Utah Dance Fest 2018 Recap

IMG_0575 (1)We took off to Logan Thursday night after the studio closed. It was a late and snowy drive through sardine canyon but it was totally worth it for Friday morning!

The trio with Lizzy in her full costume (not just half!)
The trio with Lizzy in her full costume (not just half!)

We put a solid group of soloists on stage including a couple first timers. Betsy, Izzy, Kate, Kaelynn and Abbie all did they very first solo ever. June, Lizzy, and Callie did their first trio too.

The morning progressed without a hitch until Lizzy realized she had forgotten half of her costume! Her mom made an emergency run for it and made it back with only minutes to spare before they took the stage.

Utah Dance Fest runs a Battle of the Best board through the day. it highlights the top 5 dancers on either track of the competition. We were so excited to see both Nevaeh and Kaitlyn up on the board for most of the day!

Awards were fantastic! So many of our dancers were rewarded for their performances. Results below:

Leah as Anne of Green Gables
Leah as Anne of Green Gables

Queen:
Nevaeh Madsen
Kaitlyn Arevalo
Betsy Galeana
Ila Hyde

1st Attendant:
Rachel Liedtke
Abbie Philippe

2nd Attendant:
Aspen Dixon
Izzy Ibarra
Allie Erickson

3rd Attendant:
Leah Walton
Kate Arbon

Attendant:
Kaelynn Cowley
Mona Mostert

Our Trio, Die Puppenfee received fourth place.

One of the sweetest moments of the night was when Ila got called for as Queen of her division and cried.  If that girl gets any cuter I don’t know what we’re going to do.

In the final awards both Nevaeh and Kaitlyn got called for overalls!!! They won 3rd and 4th overall respectively.  Getting into the overalls is a big deal.  We’re so proud of both of them for all of the hard work they put in to get to this point.

Drop Your Guard on stage in their lift
Drop Your Guard on stage in their lift

Saturday we had a steady stream of dances to keep us busy from 10:00am to 5:00pm. We’re so proud of all of our dancers and the progress they have made in the last year. We’re seeing better pointed toes and straight legs from our Levels 1 and 2. The Hip Hop teams are rising the the challenge of having two different teachers move out of state during the year. Our Level 3 is doing much more advanced work. Levels 4 and 5 had our highest three scores of the day with Bury, Sun and Goodbye each receiving a gold. Goodbye would have scored even higher, but the were deducted 6 points because the judges thought they needed to be entered in a more advanced category (awesome thing to get deducted for!) As much as we’re proud of the progress, scores weren’t quite as high as we’d like to see them. We already have big plans for this week’s classes so at our next competition, we can put an even better showing on stage!

And now the scores:

L.O.V.E before they went on stage
L.O.V.E before they went on stage

Gold:
Goodbye
Bury
Sun

High Silver:
Drop Your Guard
Cooties
Ruby Blue
L.O.V.E.
The Seven
Penny Lane
Matrix
Awoo

Silver:
Shadows
How Long

Our next competition Healing Through Movement next weekend at Granger High School.

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