Dancin' 3D sweeps Kid's Artistic Review awards

What do you get when you enter nine soloists and eight team dances in a regional dance competition and come home with over 41 total awards? A lot of very excited dancers!

That was the story for the Dancin’ 3D dance team from CAST Academy of Dance at the KAR dance competition held at Cal Poly Pomona on June 4 and 5.

In addition to most of the soloists earning Category Winner and Top First Place Awards, Jaclyn Costa, Alex Schooner, Katie Neal and Traci McKnight earned Overall Awards in their divisions, with McKnight earning the highest award of the team soloists, with fourth place Overall.

The team dance pieces did equally as well with “Sunscreen,” “Liberty,” “Catch 22” and “Burn Me Up” winning first place Overall Awards. The dance pieces “Prepare Yourself” and “Istanbul” took third place Overall, with “Honorable Mention” walking away with fourth place Overall. “Where Did It Go?” rocked with the 10th place Overall Award. The Overall placements earned the team cash prizes totaling $350.

If that wasn’t enough for the team members to get excited about, the judges recognized them again with two special “Creative Concept” awards for the dance routines “Where Did It Go?” and “Sunscreen.” The dance number “Catch 22” was given the “Too Hot To Handle” title for outstanding personality and technique during their performance.

As an added perk, Kid’s Artistic Revue presented the dancers of “Sunscreen” and “Catch 22” with the KAR Kids award. This award is bestowed upon students with outstanding technique and performance skills. Next summer this award invites the dancers to spend a week in New York City attending workshops with some of the top choreographers and instructors in the nation. In addition, the dancers will get a backstage tour of Radio City Music Hall and visit with the world famous “Rockettes” as a part of the week-long package.

“Getting the trophies and plaques home from the competition took the entire back seat of my car,” said Whitman, one of the coaches for the team, “but who’s complaining?”

Patty Hornsveld, owner of CAST, said, “Finally, CAST is being recognized as a top performing arts school. Several members of the audience asked us questions and told us that ‘our dancers are amazing,’ and they are!”

CAST will be holding auditions for new dance team members on Saturday, August 13. Call (760) 731-2278.