Country Dance Challenge 2022

Last year, our dance school entered some troupes in the Country Dance Challenge, held in Northam, where I grew up. I attended Northam Senior High School, where the majority of the competition was held. These two girls, watched the own choreography section of the competition last year and spent the whole time saying, "We could do better than that! Oh my goodness, that was terrible. What was that." They were pretty underwhelmed by the section, so they decided that they could indeed do better than that and got to work making their own routine to hopefully enter the following year (this past weekend).

Well. They freaking nailed it. FIRST PLACE in the own choreography category. They certainly put their money where their mouths were. Kaz and I were so freaking proud of them. Make a goal and achieve it, right? They certainly did! 

Being best friends and dancing together certainly has its advantages. They have an uncanny ability to know where the other is and to know where to move alongside in time. They look amazing together!

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And having their moment of glory absolutely made it all worth it. You could not wipe the smiles off their faces!

Madeline danced on the Saturday in the under 12 Lyrical Solos

and was awarded a Special Mention for her dance to the acoustic version of Waves by Dean Lewis

She and Madison received first place for their Under 12s Own Choreography Jazz Duo to Problem by Becky G.

They also did a Lyrical Duo in the Under 12 section

and were awarded third place.

Such a good weekend for our girls. Thanks for having us at the Country Dance Challenge! ❤

northam country dance challenge

yesterday we had northam competitions - the country dance challenge. it's the first time i've been to comps other than the morley starlight festival of dance and i have to admit, i wasn't at all thrilled with the outcome. our girls danced in lyrical troupe and jazz troupe, meaning we had to be at the rec centre at 7:30am - but even after our sections were done, we had to wait for awards until the entire morning session was finished, which wasn't until noon. i must say, i'm a much bigger fan of the perth comps where they award the winners after each section! 

the girls were also meant to be dancing at the northam town hall, which i was thrilled to bits about, it is the most beautiful building and they would have loved it! however, last minute changes sent them to the northam recreation centre where they were left dancing on the basketball court with flimsy side set pieces which blew over when the fans were on... which meant they couldn't be on and the building was boiling hot. there was no changing areas as we were told it was too hot to use the gazebos, yet the local schools were given rooms to change in? 

no supplied photographer, yet we weren't allowed to take photos ourselves? ummmm. apparently the photographer was too busy at the first venue (solos, duos etc) to be at both.

the cashless entry (as marked on the front door) would not allow eftpos for entry to watch the dancing, meaning half the mums had to run to get cash and one of our group missed her daughter altogether. there was so many things leading to it being a really disappointing experience.

however. let's put this aside and focus on the reason we were there. the girls were a bit meh about it too when they saw what was going on and had to wait for hours but they love to dance and that's why we do it right? they danced their lyrical troupe...

and then their jazz troupe...

and sat patiently with the other competitors until awards

third place for lyrical troupe...

and an honourable mention for jazz troupe

all for the love of dance... and let's hope they smooth out the kinks before be go back next year!