Picture this: a hundred sparkly costumes, a giant lit-up stage, and a set of judges watching your every move. Kind of a big deal, right? That’s what competition day looks like for our 45 competition dancers at Prestige. We know that if you aren’t there yourself, it may be a little difficult to understand what all the hype is about. So today on the blog, we are giving you an inside look at our competition dance team in Cedar Rapids.
At Prestige Dance Studio, on top of our weekly recreational classes, we offer multiple performance team programs. P.Com is Prestige Dance Studio’s community expo team. Dancers perform four to six times per year throughout the community with both jazz and hip hop routines. P.Co is Prestige Dance Studio’s all-genre competition team. These dancers attend dance conventions, four regional competitions, and a national dance competition.
Today we are shining the spotlight on our P.Co teams, not only because our competition season is in full swing, but also because we are so proud of their accomplishments so far! So what exactly happens at a dance competition? It’s not exactly your typical sporting event.
1. A Dedicated Rehearsal Schedule
In addition to weekly technique classes where they practice their dance skills, our competitive dancers attend weekly rehearsals. Learning cutting edge new choreography, these teams are committed to making their routines look clean, impressive, and perfectly in sync. They are responsible for remembering their multiple routines for different dance styles, making detailed changes to their movement, and cooperating with their teammates.
2. Glitz and Glam!
A dance competition is basically a SEA of sparkles, and it’s not JUST because we love to shine! When dancing under the big stage lights, moving rhinestones create a pretty magical effect. Thick stage makeup is needed so that the dancers’ facial expressions can be seen under the lights as well.
Hair, make-up, and our beautiful rhinestoned costumes must all be completed with precision, as each dancer must look exactly the same. This uniformity reduces distractions and point deductions. We love watching as our students learn responsibility at competitions. If a dancer forgets a costume accessory or their hair falls out on stage, it reminds them ALL to triple check before stepping on stage.
3. Taking the Stage
After hair, make-up, and costumes are set, our dancers head to the warm-up zone. We require our teams to stretch and do a brief run-through of their dance before heading backstage. This reduces injuries and mind-blanks on stage!
Once the music starts, it is 2.5 minutes of amazing! Watching our dancers hit their routines while judges are scoring their every move is incredible! A spark usually lights up inside of them. They are taught to dance BIG and BOLD, which is almost impossible NOT to do when your dances are well prepared and you look like a rockstar!
4. Trophy Time
After teams from all over the region compete, everyone gathers on stage to hear the results. Each dance receives an award (silver, gold, platinum) and then the dances are ranked by overall score.
We teach our P.Co dancers to practice good sportsmanship, win OR lose. We celebrate our victories AND clap for other teams when they win big. Awards teach our dancers how to strive for excellence. Hard work pays off.
Our 2020 Competition Season is already in full swing! A month ago we debuted our competition routines at Showbiz National Talent Competition in Davenport, Iowa! We recently headed to St. Charles, Missouri for our second competition.
We are SO proud of our dancers’ performance at both events and we are hungry for more stage time in the coming months! Check out some of our amazing results from Showbiz!
Be sure to follow along on our studio Facebook page to stay up to date on competition results from the rest of our season! Good luck to all of our P.Co dancers. We can’t wait to watch you shine!