12 Ottawa star dancers started off the new year by taking part in the DanceOne Company dance convention and competition. 24Seven, the popular branch of DanceOne, hosted the convention and competition in Rochester, New York. The convention handed out “I am a non-stop dancer” recognition tickets to the top performers at the convention, and top ten position certificates for each age category in the dance competition for solos/duos and trios.
“All the dance styles were lumped into the age category for standings,” said Valerie Gratton, dance mom. “I would have liked it better if the dance styles would have been separated rather than lumped in the age categories.”
The age categories are sidekick’s 5-7, mini’s aged 8-10, juniors 11-12, teens aged 13-15, seniors 16-19, and open 20+. The Ottawa dance studio Ecole Danse Louise had a fruitful outcome with 7 of their dancers placing top ten in their age category.
Emilia Brasset Kostyk is a 12-year-old competitive dancer from Ecole Dance Louise. At the 24 Seven competition, she placed 8th out of the top ten in the junior category. Her dance was choreographed by Andrea Viola, director of Art and Soul Dance company in Vaughan, Ontario and rehearsed with Melanie Belair-Adams, director of Ecole Dance Louise in Ottawa. Emilia’s studies and dances 18 to 20 hours a week this is including her competitive group dance choreographies.
Her was costume is hand-made by her mother for the 24 Seven competition.
“I make some of her costumes, I enjoy doing it, this competition was early in the year therefore I didn’t have time to perfect it, due to the Christmas rush,” said Jill Brasset, dance mom. “I plan to make modification for future competitions”.
Most of the dance costumes are designed by the teacher involved in rehearsing the dance with the dancer. The teacher sketches-out a design and sends the design to a local seamstress to make the fashion statement a reality, considering the theme and style of the dance.
While dance is not a beauty competition but is about the abilities to execute specific dance techniques and entertain the audience. The judges scores are out of 100. Fifty per cent on technique, twenty per cent on choreography, and thirty per cent on performance.
“We do not share scores and score sheets as those are only distributed to the registered studio’s for their specific routines,” said Audrey Lord, office manager of 24Seven Dance Convention.
The stage sound and lighting is carefully executed by high technology audio and sound technicians.
Junior dancer Leonie Macorig took home the 7th place for her age category at 24 Seven. Her Jazz solo was well received by the judges, winning against 35 other competitors.
This was the first competition of the year, girls are scheduled to take part in four more competitions in 2025. The last competition takes place in Orlando, Florida.