Five competition teams to attend new competition in Idaho.
COVID cases are going down in Washington state, vaccinations are more readily available, and restrictions are slowly lifting. After months of practicing outdoors in tennis shoes, youth performing teams are indoors, eager to present their hard work before an audience or on a competition floor. After the announcement last month that PBD teams would not be attending the Nationals in Provo, focus shifted on preparations for the Spring Showcase and Artistic Director Katie Mecham and the artistic staff began looking for alternative competitions later in the year. When the Extreme Ballroom Company announced that they would be hosting their own competition in April, Katie got excited. “There aren’t many studios like ours in the entire country, with youth focused, formation ballroom teams with similar values and goals. I was optimistic that COVID would continue to improve and we would get our chance to compete and support a new competition created by what I consider to be a sister studio.”
The artistic staff quickly gathered all of the information they could about the competition, consulted with coaches and the board of directors, held parent meetings with each team, and surveyed each family. The results were positive, and five teams will travel to Rexburg, Idaho on the weekend of April 17th. Students will travel, eat, and sleep with their families to and from the competition.
“We feel confident that competition organizers are taking Covid precautions very seriously and we are excited that teams will be able to take advantage of multiple categories not offered at other competitions,” said Katie, “including a youth team cabaret (theater arts) event.” Individual couples will be able to compete in syllabus and open events.