Most people drive away from Las Vegas with less than when they arrived, but the Arwen Daniels Dancers had high hopes when we hit the strip and checked in to the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino to begin the final preparations for our last competition of the 2012 season.  It was the farthest we had ever travelled from home as a team and our first time competing out of state.  Competition day started at 10am with our two junior solos, Kyra and Sophia, both 12, who ended up beating their previous high scores of the season and earning Gold.  Our hip-hop number, “I Can Transform Ya” scored 285 out of 300, good enough for the overall top junior score for the day, also receiving special recognition from the judges for “Energy and Attack”.  “Bloody Mary” finished with the highest overall group score for the entire competition… out of over 300 entries, with a special judges award for their “Character and Commitment”.   Taylor added to our already perfect day by finishing first and second overall with his two solos, “Requiem for a Dream” and “In this Shirt”; the latter scoring a 296 out of 300, the highest score of the day in any category.  The team hit the town to celebrate PG-13 style with a team dinner and spent the following day at the hotel pool looking back on an amazing season full of challenges met and expectations exceeded.  Next year will mean more competitions, more dances and a few new team members.  If this year was any indication of the direction things are going, the future will hold even greater success for the Arwen Daniels Dancers.

This summer I will be holding several 6 hour a day dance intensives with guest teachers, new styles of choreography and tumbling.  We have already started a new group number “Creator” and I will be developing a few new video and distance-learning projects.  If you’re not moving forward you’re moving backwards, right?

 

#dancerinserepeat,