Dance Fierce!

Willow and Niko had their first dance competition of the season.  It was a long, but fun day.  The day started with the Junior age group (Willow's).  She performed 3 songs.  I could tell Willow was nervous in her first song (hip hop Lemonade).  She's usually not nervous when she performs so I was really surprised by her facial expressions during her first performance.  She seemed to relax more for the next 2 songs.  After, Willow participated in her first Jr Dance Challenge.  The dance challenge is an opportunity to have a mock audition scenario.  The group of girls that were participating were taught a routine in about 10-15 minutes, and then had to perform it for judges.

She is so brave!  She performed it, and while she didn't get selected to continue on, she really did well in her dance abilities.  However, she never moved to the front and even when they told the girls to switch spots she stayed in the back.  When you're doing a dance challenge you want to be seen, so that wasn't the best method.  She had a great experience, but was exhausted after all that dancing!  The girls that won were the girls that were showing off in the front row and had big personalities.  I love that Willow said "that's not me, I just want to dance!"  I love her humble beautiful dancing.  She doesn't need to be the biggest and the best.  She just wants to do what she loves.

 Her team didn't end up winning any awards, but it was overall a good experience for her.  Niko's group was next and they did well in their performance.  I did see one mess up, but that's also because I know the routine pretty well.  They won an award for Fiercely Entertaining and First Overall for Small Group Advanced.  Good for Delta Force!  At the end of the awards they gave out 10 scholarships to their dance camp in Boise, and Niko was one of the ten that won!  He was so surprised, and honestly I was too, because I'd tuned out during those scholarships since it had been a long day.  I was very surprised when I heard him announcing himself "Niko Dunkley.  Lost Tribe!"  One of the judges approached us after the awards to tell Niko congratulations and asked me if I had seen his face when he was selected.  She said it completely made her day to see him be so surprised and excited.  

Great Dancers, and thanks to Johnny for holding down the fort at home with Navy and Kai while we spent the whole day (literally) in Idaho Falls at Dance Fierce!