Nexstar Dance Competition

After a mere 19 month break, Abby was able to compete in a dance competition! The last time she was on a stage competing, she was a lass of just 16 years old and had no idea that her foot would be badly injured five months later and five months after that, the world as everyone knew it would change. Between her foot injury preventing her from competing in the one competition her team did in 2020 and all the remaining 2020 competitions being canceled due to Covid, Abby competed on Saturday a much different person than she was the last time she competed. Now she’s a legal adult, she is taking all college classes, she has two jobs (she works in Donnie’s office and she’s a sponsored athlete for a supplement company), she has her driver’s license and drives (though not particularly enthusiastically)- so a lot has changed for Abby during the hiatus from dance competitions. But some things remain the same and when you have performing in your blood like Abby does, it stays there no matter what else has changed. 

Speaking of changes, oh my, have dance competitions changed. Not complaining. Just saying that they are quite different now in the age of Covid.

I think every dance competition in the country is following a new format. The new format is called block scheduling and it entails only one dance studio at a time being in the competition venue. The dance studio that is in the venue performs all of its competition routines within a block of time- ours was two hours. In past years all of the dance studios that were competing in the competition would be at the venue at the same time and dance routines would be spread out all over the weekend. So for instance, for large competitions, it would be common for Abby to compete one routine Friday evening, a few on Saturday and possible some more on Sunday. And the time of the dances could range from early in the morning on Saturday to in the evening on Saturday. The total time we’d spend at a dance competition venue over the course of the weekend was often times as much as fifteen hours.

The other big change is that award ceremonies are now not being done at the competitions. Rather, at the conclusion of the competition, when all of the results are in, a studio teacher goes to the venue to pick up the awards and hands them out to the dancers.

Abby’s dance studio attended Nexstar dance competition in Mason this past weekend. The event was held at the Mariott Northeast Cincinnati in Mason. The original location was the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason. However, GWL requires everyone using its facilities to be in a mask at all times, including dancers on stage (but excluding GWL customers using the water park). Suffice it to say that numerous complaints were lodged (no pun intended) about the mask requirement for dancers (even when dancing a solo routine, GWL was going to require dancers to wear a mask on stage). Fortunately, Nexstar was able to move the competition to a new one, the Mariott, which required all guests of the facility to be in masks at all times except for dancers when they were on stage performing.

So anyway... notwithstanding all the changes big and small... we had ourselves a dance competition!! Abby’s dance studio was scheduled to perform its routines from 4:00 to 6:00 pm on Saturday. There were strict requirements about when dancers could enter the Mariott, when spectators could, etc. Our studio was only the second one competing of the day (most studios were competing on Sunday) and the first one ran a little over so we didn’t get started until about 4:30. Abby is only competing in four routines this year. That’s a low number- the lowest she’s ever been in since her first year. One effect of the low number of routines she’s in means that she didn’t have nearly the number of quick changes that most of the dancers from her studio had. Everything went pretty smoothly for us- I helped her in between routines since she changed her hairstyles for some of her dances. The dances she was in (and all of them from our studio :)) went really well. Seeing all that practice pay off is satisfying... 

As for the awards, we met at our dance studio at 6:30 pm on Sunday. Our studio owner Tammy had gone to Mason to pick up the awards to hand out to the dancers at our studio.  It was strange to have the awards so much after the dancing- the whole competition awards component felt a little anti climatic at that point. Plus it was strange to have the awards at our studio and have them with just our dance studio. Abby’s duo with her dance partner Sophia came in 1st place in duos and trios. Her one group routine came in second place and Abby finished first place among the soloists in her age group! Abby was thrilled about the latter. There were 13 routines against which she was competing for her age and division.

I have pictures of Abby dancing at the competition but first... friends. Abby’s two friends and former dance teammates Ally and Hanna gave Abby this basket of goodies on Saturday before the competition.

We were able to purchase pictures and video of the dances. The photographer at the competition sat further back than the photographer normally does (because, Covid?) so the pictures from the large group that Abby is in didn’t turn out really well. Hopefully at another competition the photographer will get good ones of the group. Below are pictures from her duo and two solos.

This is a fun duo that Abby does with a younger dancer named Sophia. She is a sweet girl and has a similar stage presence that Abby has.

Not exactly sure what is going on here- many times in a duo dance, the dancers move in sync but at other times, they do their own moves. So I don’t know if they were off with their timing here, but, oh my- Abby’s leg...

Abby’s lyrical solo

Musical theater...

The obligatory dance mom/ dancer picture

Awards at the studio on Sunday- seeing Amy home from college was nice. The next time Amy comes home, the girls hope to get together.

Abby and some of her awards- she was also crowned Miss Nexstar

Abby and Arianna- it was not that long ago that they danced together

And with Amy, too. These three competed a trio one year together- it was so good. 

Some of the dancers from the studio at the awards. Not everyone could attend so not everyone is pictured.

Abby and Sophia

Nexstar was a great start to the competition season...

...and a great last first competition for Abby