Stars Dance Team

A new Star was born today.... well, actually she auditioned yesterday but we are getting ahead of ourselves.



Erin wants to dance and dance and dance and I've been looking for a studio that works for what she wants as well as her parent's crazy work schedule. In other words, a dance studio that offers classes in the evenings and on the weekends where you don't have to be a stay-at-home mom or leave work early to get her to class. I thought I had found a suitable studio and then Monday we got a random flyer on our door for the Salt City Stars Dance Academy. I remembered all my friends in school who were great dancers were in Stars so I knew the reputation for the program and sent off an email to find out about schedules and costs, etc. Turns out that they have classes in the evenings and would work for all of our needs. And, the next night were the auditions for the competition teams if we were interested. I told Erin about it to see if she just wanted to dance or if she wanted to compete and she was definitely interested in competing. So, we were headed to auditions!!


She's had 2 years of ballet training but not in any kind of rigid program - just for fun and mostly in someones basement studio - so I wasn't too sure of what her chances were for making the team - especially since we went totally unprepared with about 8 hours notice and having missed the workshop the night before. But, we went and she auditioned Thursday night. She was the only girl there that was new to the studio and stood out like a sore thumb (or a shining star, depending on which way you look at it) because she wasn't already in the standard uniform - she was in her sparkly pink leotard and everyone else was in black boy shorts and tops - but it didn't stop her from jumping right in. I was filling out paperwork and they took her off without a look back. When I was done with the registration paperwork, I went to watch and the door was shut and the blinds were closed - I tried to peek in and I got a tiny glimpse of Erin finishing a set of turns across the floor and she looked like she was having fun so I stopped worrying about her being shy. I had to sit in the waiting room for 1.5 hours waiting for her to come out. Luckily I had a book.... When they were done, she had already made a new friend.


The team rosters were to be posted the next day in the window of the studio so tonight we went back over to see if her name was on the list. I let her look and see if she could find her name and then caught her on camera when she did. (Of course, I couldn't wait to know so I had driven by the studio on my way to work this morning and already knew that she would find her name under the Mini's team...)




She is so excited and told everyone she saw tonight (including a call to Grandma and Pa) about it. So, now we embark on a new adventure with a daughter in competitive dance. Starting in September, she dances 3 hours a week - an hour of ballet, an hour of jazz and an hour of individual team routine - with 5 competitions a year, two recitals and Nationals in Las Vegas.

She's always been our star, now it's just official.