Jr. All-Starzz Tryouts

Last Saturday was tryouts for All-Starzz.  They had 3 tryout camp the week and a half before so they could learn the dance and the technique things they would be asked to do in tryouts.  Courtney practiced the dance over and over to make sure she knew it well.  In tryouts, you can't rely on your partner in case they don't remember the dance correctly.  So you really have to learn it well for yourself.

On Saturday morning, Courtney had to dress in all black, pull her hair back and have her number safety pinned on her left hip.  We arrived 30 minutes early so she could stretch and practice with the other girls.  She wasn't nervous at all.  She did this last year and was ready to do it again.  I was nervous for her because you never know how things will go.  Being on Jr. All-Starzz last year was a big bonus because she knew the steps better than those who weren't on the team last year.

Before tryouts:

Relief on their faces after tryouts ended.  Here is Courtney with her friend who was on Jr. All-Starzz with her last year:

They had 12 girls try out for Jr. All-Starzz.  Originally they had 13 and so they had 1 group of 4 and 3 groups of 3.  But the week before they had one girl drop out and so Courtney's team was left with only 2.

Below are the videos of her tryouts, if anyone is interested.

The first 6 are of the technique tryout part.

The 7th video is of Courtney and her partner doing the group dance.  There are breaks when no one is dancing.  Each girl is asked to choreograph and perform a solo during the dance.  In Courtney's group there were only 2 girls, so there are 2 solos that aren't used.  They were asked to do this 2 times.

The last video is of all the girls trying out performing the dance at the same time.  They did this twice.  The first time Courtney was in the back and then they had the groups in the back move to the front.  That is when I video taped the dance.

At 3:00 the results were posted.  Envelopes were put on the door of the building where they tried out with their numbers on them.  They took the envelope, opened it and found out if they made the team or not.  Courtney was pretty nervous.  She had done a fantastic job at tryouts but you never know what is going to happen.  They do it on a "natural break" system, meaning that they total up all the scores and where there is a break in the scores that is where they split it into a team.  So they don't have a number of girls they are looking for.  They just look for the natural break in the scores.

When Courtney opened her envelope she got a huge grin on her face and said "I made it!"  She was so excited!!  Here's to another year of Jr. All-Starzz.  Out of the 12 girls that tried out, 10 made the team.   It's tough because everyone wants to make it and it's sad for those who don't.

We had a dinner with everyone who made it on Monday night.  I think it will be a good team.

Right turns:

Left turns:

Front kicks:

Front leaps:

Side leaps:

Kick line:

Tryout dance in small group:

Tryout dance in large group: