3 SQUARES COMPETE IN 4th ANNUAL YOUTH SQUARE DANCE COMPETITION
The 4th Annual Youth Square Dance Competition sponsored by the California Square Dance Council, Inc.'s Youth Advisory Committee, was held on Saturday, April 16th at Balboa Park in San Diego, CA, in conjunction with the 46th Annual California State Square Dance Convention.
Three squares of youth dancers from all across California participated in this year's event, which was held on Saturday evening before a standing-room-only crowd. The competition itself culminated a day of preparation as dancers got to know each other and held practice sessions with the help of callers Pat Carnathan and Eric Henerlau and several coaches. Participants ranged in age from 8 to 16 years old.
The actual competition consisted of a 20-minute, timed event. Callers Pat and Eric challenged the dancers with the first 60 calls on CALLERLABs basic list. Each square had a caller or dancer who served as their Coach", plus 3 timers and a judge. As long as the square was able to keep dancing their time continued. If the square broke down, timers for that square stopped their watches until the square was reset in "lines" ready to begin again. Once the square was reset, the stopwatches were started again. For this Open Division competition, dancers could select their own partners, or they were paired with another single dancer, and then the names of each couple were put into a hat. Names were then drawn in random to establish the squares for the competition. A Team Division, where clubs can bring their own established square and dance through the CALLERLAB Plus list of calls, was offered this year but there were not enough dancers to participate at this level. We hope to reach that goal in 2006!
The winning team kept dancing for a total of 18 minutes, 51 seconds out of the 20 minute competition time. The team consisted of Blake Kirby (13), CJ Mueke (16), Katie Houston (13) and Elisabeth Carpenter (13), all with the Croakers club in Orange County; Tom Mora (16), Josh Baxter (16) and Shelene Baxter (12) representing the Circle Ts square dance club of Taft; and Heidi Jellesed (14) who dances with the River City Rugratz and Overalls in Sacramento. The winning square received a gift bag of goodies including a Target Gift Card, plus the gold swinger to add to their badges declaring them the 2005 Competition winners. Most importantly, they won bragging rights to the title of Champion. All participants received a participation swinger denoting the date and location of the competition.
Other participants in the 2005 competition included Courtney Alexander (11), Carson (Croakers & Downey B & Bs); Mallory Arredondo (11), Carson (Croakers & Downey B & Bs); Shane Baxter (12), Taft (Circle Ts); Joseph Bereiter (13), Walnut (Croakers & Funsters); Tom Figuers (14), Livermore (Cactus Corners); Jimmy Hauronia (13), Twenty-nine Palms (Sandshufflers & Star Twirlers); Alyssa Heffron (11), San Diego (Circulators & Ruffles & Beaus); Tina Heffron (14), San Diego (Circulators & Ruffles & Beaus); Amanda May (12), Lakewood (Croakers & Funsters); Eric May (8), Lakewood (Croakers & Funsters); Jordyn Merrill (11), San Diego (Ruffles & Beaus); Jen Steindorf (13), San Diego (Circulators); Kaitlyn Washburn (12), San Diego (Ruffles & Beaus, Circulators & Finest City Squares); Jace Young (15), Ramona (Ruffles & Bows); Kassi Young (13), Ramona (Ruffles & Bows); and Kacey Zambrano (sorry, additional information).
The Youth Advisory Committee wishes to give special thanks to all who volunteered their time as coaches, timers and judges for the competition, as well as thanks to all the parents and other supporters who encouraged the youth to participate and cheered them on during both the rehearsal sessions and the actual competition. And finally, to Pat and Eric who gave up a big chunk of time to call for both the practice sessions and the competition you were great fun while keeping the dancing competitive and challenging.
Plans are well underway for the 5th Annual Competition, set to be held in conjunction with the 47th California State Square Dance Convention scheduled April 22, 2006 at Seaside Park (Ventura County Fairgrounds) in Ventura. There will be options for both Open Division and Team Division competitions. For more information on the competition, visit the Council's website at www.squaredance.org or e-mail CAYouthSqrs@aol.com.
Croakers Youth Square Dance Club
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