DEA Results – Part 2, Brenna

Brenna’s two dances were after both of Beth & Carissa’s were done. That made for one very long day for her with lots of waiting and she came close to a meltdown at one point, but she pulled it together and kept from going into overload mode. I went up to the balcony to take pictures of the large group dances which were all at the end of the second half of the day. There weren’t many people up there, so I could sit or move around pretty much wherever I wanted, there were no heads in the way, and I could clear shots of the whole stage. You can actually see the formations of the groups in their entirety from this viewpoint, and it was wonderful to have that perspective for these dances.

The Dolls’ tap dance was the first one on the schedule. They danced to “Shake Your Body Down to the Ground” by The Jacksons. The song is very disco, and they had the cutest (and brightest!) little disco style outfits with tall go-go boot covers and lots of flashy sequins. This was the dance that they hadn’t worked on quite as much, but they did it very well and their formations looked great! They earned a gold medal for the dance, and received a special judges award for ‘audience appreciation’ as everyone had to ‘awwww’ when they walked on stage and they got a huge roar of approval when they finished. 

They did the ‘Mini Hippies’ dance second, with 20 minutes in between to change costumes and hair. That is just enough time to get back downstairs, change everything as quickly as possible and then head right back up to the wings of the stage. They did great with this dance too, earning a second gold medal! They got another special judges’ award for their costumes- great job moms!!

The Dolls won both 1st (Mini Hippies) and 2nd (Shake Your Body) overall scores for the small-fry line category, which was to be expected since they were the only group competing in that age and size level. They did an awesome job any way you look at it and they certainly all rose to the occasion to do their very best!

I’ve posted the photo I liked best from each of the dances that I was able to see in a photo album at facebook. The older dancers all looked gorgeous and danced wonderfully too.  You can check those out HERE, if you are interested.

DEA Results – Part 1, Beth and Carissa

The studio as a whole did well. Our girls did well. All we wanted was for them to have fun and do their best, and they did. It was a pretty good weekend.

 
Beth and Carissa’s tap duet, True Friends, was up first of our four dances. Evidently the competition started a bit late, as the roads were absolutely nasty with snow and ice and people were having trouble getting there. There was also a morning awards ceremony and then a lunch break that wasn’t on the schedule we were given. All that added up to an almost 2 hour delay from the time we thought they would dance. They were ready before the time we had, so they had to wait…. and wait… and wait some more. I think it got them just a bit flustered with too much time to think about it and become anxious. Once they finally got on stage, they were standing the wrong way and when the music started they didn’t quite know what to do as they would have had to mirror-image the whole dance. I don’t think that would have gone well at all. Beth actually stopped dancing, hopped down off the stage and asked the judges if they could start again. They said yes, so she got back up there, they righted their direction and off they went. Once they got that initial flub behind them, they did very well. They ended up with a silver medal for the dance; we thought they had danced well enough to earn a gold. Maybe the mixup at the beginning docked them a few crucial points? we won’t know until they see their score sheet. I think they should be proud of themselves for their first time dancing by themselves- I am! Here are a few photos.

We had about 40 minutes to get them changed for their Youth Tap dance next. While not a real long time between dances, there was plenty of time to do the costume and hair changes that we needed. I even got Carissa’s hair all curled, thanks to another mom leaving her curling iron hot and ready to use for me. We had chosen makeup colors that worked for both of their dances, so we didn’t have to try and change that too. They dance to the song “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home” by Hannah Montana. A key line throughout the song is “you can change your hair and you can change your clothes…”, so the kids all change at least one piece of their outfit on stage during the song. Here’s a rundown of them all:

Wake up! It’s raining and it’s Monday…. Bailey is asleep in the chair, she has curlers and a nightgown on, so Beth, Carissa and Kathleen get her up and moving. She ditches the wig with curlers and nightgown in the chair. Beth and Kathleen have the next changes. Beth takes off her leopard print jacket, and Kathleen takes off her hat leaving her hair in a ponytail.
Taryn sheds the pink dress next, and is now in a silver outfit.
Taryn takes out her ponytail, and Kathleen starts her second phase change taking off her denim skirt and western shirt.
It is finally Carissa’s turn and she takes off her plaid skirt and tosses it to Kathleen who catches it and deposits it on the chair with all of the other pieces of discarded clothing. Derek has also started changing finally, taking off his green pants.

Beth gets to do her second change now and she removes the hair clip that has been holding her hair up. She gives it to Derek as she goes by. Bailey also takes off her black skirt and gives it to Carissa, who then promptly passes it off to Derek.

Derek takes the two items over to the chair while Kathleen does a tumbling run across the stage for us (in tap shoes!) and while he is there he changes his shirt and finds the hat from the bottom of the pile and puts it on.
 
(I’m disappointed this last photo is out of focus :( hopefully I can get a better one at Legacy next month.)

They earned a gold medal for this dance! They also earned the overall second-highest score for their age and group level. Great job ladies and gent! Here’s a picture of Beth and Carissa with their friend and teammate, Derek, who is holding the group trophy with two of the gold medals wrapped around it.

Spring break has officially started

… a day early, and in typical Colorado style we got the extra day off because of snow. I got the kids ready to go to school.... lunches packed, all of the papers they needed signed, coats and boots on, and we were ready to walk out the door. Then, Bryce turned on the TV and announced that school was cancelled because of the snow. :P It was just starting to snow when I got up, so I didn't bother to check. I spent Thursday doing all of my running around town getting last minute things, taking all of the library stuff back, taking kids to appointments, etc. and today was spent at home getting everything packed and ready to go in the morning.

Yep, that is the big Dream Duffel I bought a couple of months ago to haul all of the costumes to competition and recital in June. I think Brenna and Sarah could both fit inside it.

I had a bunch of pictures from the dress rehearsals last week to show off, but I’m not finding them where I expected so I guess you will all have to wait to see the kids decked out in their finery. ;) And I’m off to bed. Hopefully I’ll have competition photos to show off Sunday evening.

Dance Quest – Eveland Village

Beth and Carissa as part of the ‘extras’ (meaning they aren’t a member of one of the ballet companies at TDC) for the production were in the third act. Katchka has traveled to Eveland Village and finds herself in the middle of a town celebration. Everyone is out having a grand time visiting and dancing, and Katchka sees someone who looks like her mother. It turns out to be her aunt, her mother’s twin sister, and she has found family once again.

I had hoped to get these pictures scrapped before posting them here, but as it hasn’t happened yet and I don’t know when it will I just decided to go ahead and post them so you can see Beth and Carissa in ‘action’ too. Maybe I’ll get these scrapped during spring break? maybe?

        

and here is how I quickly scrapped the cast photo. I did this one at 8x10 so that I could print it and give it to Kathryn to frame and hang on the wall.
credits: at scrapbookgraphics: Casual Attraction by Flergs and MGL Scraps, fairy trail from Flitting Fall Faeiries by Lorie Davison; WOW Chrome Style; text taken from Dance Quest flyer design by Ruth Schubarth