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The Results Are In … - dance competitions - Brief Article

National finals report winners ... More at www.dancemagazine.com

When Katy Spreadbury took the podium for her final moments as DMA's Miss Dance of America 2001 at New York's Marriott Marquis hotel, she turned to the anxious onstage finalists, removed and held up her crown to them and said, "If this is why you are up here, you haven't won anything." The very articulate miss continued to explain the higher side of dance competitions: the continued joy in movement; the development of discipline, persistence, and sense of self; the increased opportunities for participation in a greater dance community, modeling and mentoring for others; the debt and honor paid to those who support the ups and downs of a dancer's career--friends, family, teachers, and organizations. While she emphasized that dance competition wasn't about beating out anyone else, Miss Spreadbury showed herself as one of the best.

Below are reports of some national finals of dance competitions as reported to Dance Magazine.

NEW YORK CITY DANCE ALLIANCE

Headed by Joe Lanteri and Leah Brandon, New York City Dance Alliance's "National Season Finale" at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan ran from July 3 through 9, 2001. Students took classes from master teachers in jazz, ballet, tap, and musical theater for three days, five classes per day, then donned their costumes for performance competition in the evenings. The categories for competition were solo, duo/trio, group, line, extended line, small production, and large production in jazz, lyrical, ballet, specialty, musical theater, or tap. Individual gold, high silver, silver, and bronze medals were awarded with large trophies for group grand winners. Greta Martin, currently appearing in summer stock in Sweet Charity, presented Dance Magazine's National Critic's Choice Grand Prize Awards to Southern Strut, directed by Nancy Giles of Irmo, South Carolina, in the Senior category, and to In the Spotlight, directed by Tom and Candice Karaty of Waldwick, New Jersey, in the Junior category. Please see the Dance Magazine Web site for competition results in further detail.

DANCE EDUCATORS OF AMERICA

Dance Educators of America, established in 1932, has been holding competitions and workshops for dancers since 1989. DEA also offers a ballet intensive and a Medallion program that encourages dance students to improve technically. This year DEA's East Coast Nationals at the Grand Hyatt in New York ran from June 29 to July 7, and the West Coast Nationals in Las Vegas at the Alexis Park Resort ran from July 12 through 27. National Title Winners were not in by press time.

NATIONAL DANCE MASTERS OF AMERICA

DMA's 117th National Convention, themed "Back on Broadway," took place July 10 to 21, 2001. DMA hosted master classes in jazz, ballet, tap, and lyrical dance, along with various health- and business-related sessions. Miss Dance of America 2001, Katy Spreadbury, passed her crown to former Junior Miss Dance Ashley Canterna of Washington D.C., taught by Mary Moran, while Blake McGrath, who is taught by Tiffany McLean, succeeded last year's Mr. Dance of America, Robert Hoffman III. Isobel Johnson's student Christina Dooling won the Teen Miss Dance title and Ontario's Scott MacDonald, taught by Nancy English, was named Teen Mr. Dance. For a complete listing of title and scholarship awards, see www.dancemagazine.com. Dance Magazine President Roslyne Stem and Editor in Chief K.C. Patrick presented the annual essay awards for the competition sponsored by the magazine.

YOUTH AMERICA GRAND PRIX

YAGP competition, launched just last year by Gennadi and Larissa Saveliev, who met while dancing with the Bolshoi Ballet, attracts mostly ballet students but also has a contemporary dance category. This year's finals were held in New York from May 4 through 6. Close to 200 students, aged 8 to 18 from the U.S. and abroad, competed. They danced before a panel of judges that included Gailene Stock, director of the Royal Ballet School; Melissa Hayden, former NYCB principal dancer and now a teacher at North Carolina School of the Arts; and Suki Schorer, also formerly principal with NYCB and now a School of American Ballet teacher and award-winning author of Balanchine Technique. Natalia Makarova was the guest of honor. Called a "stepping stone" to a dance career, some of the most sought-after prizes are the scholarship awards: this year, schools involved included The [English] Royal Ballet School, The Ailey School, North Carolina School of the Arts, and The Harid Conservatory. The grand prize, which went to Bo Busby, a 17-year-old student at the Harid Conservatory, was a contract to American Ballet Theater's Studio Company. This year in addition to dance classes, the event offered seminars for participants. There was one on preventing foot injuries, and another, taught by psychologists, dealt with how to make the competition experience a positive one. Sasha Radetsky, star of the film Center Stage, was on hand for a discussion with a guest artist.

AMERICAN DANCE AWARDS

The American Dance Awards celebrated its twenty-second anniversary at its National Championships, held at the Caribe Royale Hotel in Orlando, Florida. More than $100,000 in cash prizes was awarded at the event July 6 through 12. More than 3,000 dancers from the U.S. and Canada represented 100 dance studios. The $5,000 cash scholarship Bill Como Memorial Award, named for a former Dance Magazine editor, was presented by the current publisher, Barbara Paige Kaplan, to Danek School of Performing Arts from Johnson City, New York, for high-scoring 13 and over category. Kaplan also presented a $1,000 America's Young Choreographer of the Year award to Kimberly Rogers of the Elite Dance Academy in Richboro, Pennsylvania. The Gold Family Award of Excellence in the amount of $5,000 went to the Greta Leeming Studio of Dance from Ontario, Canada.

For further winners, refer to www.dance magazine.com. See photos and details of Prix de Lausanne (January 18-22, 2001) in Lausanne, Switzerland; Royal Academy of Dancing's Adeline Genee Awards (April 19-22) in London, England; Leo's Choreography Competition (August 4-8) in Monterrey, Mexico, and more as the results become available.