AMANDA

TALENT ON PARADE

REGIONAL COMPETITION

JDC DANCERS COMPETE WELL AND HAVE FUN!!!

Jacksonville Dance Company Dancers performed this weekend at the Regional Competition of Talent on Parade that was held at the Robinson Music Hall or Auditorium in Little Rock. This competition was the biggest that we've attended this year and it actually began Thursday noon with solos. It continued with solos, duets and trios through Friday night (tornedos and all.) Dancers from 39 Arkansas studios, as well as a dance company from Missouri, Mississippi and Texas, competed on Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to almost 10:00 at night.

As usual, the competition was broken down into categories - by ages, size of groups (small, large and line), genre and level of performers (by years competing or weekly studio hours taken.) Jacksonville Dance Company performed sixteen group dances, four solos and one duet. JDC competed in categories--Novice, Intermediate to Competitive. The solos and duets will be listed at the last of the group dances, even though they competed on Thursday and Friday.

Several types of awards were presented by the panel of three judges. First came the adjudicated scoring where the group is judged according to the score sheet. The awards were by placement of First, Top First, Elite Top First and Diamond Elite Top First. Category cups were awarded to the top score of each age group, each genre, if there were three entries in that age and category. After that, top scores of each age group were announced - Top Ten - Top Five, etc. As mentioned several times on Sunday night by the TOP announcer, it was an honor and fight to even get in the top ten, as there were at least 80 group entries in the older, small group competition. JDC averages the ages of the dancers--younger and older dancers might be dancing in the same performance--and the group competes at the age of the average of the dancers.

Small group performances for JDC began Saturday morning with the hiphop performance in the novice, petite (average age seven-eight) category to "Do the Harry." Dancers in this group were Morgan Blanchard, Chandler Dean, Jaimee Hall, Reagan Hodson, Lauren Miller and Neely Taylor. The young performers, who are instructed by Ms. Sara, were awarded an Elite Top First and won Fifth out of the Top Five Novice Performances. (There are more than five performances or ten performances, whichever the competition recognizes. There was no way for me to tell how many performances were in the Novice Category, but there were 27 age seven-eight small group performances.) So Extra Congratulations, Ladies!

First row - Neely and Chandler; second row - Reagan and Jaimee; third row - Lauren and Morgan.

The next session was for performances by small groups, ages nine-ten and eleven-twelve.

The JDC dancers competed tap to "We're in the Money" in Novice, ages nine-ten, and won a Top First. They tied for Eighth place out of Top Ten and also won a Judges' Choice Award of "Priceless." Competing in this performance were Morgan Blanchard, Alex Pettus, Tegan Rea, Mattie Taylor and Katie Turner. They are taught by Ms. Sara.

From left to right are Alex, Mattie, Tegan, Morgan and Katie.

Also competing in the Novice category, average age nine-ten, was the performance to "Showout" by Ms. Lindsey's hiphop dancers. The dancers won an Elite Top First and a Judges' Choice for "Working it Out." They also won FIRST IN THE TOP TEN!!!!! You all did work it out and looked fantastic and brought so much energy!!!! Performing were Abbye Cody, Keyerra Collins, Hallie Hankins, Alex Pettus, Tegan Rea, Katie Turner and Bailey Weathers. Also, this is not the first time that this group has won top prize! Congratulations, Dancers!!!

Front row, Abbye and Keyerra; second row, Hallie, Katie, Tegan, and Bailey; top row - Alex. And of course, at the competition, always, to support her fellow dancers was Madison Coffer, who is still out with her injured foot.

JDC performed six dances in the younger (average age eleven-twelve) small group Intermediate Category. Starting off the afternoon performances was the lyrical performance to "Grace" which won an Elite Top First and received Fourth in Top Ten Performances. Dancing in this performance, choreographed and taught by Ms. Lindsey, were Amber Bajorek, Katy Gorden, Hannah Moler and Madi Spears.

Left to right - Hannah, Amber, Madi and Katy

Also dancing lyrical to "Miss Invisible" in the Intermediate Category, and winning an Elite Top First and Seventh in Top Ten, were Sarah Chesser, Kaitlynn Coleman, Jessica Gardner, Katy Gorden, Laurel Hill, Jessica Holeman, Madison Winstead and Rachel Wyrick. This performance was also choreographed and taught by Ms. Lindsey.

Front row are Rachel, Katy, Jessica, Laurel and Kaitlynn. Back row are Jessica, Madison and Sarah.

Competing tap in the Intermediate category to "Double Dutch Bus" and winning a Top First were Amber Bajorek, Katy Gorden, Julia Johnson, Madi Spears, Hannah Taylor and Ryann Young. The dance was choreographed and taught by Ms. Sara.

Left to right are Madi, Ryann, Amber, Hannah, Julia and Katy.

Competing jazz, also in Intermediate Category, to "P. Y. T." and winning an Elite Top First were Jessica Gardner, Katy Gorden, Micah Perry and Mattie Taylor. This jazz performance was choreographed and taught by Ms. Lindsey.

Left to right are Mattie, Micah, Katy and Jessica

Next JDC Intermediate Category performance was the Character tap to "Cat in the Hat." Performing in this dance, which won a Top First, were Alexandria Adams, Amber Bajorek, Kira Jinkins, Micah Perry, Tegan Rea, Kassie Shepard and Ryann Young. This dance was choreographed and taught by Ms. Sara.

Front row are Ryann, Amber and Tegan; back row (left to right) are Micah, Kassie, Kira and Alex.

Performing hiphop in the Intermediate Category to "Ice Cream Boogie" were Amber Bajorek, Reagan Campbell, Julia Johnson, Madi Spears, Hannah Taylor and Michael York. The performance, choreographed and taught by Ms. Sara, won an Elite Top First and Eighth in the Top Ten.

Michael is on the back, next row are Hannah, Madi and Reagan. Front row are Amber, and Julia

Out of JDC six intermediate performances, average age eleven-twelve, JDC won Eighth, Seventh and Fourth out of Top Ten Performances.

In the evening session, JDC performed "Fresh Prince" the Hiphop Line Production number that is always the crowd pleaser. The number, choreographed by Ms. Lois and Ms. Sara, won a Diamond Elite Top First and was named top in category, ages nine-ten, eleven-twelve. It was also given the Judges' Choice Award for "High Energy."

Dancing in this performance were Reagan Campbell, Sarah Chesser, Abbye Cody, Kaitlynn Coleman, Keyerra Collins, Amanda Cross, Chandler Dean, Maitland Hurley, Bailea Jones, Micah Perry, Alex Pettus, Niki Rodgers, B. J. Smith, Joi Smith, Madi Spears, Hannah Taylor, Mattie Taylor, Neely Taylor, Katie Turner, Kayla Vasquez and Rachel Wyrick.

The "Fresh Prince" performers are shown here after their rousing performance!!!!!

What fun this performance is to watch!

We were detained again Saturday night due to more tornedo warnings, but luckily not as long as on Friday night. Kids had a great time dancing on stage to ChaCha Slide and other group dances.

For Senior performances on Sunday, click here

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