Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 27, 1990 TAG: 9007260204
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
Judges at the fifth annual Star Systems National Competition watched almost 4,000 youths perform and awarded the Giles dance students with two first-place finishes, two seconds, two thirds and a fourth.
"Even winning fourth place in the United States is nothing to sneeze at," said academy owner Corky Lucas, who formerly judged the competition, but who resigned in order to coach his students this year.
Fifty-five of Lucas' 60 students - and the largest male group with 11 boys - traveled to Florida after winning regional competition in April in Lexington, N.C.
Practicing for nationals meant weekly instruction September through June, and students have already begun working out for next year's nationals in Gatlinburg, Tenn. "To stay on the top, we have to start all over again," said David Scott Martin, academy jazz instructor.
In the past two years, Giles Dance Academy students have won 29 trophies, 16 of them for first-place finishes.
Awards for the nationals are:
First-place character tap, "Glenn Miller Medley," 11- and 12-year-olds.
First-place clogging, "Aggie Song Dance," 11-12.
Second-place solo jazz, Melissa Mann, 19- to 25-year-olds.
Second-place character jazz, "Rhythm Nation," 13- and 14-year-olds.
Third-place -haracter -azz, "The Boys," 7- and 8-year-olds.
Third-place character tap, "Swing the Mood," 9- and 10-year-olds.
Fourth-place tap, " '50s Medley," 11-12.
Lucas and Martin will open Ideas in Motion, a new school in Montgomery County that offers tap, jazz and ballet for ages 3 and up. Signup is 3-6 p.m. Aug. 6-9 and 13-16 3-6 p.m. at Triangle Shopping Plaza above Olan Mills Studio.
by CNB