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This past weekend Dance Force 1 dance
team attended a two day dance workshop that included a Saturday night
competition and a Sunday morning scholarship audition. La Dance
Magic held the event at the Radisson
Fort McDowell Resort in Scottsdale.
I was very impressed with how well organized and how smooth everything ran
throughout the whole weekend!! LA Dance Magic gets a five star rating
from me.
Leyla begged to leave Friday night
instead of Saturday at 5:30 A.M. and finally convinced me by offering to help
pay for an extra night. It didn’t take that much convincing since she
offered to pay with her own money. How could I say no? Besides
I would have had to wake up super early to get to Phoenix by 7:30am. The drive went
by very quickly as Leyla and I chatted the whole way and had some great
mother/daughter bonding time. To my surprise once Leyla started talking she
didn’t stop the entire way to Phoenix.
I guess she was taking advantage of the fact that both of her little sisters
were not around to interrupt her. So, needless to say I shut up and
listened and let her have the floor. Some of the things that came
out of her mouth had me thinking about how fast my little girl is growing
up. I wished the drive would never end so I could enjoy that moment
forever.
Each age group had their own ballroom
with plenty of room to move around. The choreographers taught the dancers
from a small stage in the front of the room. They also had four dance
assistants moving throughout the room to help the children. The first day
of the workshop was jam packed with small breaks for the girls to have a snack,
change shoes, and to eat lunch. The dances taught were Jazz, Hip Hop, Ballet
and Tap. There were taught by five different up-and-coming new choreographers
that each brought a unique and different style to the classes.
One of the reasons I decided to watch
the dancers was to see how our girls compared to the Phoenix dancers. In general, Phoenix dance teams seem to do better in competition
compared to the Tucson
dance teams. Why is that?? Did they have better dancers or did they have better choreography? I was hoping to be
able to answer my questions by the end of the weekend.
Most
of Shining
Star, Shooting Star, and Future Star were all in the junior workshop group
together. There were two girls who were in-between ages and decided
to move up to the next age group. I am very proud of the girls who moved up
because they had to step out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves =)
Overall
our girls did ok in the first two dance classes. As the day continued many of the girls started
to standout and were amongst the best in the class. In fact, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of
them!! They were dancing full on and had great facial expressions.
Their poor little faces must have been sore by the end of the day from smiling
so much. The Shining Star dance team mostly stayed in the first two rows in
front of the stage. The girls were told to stay up front and not to slip
to the back; which is exactly what they did. I would also like to add
that they were very polite to the other dancers. We had a couple of dancers who
really seemed to struggle. BUT not one child gave up or quit no matter
how difficult the routines were. =)
Saturday
night Competition
Saturday’s
workshop ended around 2:30 -3:00 PM and the girls had a hour and half to get
ready for the competition. Leyla, Sarah, RL and I ran up to room to start
on their makeup and hair. I am happy to report that Leyla and I didn’t
kill each other; in fact everything went great between the two of us!!
Perhaps I should mention that the other reason we did so well was that RL did
Leyla’s hair. =)
The
ballroom was used as the dressing rooms; which was great because there was
plenty of room for everyone. Leyla’s hip hop team dance was one of the
first dances to go out. The girls did great!! Party Girl was next and is the dance I said
would go all the way this year. That dance didn’t do as well as I hoped
it would have in this competition. The Shooting Star dance team group
number did well and so did some of the older team’s dances. Overall it’s safe
to say that we all wish we did better in the competition part this past
weekend. Once the numbers are posted I will know exactly where we placed
for each of the dances. The night came to an end around 10pm and Leyla and I
were ready to go to bed.
Scholarship
auditions
I
don’t remember getting into bed or closing my eyes; all I remember is waking up
to a very loud alarm at 6am in the morning. It was Sunday, the last day
of the workshop, and Scholarship auditions
were at 8am. My body felt like I was in college again after a night of
dancing and having one to many drinks. Except I only had one drink and
all I did was sit on my butt all day and watch other people dance!! So
embarrassing! Lucky for me RL came up to the room and took Leyla
and Sarah down for auditions while I finished getting myself ready and checked
out of the room.
By
the time I got downstairs the auditions were almost over. Some of the
mothers from the other teams that I met at the Saturday workshop filled me it
on what I missed. As the moms filled me in there were girls exiting the ball room
who were cut. When one of the moms told me that they started with ballet across
the floor I was surprised that Leyla hadn’t come out yet. Leyla is
starting her third year of dance and just doesn’t have the same level of
experience that some of the other girls on Shining Star have had. I had a
talk with Leyla before the workshop began about not having high expectations
about receiving a scholarship. I explained to her that she has come a
long way in a short amount of time and will be going up against girls that may have
had double the experience and that she should just concentrate on doing the
best she can do. Leyla did well in the Saturday workshop but when
it comes to auditions there is a lot of pressure and no room for
mistakes. There are many good dancers that don’t do well under pressure
or make one mistake and get cut in auditions. Aside from trying out for
dance team this is really Leyla’s first audition. I wasn’t sure how she would
perform under the pressure. Some of the parents took turns looking though
the peep holes in the door. I have really bad eyesight so I couldn’t trust what
I was seeing. It looked like all of our girls were sitting together and
that they were cut from the auditions. The door opened and the dancers made
their way out of the ballroom. When the crowd thinned out parents started
to make their way into the room. I heard one of the mothers say that six
of the girls made it to the finals. Leyla was one of the six that made it
to the finals. I was so happy for her; what
an accomplishment!
Wait a minute, what the heck was
wrong with me? Oh my goodness, Leyla
made it to the finals! I wanted to run
and give her a hug and congratulate all the girls who were going to the
finals. My guess is that there were over
a hundred dancers who tried out and only 22 of them made it to the finals. I held myself back from showing too much excitement.
Some of the girls that didn’t make it were in tears and I remember how that
felt from when I was a little girl. Most
of these kids worked very hard during the workshop and to see their little
faces and feel their disappointment broke my heart. I only wish I was able to take the hurt away
when things go badly; but that is part of growing up. I waited about 10 minutes before walking over
to Leyla and the rest of the girls.
The
morning flew by and before I knew it the finals were starting. All the dancers from the different age groups
went on stage for a dance off. As the
final tryouts were being held on the big stage the room filled up quickly with eager
parents and other dancers to watch the tryouts.
The dancers were grouped by number and asked to dance. Once the group
dances were completed they were asked to stand in line while the judges took a
final look at each of the dancers. The older kids had an opportunity to dance a
short solo in front of the crowd after their group auditions. These kids kicked some BUTT!! Since all the kids did very well, I had no
idea how the judges were going to narrow it down to four or five dancers in each
age group.
Winners
The
day was over and everyone gathered to meet on the big stage. Selected dances
were picked to perform in front of everyone.
A tap number was picked from Dance Force 1. After the performances the scholarship winners
were announced. I apologize that I don’t know all the dancers names from Dance
Force 1 that received a scholarship. In the junior group the winners were Allison,
Ashton, and Rebecca. Congratulations girls!!!
By
the time the winners were announced Leyla and I were ready to go home. I could tell from her face that she was
disappointed that her name wasn’t called. Even though I expressed to her how proud I was
of her, I could tell she was still upset.
On the way home she fell asleep exhausted from the fun, but long, weekend. I enjoyed meeting the other moms from the different
dance teams and hope we will stay in contact with each other. After all, we
might be at the next competition together!
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