Competing against dance teams from across the country, Evolve Dance Academy’s petite small group team topped them all and took home the 2022 National Grand Championship for the petite division ages 5-8 at Iowa State in Ames, IA.
The song that brought Fulton’s own Evolve Dance Academy a National Grand Championship title was Wannabe by Spice Girls.
Evolve Dance Academy’s small petite team scored the highest in the small group division, getting first place for small ages (5-9 years old), then they competed against a broader range of numbers in their age in the championship.
This included both large groups (those with eight to 19 dancers), small groups (four to seven dancers) and lines (those with 20+ dancers).
The top five scores among all these groups’ ages (5-9 years old for Evolve Dance Academy’s winning team) were brought to the championship to recompete for the title of “Best of the Bash”.
After competing in the “Best of the Bash,” Evolve Dance Academy’s small petite team received the top highest score once again and was named “Best of the Bash”. This means they not only beat the small groups, but also the large groups and lines.
Evolve Dance Academy’s petite group is comprised of five dancers — Gwyneth Bright (8 years old), Haven McClelland (8 years old), Baylee Chism (9 years old), Averie Salmons (8 years old) and Rylee Harris (7 years old).
Helping the girls prepare for the competition were coaches, Katherine White and Nikki Dowden.
The number of hours and competions that lead up to nationals made it a long yet rewarding journey. Evolve Dance Academy prepared for nationals 10 months ago and competed in regional events between February and May.
Typically, coaches White and Dowden spend eight to 10 hours a week preparing the team for regional events, but as nationals grew closer the girls were spending even more time in the studio.
“A lot of times four or five days a week — multiple hours and working hard each day — getting ready to do their very best performance,” White said.
Preparing for nationals, the Evolve Dance Academy team practiced for two to three hours, sometimes even four each day. The time of the practices varied, depending on the day.
“It took place all hours of the day,” White said. “Sometimes we would pick the kids up from daycare and bring them into practice at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Sometimes we were at the studio until close to 10 o’clock at night.”
Evolve Dance Academy’s competitors were spending just as much time, if not more practicing for nationals, according to Dowden.
“It was definitely some tough competition we were up against,” Dowden said. “Our older girls definitely saw the toughest competition. Our younger girls also saw tough competition, and they brought their game, too.”
The Evolve Dance Academy team performed a sassy dance routine to the song Wannabe. Their winning routine was good enough to also earn the team the entertainment award for its division.
“The song does fit their personalities,” White said. “They’re all little sassy girls who love to have fun, and so the song just fit.”
Originally, the team was going to dress up as all five Spice Girls, but the costumes weren’t delivered in time before its first competition.
Outside of performing Wannabe, Evolve Dance Academy’s small petite team also competed in two other dances besides its winning routine.
As a studio, Evolve Dance Academy took 15 numbers to Iowa.
Each dance routine is placed into a scoring range, platinum being the highest, followed by elite high gold, high gold and silver.
In order to achieve platinum, the team must accumulate at least 285 points; 300 points is a perfect score.
Platinum was the category Evolve Dance Academy’s small petite dance team’s routine fell under, registering a score of 291.50 from the three judges. The team placed first in its division and first in its category (jazz).
Most prestigious of all, Evolve Dance Academy placed first in the grand champion voting, which accounted for a total of 1,000 participating teams, according to White.
One of the elements of Evolve Dance Academy’s performance that stood out to the judges was the group’s pointed toes.
The judges’ comments included, “You guys are so entertaining!” and “Wow this is so great!”
Outside of its routine, the judges thought the Evolve Dance Academy’s small petite team was the most polite group all week.
According to White, the judges’ feedback helped the girls grow as dancers.
In total, Evolve Dance Academy — with 20 girls on its teams — brought home a first place trophy, second place trophy, fourth place trophy, two fifth place trophies, two sixth place trophies and multiple judges awards. All of its scores were in the platinum or elite high gold ranges.
The National Grand Championship wasn’t just a weekend event, the competition was a whole week of dancing.
Evolve Dance Academy departed for Iowa the day after the Fourth of July and arrived back home in Fulton late Sunday night.
While the National Grand Championship was the focus, Evolve Dance Academy also had some fun team bonding activities during its week in Iowa.
Some of those activities included going to a waterpark and having a pizza party with other teams Evolve Dance Academy was competing against.
“We had a lot of really good team bonding opportunities and experiences,” White said. “At the end of the day, that’s what’s the most important to us is that the girls are having fun and enjoying themselves. It makes it even sweeter when you have a win on top of that.”
Evolve Dance Academy also had the chance to attend a couple of hip-hop dancing master classes with girls from other teams and one class led by a professional dancer as well.
All five girls said the master classes were fun and challenging.
This week and next week, the team has a break before it starts a new season with the hope of making it to nationals and potentially winning another grand championship.
The work this season didn’t go unnoticed, as the girls impressed their coaches, judges and parents alike.
“I just think it’s important for the girls to know how proud of them we are of them and their hard work and dedication,” White said. “And we can’t wait to see what their futures all have in store for them.”
CORRECTION - Coach Nikki Dowden provided the following corrections:The top five scores of every division competed in the grand championship, not all 1,000 teams. There were 1,000 teams throughout the whole week, not just in their division. There was no voting. Whoever re-competed in the grand championship and got the highest score was named the grand champion.