Nexstar Dance Competition- Dayton

Abby’s dance studio participated in its third and final regional dance competition on Saturday. Just one more competition to go and then Abby is done with youth competition dance. Too many lasts happening over here 😭.

The competition was held at the Victoria Theater in downtown Dayton (just a couple of buildings away from Donnie’s work building). It was done in block scheduling style as all competitions are nowadays. There was one other studio in our block- another dance studio from Springboro. At first I was kind of irritated about our block schedule time- 7:00 am to 12:00 pm Saturday morning (WHY so early??) but it ended up working out ok (besides getting up super early...) because we had the rest of the nice day to enjoy.

We were supposed to be at the venue at 6:30 AM. That didn’t quite happen... Abby didn’t dance until after 9:00 but we wanted to see all the girls from her studio dance so we were there by 7:00. Abby’s first dance was her musical theater solo. It probably wasn’t her best performance of it and she was upset after she finished it. However, she powered through and performed her lyrical solo wonderfully. Then she just had her duo with Sophia and large group musical theater and she was done. 

There was a modified awards ceremony at the end of the block. Obviously, there would be no overall winners announced then since much of the competition hadn’t taken place yet. But some special awards were given and Abby received a great one- a scholarship to a talent and model expo later this year.

The competition was a large one- studios performed from Friday late afternoon/ evening all the way through Sunday evening. On Sunday evening around 9:45, the results were published on Nexstar's website. Abby's lyrical solo placed FIRST overall for all solos in her age group/ division. There were 68 routines that she competed against and she won first place out of all of those!!! What a great way to end the regional competitions this year. Her competition season has been so good this year- her musical theater solo came in first place of all the solos in her age group/ division at the first competition, her musical theater solo came in second place of all the solos in her age group/ division at the second competition and her lyrical solo just came in first place in this competition. Judging these competitions is subjective, of course. Abby could have easily not come in first place with a different set of judges. However, the fact that she consistently does so well at each competition (and has done well consistently in years past as well) indicates that she's doing something pretty good on stage :). So proud of her hard work and grateful that God gave her the talents of athleticism and performance. 

A few pictures:

A view of the Victoria Theater as we walked from our car to the theater- something positive about starting so early on Saturday morning was the abundance of parking spots in Dayton. I was able to find street parking close to the venue. Love the "Avenue of the Arts" street name (the street also goes by a more conventional name) as it sounds so sophisticated and, well, artsy. Donnie's building is the the tall one shown in the right in the picture. 

The inside of the theater is beautiful. It was super dark inside and iPhone camera so the pictures don't do it justice.

These wooden floors we saw in a practice room look rustic enough to have splinters but fortunately they did not...

The dance mom and the dancer- I bought this Dance Mom shirt at a dance competition ten years ago. I always wear it on the day that Abby performs her solos (of course this year, all of the routines are performed in one day because of block scheduling). Like me, it is showing its age (every time I wash it, more of the rhinestones fall off and it's harder to read from a distance. I guess from context cues, it's easy to know that it says "Dance Mom.") but I will wear it proudly at the ONE more dance competition that Abby has.

Here are a few professional pictures from Abby's lyrical solo. Waiting on Abby's permission to post the video :). The song is Jenny of Oldstones from Game of Thrones. It's a beautiful lyrical song and I think it sounds even better to listen to it when watching Abby dance to it. 

After the competition- Abby with three of her friends and former dancers from her studio. They are all now dance teachers at the studio.

Abby and Kim outside of the Victoria- Abby's first dance teacher at the studio was Kim- back when Abby was in kindergarten. I'm grateful that Abby has known many adults who have poured into her for as long as Abby can remember.

And with dance mom Julie- one of Abby's biggest fans.