More on dancers . . .

    People sometimes make disparaging remarks about

things they don’t understand, and I think that perhaps some people in

Moab don’t understand the Stars dance program and the huge contribution

the Red Rock Dance Studio makes to our community by teaching our

daughters and sons dance and gymnastics.

    Most people only see the performances that the

studio does during town parades and at the spring dance recital. They

don’t know about the hours and hours of practice that all the girls put

in to perfect their routines. They don’t see the huge competitions that

our daughters go to, and they don’t see the different groups of girls

going out on the gym floor to dance in front of hundreds of people and

in front of a panel of dance judges who scrutinize their every move.

They also don’t see the brave individuals who go out on the floor all

by themselves to perform solo routines, again in front of hundreds of

people and a panel of judges.

    People in Moab also may be unaware that the sport of

competitive dance is big in the state of Utah and that this sport is

also beginning to explode on the national level. The Stars program

began in Utah in the 1970s and has grown to encompass several states.

Dancers in this program gain important ballet and jazz dancing skills

that translate into great high school and college drill teams. Dancers

from Utah are usually considered to be among the best dancers in the

nation.

    The Red Rock Dance Studio teaches a variety of

disciplines that all contribute to a person’s dancing ability, and the

studio’s teaching manages to put its students on a level of ability

that allows them to compete on an equal footing against dancers from

Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, and California. Sometimes our

girls win and sometimes they don’t, but the fact that they do win shows

that the Red Rock Dance Studio does everything it can to teach our

daughters good, clean technique.

    At the Star’s regional competition (which was held

in Moab last spring and which brought hundreds of dancers and their

families from Nevada, Colorado, and Utah to our town), our dancing

teams took several first places, and we won the coveted sportsmanship

trophy. Anyone who watched the “We Different” routine was awed and

overjoyed at how cool and innovative it was (it took first place in the

Advanced Production Number category) and at what a great job our

daughters did.

    The discipline and dedication that the sport of

dance requires spill over into all aspects of a dancer’s life. My

daughter has been a part of the Stars program for thirteen years, since

she was five.  Today she’s a senior in high school. She’s the

captain of the drill team, the president of the Honor Society, a

co-captain of the debate team, and one of the school’s Sterling Scholar

candidates. I seriously doubt that she would be the strong leader that

she is today without her years of instruction and practice at Moab’s

Red Rock Dance Studio. And, she’s also a great dancer!