Monticello Live

MDA’s Dance Competition team attended Talent On Parade Regionals in Texarkana, Texas this past weekend (February 14-16). MDA took 39 routines to this competition. Each routine is given an adjudication score of Double Diamond (highest), Diamond, or Elite Top First. There are Category Cup Winners across all levels (novice, intermediate, advanced) for the different genres (tap, jazz, lyrical, etc), and they can receive overall placements out of their age division/level.

Of their 39 routines, MDA received the following:

4 Elite Top Firsts

19 Diamonds

16 Double Diamonds

We won 2 judges’ awards:

Gavin Jacobs- “Hat-Ography”

Olivia & Jensen Harrod- “Perfect Partners”

Gavin Jacobs won 3rd overall in the Photogenic Category.

We had 2 students chosen for a Dance Directive Scholarship. Sidney Ballard and Karissa Morman will get to attend a Dance Directive Workshop for free in November.

We had four invites for Top Stars. This is where students receive a scholarship to attend Nationals and be part of the opening number for Nationals. Those students are Sidney Ballard, Hayden Culpepper, Karissa Morman, and Madelyn Terry.

Alex Pennington received a $500 Scholarship to attend TOP’s Go Pro Program. This is for those dancers that intend to pursue a career in dance professionally.

MDA took home several Category cups. These are awarded to the highest scoring routine out of each genre in the divisions of solos, duet/trios, and groups (regardless of their age/level). Our Category cup winners were:

Tap- Karissa Morman’s solo

Tap- Shake It (Chloe Sanders and Sidney Ballard) duet

Lyrical- Run (small group)

Tap- I’ll Be There (large group)

Mrs. Allison received a choreography award for Olivia and Jensen Harrod’s hip hop duet. Only 2 choreography awards were awarded during that block of Competition.

In the competitive line-ups, Dance With Somebody (Keller Bigham and Karissa Morman) received a free entry to compete at TOP’s Holiday Spectacular event in Heber Springs in November/December.

In the overall line-ups, we received the following number of overall placements (across different divisions and levels):

10th overall- 4

8th overall- 2

7th overall- 2

6th overall- 1

5th overall- 2

2nd overall- 5

1st overall- 5

Those 5 included Grace Lee (senior solo), Madelyn Terry (teen solo), Throwback Cuties (Olivia and Jensen Harrod duet), Wildfire (Line Contemporary), and I’ll Be There (Large group tap).

MDA will travel to Starpower in Memphis the first weekend in March, and Dance Showcase USA in Maumelle the second weekend in March.

MDA is owned and operated by Allison Neill. Students are under her instruction as well as the instruction of other teachers and guest choreographers including Toni McFerrin, Charlee Carter, Alex Pennington, Olivia Wilson, Anna Boren, Grace Lee, Shelly Butcher, John Michael Fowler, and Ali McClellan.

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