Let's Get Loud Competition -Orilla

Well it was a busy weekend. Shyla and I took off with another mother and her dancer Thursday night after work to go to Orillia for our first competition of the year. We got to the hotel and had a swim, then rolled hair for the morning and retired. Unfortunatley, I was getting a bad chest cold. This really sucks when you are sharing a hotel room with someone. You don't want to blow your nose or cough etc and wake everyone up. We rose early (6am) in the morning to get ready. Shyla's jazz group was on in the morning. They did okay and received a high silver and a first: now let me explain to those non dancers. There are three judges who have certain criteria on how to mark each of the dances: costume, timing, technical, stage presence, performance etc....varying differently at each competition. The mark is alway out of a possible 100, much like figure skating. The scores are combined and then averaged. The score determines which award you receive: silver, high silver, gold, high gold and platnium. When you dance, you are put in a category that matches your number. For example her jazz group in this competition was rated competitive jazz group age 7 (average age of group). In this category, there happened to be no one else entered. But you must at least get a high silver to attain a 1st position.
In the afternoon, we went back to the hotel and rested and then went back to do shyla and jazmin's acro duet. It was under competitive acro duet age 6. They did well and were not against anyone else in this category: they attained gold and a first.
At night we went back to the hotel, had some dinner, rolled hair again and shyla and i turned in early as it was a long day and I felt horrible. The next morning, steve and Ryely and Steve's parents met us in the morning at the competition. It was time for shyla's first solo experience. was i nervous for her. What if she forgot. She was put in the novice solo jazz age 7 category. she had two other girls against her. Many of the earlier performances of novice soloists forgot things, so i was nervous. But boy, shyla did amazing...her best ever. She earned at 1st place platium. Then she went to the overalls for the day and earned 1st place overall novice soloist (this is for all the novice solos for the day, about 45 of all ages and disciplines). We were very proud. She won a big trophy and a 50 dollar scholarship towards her dance. She also won the ADJUDICATORS CHOICE MOST POTENTIAL MINI/JUNIOR of the competition. In the afternoon, her tap group danced and did very well also. They were against one other group and came 1st with a platium also. They then came in 2nd overall for novice groups. A very good day indeed. We are pumped about the next competition this friday. We will be at the chinese cultural centre in Scarborough. Here are some pics.