HUMBOLDT — Dancers with A-List Dance & Acrobatics performed in two virtual international competitions hosted in the United States.
Alyssa Hinz, owner of A-List Dance & Acrobatics, said that during the last day of practice at the studio, before closing down the location due to COVID-19, she filmed some of their dances.
This included all of her senior students’ dances, as well as solo and duets for any younger student who wanted to have theirs filmed.
“I sent them to two competitions, and they got great feedback on it. They improved a lot this year, so I was excited for everybody to see what they learned in town.”
The first virtual event was Inferno Dance Competition, which took place from March 28 to 30. The competition had about 500 entries.
“It was really big, they livestreamed everything,” Hinz said. “There was studios from all over the world, I think it was the first virtual competition, like a million are popping up now but that’s the first one I saw that was even announced.”
One of their groups, which consisted of Cassidy Lummerding, Shaya Nordick, Mackenzie Bentley, Isabelle Ebert, and Bronwyn Lueke got Top 4 overall in ballet, and Top 3 overall in lyrical.
For solos, all Humboldt performers got over 90 per cent.
In the 15 to 16 category, Ebert got eighth overall with her tap, and 2nd overall with her ballet. Lieke got 1st overall with her ballet.
In the 17 to 19 category, Lummerding got first overall with her hip hop.
The second event, Fly Dance Competition, took place on April 1. This event was based out of Los Angelis, and had about 400 entries.
Unlike with Inferno, the performances were not livestreamed, just the awards.
Hinz said that for this reason, she thinks the dancers preferred Inferno.
“I think the dancers liked being able to see the live-stream one of their dancers, and be able to have their family and friends watch them.”
At the Fly Dance Competition, Nordick got first overall in the teen solo division; Lummerding got 3rd overall in the senior solo division; Ebert got second overall in the senior solo division; and Nordick and Lummerding got third overall in the senior duet division.
Lummerding, Nordick, Bentley, Ebert, and Lueke competed in the senior small group division, taking home third overall with lyrical, second overall with jazz, and first overall with contemporary.
The judges called their performances "a clean sweep.” The team also scored highly in ballet, hip hop, pointe, and heels.
Hinz said that typically the students would take part in four in-person competitions a year, but with the pandemic all four had to be cancelled.
Two competitions gave the club credit for next year, one has yet to respond, and one went out of business.
“One of our in-person competitions went out of business, so they can’t refund us at all,” Hinz said, adding that the parents were understanding.
“Not getting money back kind of sucks, and we’re all feeling that.”
While there were unique challenges this past season, Hinz also said this has been their best year yet.
“We really grew this year and the kids really grew as dancers,” she said.
“Some of our age groups doubled by 100 per cent. It was a really good year, everything was going great, then this threw a massive curveball. Our recital was completely sold out already and everything so we had to refund our recital tickets.”
The class award ceremony will take place on May 8, at 7 p.m., on the A-List Dance & Acrobatics Facebook page.
“That was the time the first show of our recital was supposed to be,” Hinz said, “so I thought that was a good time to do our awards since we don’t have a recital.”
Everyone is invited to watch. Their page can be found at facebook.com/alistdanceandacrobatics.
