Summer is the season of vacations. Packing up their dramatic,
sparkly blue costumes and bright makeup, Lana’s Dance Studio will
spend their summer vacation in Dallas
– but it’s strictly business at the World Championship Dance
Series today and Saturday.
Summer is the season of vacations.
Packing up their dramatic, sparkly blue costumes and bright makeup, Lana’s Dance Studio will spend their summer vacation in Dallas – but it’s strictly business at the World Championship Dance Series today and Saturday.
Lana’s Dance Studio – now with a second location on First Street in Gilroy – is one of the top studios in the nation and will be among 60 top studios that will compete.
The studio opened in 1978 in the Candy Park Shopping Center in Morgan Hill under the direction of local Lana Wright.
“We now have two studios, in Morgan Hill and Gilroy where we teach everything: tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop and lyrical,” Wright said.
After a competition in June, and given the title of one of top 10 studios in the Pacific Region, the studio was invited to compete in the First World Dance Championship Series (WDCS).
The petite division of dancers 8 years old and younger will perform “Devil in a Blue Dress” at 9 a.m. today. Dancers will wear a blue-sequined outfit with a tutu-like skirt. Dancers will also wear a blue hat with red horns sticking out of the top.
Twenty-one teens will perform “River”, choreographed by Antonio Giovanni. He wanted to take the dance to the next level by adding a removable, long blue skirt that imitates the water, designed for one dancer to wear.
The prop is used throughout the dance, which Giovanni said is not something he has ever seen before. The dancers will wear blue leotards, with dark blue and teal strips hanging from their waist.
The teen division of 12- to 14-year-olds is considered a large group. They will perform “River” at noon on Saturday. The group has a time limit of 4 minutes and is required to have 10 to 19 dancers.
Dancers aren’t letting nerves get in the way.
“I am excited to meet new people and see what the other dancers are doing. And we’ll be making lots of friends, that’s the best part,” said dancer Jackie DieBold.
The two-day competition starts at 7 a.m. and will end at 6 p.m. today and Saturday.
“The judges are studio directors, dance instructors and dancers who have background in dance. We don’t know who they are yet,” Wright said. “They’ll judge on technique, choreography, skill level, appropriateness and performance skill. It’s great because we’ll know what we did right and maybe some stuff we need to work on.”
