The Dance Competition

Our daughter and I went to the dance competition held in Monticello on Sunday, to watch the children, Skylar and Madelyn. They both are on Competition Teams for Hudson Dance Studio in Hudson, WI. The performances started at 7 am...and went till 9 pm!!! There were 188 performances! All of the group performances were before noon, Maddy was in two of them, and Skylar was in three. One was to the tune of "In My Daughter's Eyes", the whole group danced, and the older girls each danced with one of the smaller girls, then took them in their arms like their "daughter", and it brought tears to my eyes, it was so so beautiful!

Maddy's age group (age 6 & 7) did a ballet number to "A’ You’re Adorable" song, and it was SO "adorable"! They won a second place GOLD for it. Then the older group of dancers from their studio did a tap number to the song from "ANNIE" musical, "It's a Hard Luck Life" and they were in Annie costumes with props of scrub buckets and all...it was so darn cute...they did well and won a gold in the tap category for their age. Awards were given for morning performances at 11:30 and from 1 pm to 9 pm the performances were all solos. One of the parents took Madelyn back to Hudson with them, and dropped her at a friends house, thank goodness, she would NEVER have lasted through the afternoon and evening. Those little ones were so tired by the time noon came!

The older group did a number from “Lion King”. The props and costumes were great. There were two trees to represent the jungle, that took 8 hours to make! Skylar’s group did a Jazz number that was really sharp and edgy “Satisfaction”. (Gold) Also, our group did a tap number to "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, very, very cute.

All of the groups from studios represented were so good. They had numbers such as: a tap number to “Jail House Rock”, and “Nine to Five”, “Do you Love Me”, “Great Balls of Fire”, performances with props, costumes, all very entertaining!

After lunch and a break, Dawn and I settled down to watch the soloists perform. We had to wait until 8:20 pm for Skylar’s solo performance, so it made for a very long day. Our favorite solo was “Don’t Tell Mama”. The soloist ranged in ages 8 - 17, and it was interesting to watch the different ages, and different levels of skill. We were quite anxious to see Skylar’s first solo! He and Dawn were so nervous, but I knew he would do well... I tried not to be nervous. Skylar sure didn’t look nervous when he performed, wow, what energy he had. Skylar won GOLD and he also won an "Outstanding Performer" medal and certificate that was only given to 3 dancers. His teacher and also the head of the dance studio were very pleased with his performance and proud of him. (We found out last night that he was only ONE point away from getting the Platinum award (highest).

Their dance studio took home a lot of trophies! Above is a photo of some of Skylar’s age category with their trophies won for HUDSON DANCE STUDIO. One of the teachers said this competition was just a “practice” for the next competition coming up in March! They will see the judges notes and find out what needs to be worked on to fine tune their performances for the next competition.

Dawn and the kids kept thanking me for coming, it meant so much to all of them for Grandma to be there. I’m so happy that I could oblige them!