Allison's First Dance Competition

Ever since last fall, Allison has been practicing three dance routines for competitions:

Jazz: Hey Daddy
Hip Hop: Scooby Dooby Doo
Tap: The Shoop Shoop Song

This weekend was her first competition where her dance team performed their routines. The Talent On Parade (TOP) Kalamazoo Regional competion was held at Miller Auditorium on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. It was pretty cool to go back to the campus Heidi and I both graduated from. So much has changed since we left (about 14 years ago... yikes!!!). Anyway, Nathan was playing in a hockey tournament this weekend so after his early game Saturday morning we zipped down to Kalamazoo to catch Ally's dances. Her first routine was Hey Daddy. It's kind of a fast country number. All the girls are dressed in jean skirts, jackets, and lots of sparkles. Her whole group did a great job. We could tell she was pretty nervous. Who wouldn't be nervous performing for the first time in a giant auditorium with tons of people, judges, photographers, and videographers watching?!. But she kept smiling at the judges during the whole routine and looked like she had fun. Even with all that she did great.

What was really funny was I think Nathan was more nervous for her than Heidi and I put together!! He was always asking when Ally was up and when she was coming up he would get all serious and focused hoping she did good. How cute!

The second routine she did was Scooby Dooby Doo. It is a hip hop mix. The girls wear white hoodies with Scooby Doo airbrushed on the back along with white tennis shoes and visors and a purple sparkled skirt. During this dance, Ally looked less nervous and was clearly starting to get a little comfortable. The last number was her tap dance. The girls wore very poofy skirts with bright pink and even more sparkle. By this time, Ally didn't look nervous at all and did great! I think this was their best performance of the three. It's funny... there were probably about 20 girls in the routine and I didn't ever watch any of the other ones. At the end, her groups did well in the scoring and won some awards. She brought home six ribbons. But I'd be lying if I tried to say I understood them. I don't know if they took 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in anything. Everything was "First place", "Top First", and "Elite Top First" whatever those mean. In addition they also won awards for overall categories. Hopefully the instructors can explain how that all works this week at practice so we at least know what they're shooting for. But for a first competition it seemed to me like they all did a great job. We've got a few weeks before the Battle Creek competition. Here are some pictures of Allison back stage before the performances.

"Hey Daddy" - Jazz

"Scooby Dooby Doo!"

"The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)"