The students from the Dancing Unlimited Black Creek competition team are off to the Encore DCS national competition.
The competition will take place in Charleston, S.C. from June 28-July 1 at the Sotille Theater. Students will compete in various categories including solo, duo/trio, small group, large group and production.
All of the routines qualified for nationals at The Encore DCS regional competition in Jacksonville, Fla., in April.
Students from the team will compete in the production category with "The Wizard of Oz". This category is set aside for numbers that are at least seven minutes long. In Dancing Unlimited’s version of "Oz" local students dance to musical and audio excerpts from the movie. This number has won numerous awards including Creative Costuming, Dance USA and Best Costume, Encore DCS.
Also competing will be local soloists Jesse Mosely, dancing to "Live or Let Die", Chloe Donaldson, dancing to "Honky Tonk", and Victoria Mesorio, dancing to "Celebration". All soloists won first place at the regional competition. Victoria Mesorio dancing to "Celebration" won First Overall Soloist Award in the Petite Division at regional.
After taking platinum at regional in the petite division duo/trio category, Sarah Greeson and Victoria Mesorio are hoping to do the same at Nationals. They will be dancing a Latin beat with the routine "Hot, Hot, Hot". Also, competing in the duo/trio category will be the Junior Division duo/trio "Swing" danced by Jesse Mosely and Lauren Miller.
Other numbers competing include, a fun loving number called "Hard Knock Life". This is an open- musical large group number portraying scenes from the popular Broadway and movie hit Annie. "Devil Went Down to Georgia" is a knee slapping tap battle between students posing as Johnny "country boy" and Devil. "Baby I’m a Star," last year’s Encore National Overall Small Group, and "Aerosmith" are both exciting and entertaining numbers full of turns, leap, and tricks.
Students have been working hard all summer practicing and fund-raising for nationals.
They have trained three to four hours daily for as many as four days a week since the end of May.
Training has included conditioning, ballet technique, and acrobatic strength drills. The competition team is made up of Brittney Shuman, Meredith Hagin, Sheena Holcombe, Lindsay Smith, Courtney Cook, Lauren Miller, Jesse Mosely, Ian Mosely, Taylor Murray, Lindsay Bowen, Taylor Roop, Opal Warren, Alyssa Smith, Sarah Murray, Victoria Mesorio, Sarah Greeson, Chloe Donaldson, Olivia Jones, Hannah Warnell, Hailey Warnell, and Adrienne Kennedy.
Dancing Unlimited, Black Creek is under the direction of Hollis Anderson Hill. They would like to thank all of their sponsors and look forward to bringing home the gold.