoring system from CRU, so Victoria received High Gold for her solo and trio and Platinum for the rest. Those are the top two levels of scores. All numbers were in the top 10 again. They received Best Precision for Singing in the Rain, best senior large groups for Singing in the Rain and Jailhouse Rock, Best Teen Production for Jailhouse Rock, and a special judges' award for Stand By Me for dancing with "feeling".

Whether or not they get top scores, I'm so proud of the hard work they all put into it, and love watching Victoria and her friends dance. Their main instructor, George, works so hard, as well as the other instructors. It will be sad to move on after Nationals this summer. She's worked with George for so many years!

These pictures and videos are all from CRU. I paid for the package from there since you're not allowed to record, though I do have one pic that I took at Empire of the trio since it captures the beginning formation better. Some dances were performed better at CRU, and some at Empire, but the quality of the pictures are amazing since they're professional.

Trio- Everybody Wants to be a Cat

Solo- I Think It's Going to Rain Today

Large Group-Jailhouse Rock

Small Group- Make You Feel My Love

Group-Singing in the Rain (which they did last year, but it's such a favorite, they have to perform it at Nationals, which they haven't done yet.)

Group- Stand By Me

The beginning of Cat at Empire (they creep out of the curtains, which adds so much to the dance!)

On the Saturday of the CRU competition, Victoria was able to participate in the States throwing competition for weight throw, which she qualified for. It wasn't her best throw, but considering she had danced the night before at CRU and then had an early wake-up time to make it to States, she was awesome! I mean, how many dancers can say they just threw a 25 lb ball 23 feet, the weekend of their dance competition?