The Extreme Dance Awards

Chapter 19

 Kendall’s POV

As more and more people were eliminated, the competition was getting harder and harder at the same time. I was glad that I survived and passed last week, since I didn’t impress the judges. I thought that it was very important to win a group dance challenge, since I haven’t won any yet, and it would be a huge accomplishment for me to be at the top. So this morning, I got ready and changed into my normal dance outfit, I pulled my hair into a ponytail, and I went to the dance room while carrying my dance bag with all my supplies.

“Hello dancers! How’s everyone doing today?” Abby asked.

“Good,” we all replied.

“So, I have a huge announcement to make.”

“This week, it will be a week off for all of you, which means that there will not be any group dance challenge, rehearsals, and definitely no competition. Instead, you will be taking different classes taught by different teachers. Each of you will be having two privates, one with Gia, one with me this week. This is just a week for you to make you less stressful and be more prepared. Got it?”

I was so excited to hear that there would not be any challenges or competition. I needed some rest from competitions, and I just needed to relax.

“Each day, the schedule will be given to you when you warm up. In case you lose your schedule, there will be a schedule posted on the bulletin board outside of the main dance room. I am going to briefly talk about the schedule of today. So from 9:00 to 9:30, you will be warming up in this room, the main room. And then, you will be talking jazz from 9:30 to 11:00, and lyrical from 11:00 to 12:30. After that, you go to lunch. You have ballet from 1:30 to 3:00, and an improvisation season from 3:00 to 4:00. After that, you are dismissed, and you are allowed to do whatever you want. You can do whatever that helps you during warm up. The dance room is open, you can hang out at the mall, it’s your choice,” Abby said.

Since jazz was our first class, I did more turns and more kicks when I was warming up. Jazz was one of my best styles of dance, and I loved it so much. We did a combo to the song “Die Young”  by Kesha. The combo was a lot of fun, and Gia made the class so interesting to take.

“Tilt, hold! Fouette, fouette, a la second, a la second, double, triple, as many as you can! Stretch your knees Maddie! Point your feet Mackenzie and Kendall! Turn our your feet Kalani!” Gia was being very busy giving us corrections and teaching us the combination at the same time.

“The whole point of this dance is to be fierce, powerful and sassy. So when you do the turns, if possible, add some sassy facial expressions every time when you finish a turn and you are facing the audience. It’s better to do different facial expressions every time, so change it up,” Gia said.

We ran over our dance for a couple times, and then Gia told us that we were going to learn another part of the dance.

“Here, you are going to do a leap, kick in second, and you improv for four counts. After that, all of you do an aerial, step, step, facing the back, and open your arms. Make sure this part is very sharp when you do it, so it makes this dance a lot more powerful then just opening your arms.”

This combo was one of my favourites combos that I have ever done. It was very fun and challenging at the same time.

After jazz, we had lyrical. Gia was also teaching the lyrical class. We did a combo that Gia choreographed herself, and the music that we used was “Counting Stars” covered by Gardiner Sisters. We basically did a lot of moves with legs, such as tilt, developpes, and so on.

“Here, all of you will be doing a hold of any kind. It can be holding a needle, a tilt, an arabesque, anything. You hold it for eight counts, and then you prep, and start a turn combo. I will teach you the turn combo after we do this part,” Gia said.