Students from a Mountain Top dance studio recently earned first place at a national dance competition.
The dancers from the Conservatory of Dance competed in the Beyond the Stars national dance championships held at Kalahari Resorts at Pocono Summit. The school’s six-member contemporary dance group, competing against 47 other dance studios won first place.
Members of the national champion team, which danced to the song “I Need You Now” are Scarlett Evans, Raina Fountain, Maggie Riccio, Ava Wanchisen, Ashley Long and Juliet Biscotti. Their dance was choreographed by Karlene Dillon.
Danielle Dorzinsky, school director, said 23 of the school’s students participated in the competition. She noted that some of the schools that participated brought as many as 90 dancers.
“We’re now known on the map as national winners,” Dorzinsky commented. “That’s huge.”
She said the dance school, which will begin its 23rd year in September, did not enter dancers in competitions until four years ago.
“I never did this to win trophies,” she said of her school. “I did it for the love of the art.”
She said some of the older girls in her studio urged her to enter competitions. “They wanted to do more than two recitals a year,” she said.
Dorzinsky pointed out that entering competitions like the Beyond the Stars event gives her students the opportunity to see just where they are in their dancing skills. “It’s so exciting to see the joy the girls feel when they try their best,” she noted.
Besides the contemporary genre group, the school’s Hip-Hop group finished in fifth place nationally. The group danced to “Bring ‘Em Out Small” choreographed by Kiera Hinkle.
“It’s been really exciting,” she said of the competitions. “We’re a small school. Our girls have accomplished more than I ever dreamed. We’re the little studio that could!”
