Local Dancers Win at Regional Competition

Four local ballet students – Stassney Ahrens (9) of Flatonia, Claire Besetzny (9) of Schulenburg, Grace Malinovsky (13) of Shiner and Kamryn Kelly (12) of Muldoon – all won 1st place with their respective routines at the Dance Showcase USA Regional Competition held this past weekend in Bastrop.

Nina Gorman trained the students at On Pointe, located in Schulenburg, and choreographed all pieces which they performed.

Ahrens’ placed 1st in classical ballet with her performance of “Variation from Paquita.” Ahrens along with Besetzny placed 1st in contemporary ballet duo with their performance of “Dolls.” This was Besetzny’s first foray into dance competitions and their duet was, as one of the judges stated “crisp and precise.” This was the first time either student had performed a duet at the competition level and both girls worked extremely hard over multiple weeks and weekends to perfect their performance.

Ahrens with her ballet piece placed 11 overall as well.

In Malinovsky’s first competitive performance she received 2nd place honors, behind her studio-mate Kamryn Kelly for her performance of “Variation from the Pharoh’s Daughter.” This is her first year of instruction with Gorman and she is excited about her advancement to Nationals.

Finally Kelly swept all categories that she competed in and also won 1st place overall. With her performance of “Variation from Talisman” she won 1st place in Teen Classical Ballet. She also received 1st place with a Platinum commendation for her contemporary dance performance of “On then and Now.” The judges were speechless through most of Kelly’s performances and as one judge stated, “just wow!” Kelly received 1st place overall in her age group and also a $100 prize. When asked about her clean sweep of awards in her first competition Kelly said, “that was fun!” This is Kelly’s first year of instruction at On Pointe.

These students competed against a total of 191 other routines which included tap, classical ballet, contemporary ballet and contemporary dance. Students came from as far as Killeen to perform and 24 dance studios in total were represented with On Pointe being the newest. When asked about her student’s performances-Gorman said, “The girls have been working so hard, weekends, privates, at home- I’m so proud that they did so well, they earned it” This is the 25th year of Dance Showcase USA and On Pointe’s 3rd year of instruction. You can see On Pointe’s next performance at Weimar’s Gedenke! Festival.