Audio Transcript
Hey everyone! It’s Ruth.
I’m here at your Silver Creek Clogging Dance and Movement Center in Silverton, Oregon. It’s the home of Dance Classes that Make Kids HappyTM.
This is What’s Happening at Silver Creek Clogging the week of February 15th.
And, boy, it has been a wild weekend. I know a lot of you are dealing with power outages that have lasted for days on end. I know at our house the power is out and has been out since Friday. I been a devastating, a devastating weather event here in this area and I’m really thinking of all of our students.
Also, I want to turn our attention to a little bit of a happier note, which is our competition this last weekend in Boise.
Our students did awesome this last weekend. I just want to say we had six competitors (four advanced, one intermediate and one beginning), and they rocked it. With those six students we had a combined, let me see let me make sure I don’t say this the wrong way. We had a combined 25 first place awards. We had two second place awards. And, we had three master soloist awards (that means that three of our students competed all five all-around solos in their skill level and got first place in all five solos, so that’s awesome, they are master soloists). We had one student achieve a high gold and that means that they had 98 percent points possible they got 98 percent of the points possible in their event so that’s 29.5 or higher out of 30 possible which is awesome!
Yay, Silver Creek Clogging students! I’m so proud of how well you all did this last weekend in competition. Every single one of our students qualified for Nationals, our team routine qualified for Nationals, duet qualified for Nationals, every single one of our soloists qualified for Nationals. Awesome! Yay!
And, I kind of really wanted to keep this next little announcement a secret. I was going to announce it at class tonight for the advanced students in their team class tonight but, considering that class is kind of up in the air with everything that’s going on with this weather event that we just had, I just couldn’t keep it in. Plus, I’m super excited about it because it’s just really, really awesome.
But, our studio won a Overall Studio Grand Champion award in the advanced level.
We were one of three studios that had the most wins in the advanced level and we were awarded, along with those other two studios, as an Overall Studio Grand Champion.
I think this is huge for us. One, because we had four advanced students at competition and those four advanced students won so many first place awards that we -our studio, with our six students- placed in the top three among studios who had dozens of competitors at competition. So, look at us go.
I’m just thrilled! I feel like, you know, those other two studios who were named Overall Studio Grand Champions with us in the advanced level, they’ve been competing for a lot of years. They are well respected in the western clogging world and one of those studios has several National Championships under their belt. So, we’re in really, really good company.
I think this says a lot about our program.
But, even more so, I think it says a lot about our students who – they set their goals, they were focused on what they wanted to achieve, they worked hard, and then they achieved what they had set out to do.
So, I am really, really proud of every single one of our competitors who worked hard, brought everything they had to competition, and did such an amazing job.
And, I’m really excited to see our students continue to grow and continue to just be in the best, with the best. Really, really awesome.
Please remember, for our competitors, that Nationals -clogging Nationals- is in May it’s on May 14th and 15th. That’s in Salt Lake City.
It will be held at Lagoon Amusement Park and all of our competitors, all of those competitors who participated in Boise and qualified for Nationals should start planning now to participate in that May 14th and 15th, okay?
So, we don’t know what the schedule is yet. So far America OnStage has been operating in studio blocks. So, if they continue that process, depending on how COVID protocols go, we will be assigned our studio block, just like we were in Boise, and we’ll come and perform all of our stuff and then leave.
The competition event fees are a little higher for Nationals. You’ll see that in your email. But, still very comparable to what they were for this regional event.
And, at Nationals there’s an opportunity to do a dance-off (an All-American dance-off), that’s only for students who are advanced level or higher. And, I’ll talk with the advanced students about the dance off and what that means for them if they want to participate in that. But, it is optional. It’s not required.
And, all of the fees, all of that, that’s in your email. So, check that out.
But, please do plan now… start planning now to participate in Nationals May 14th and 15th. It’s just in a few months down the road.
Let us know if you have any questions.
For classes this week, we are planning to hold classes. I know right now that there are several of us without power, without internet. So, if you’re scheduled to attend virtually we’ll keep you updated with any updates as we have them.
Also, we will be sending students home with a special Valentine Day surprise for your families, whom we love so much! Anyway, we’ll be sending that home.
We just want you to know that we appreciate you and we love you and so you’ll just get a little token of our appreciation sent home with your student this week.
Also, please, students be prepared to come to class and share a little love with your classmates by bringing a happy story or thought about your team that you want to share in class. Okay, yeah, that’s what we’re going to do this week.
Coming up, we will have first Friday as scheduled the first Friday of March, April and May. Those are on the calendar, so just keep those on your calendars.
March 22nd, that whole week, no classes for spring break. We will have a couple of makeup lessons to be scheduled, so we might end up scheduling those during spring break, depending on how things go.
And then, of course in May, super important events.
May 14th and 15th- that’s our Nationals competition, for our competitors. Remember, just plan now to attend.
And then, May 29th is our, our uh, spring kickoff. Goll, I had to remember what season this is, with everything that’s been going on this year, my mind it just gets a little bit muddled, but that is our spring kickoff recital – summer kickoff recital in Salem. So, please keep that day on your calendars.
I want to leave you this week with our quote of the week, “Sometimes you just have to jump out the window and grow wings on the way down.” And, Ray Bradbury said that. I really love that quote.
And, with that, I will say… happy dancing!