Teams woke up to a wintery day on the last weekend of dance competitions before the OSAA Dance/Drill championships.
Many teams found a dusting of snow on the ground along their bus route on March 2 as they headed to three different competition locations.
Just shy of 50 teams planning to compete at state were at one of the three venues hoping to improve scores and share complete or mostly finished routines.
Hosts over the weekend were Thurston, Forest Grove, and Centennial (Metro). Although Thurston and Centennial often host at this point in the season, Forest Grove opened up their gym to dance teams for the first time in many years, and the extra-large gym was an excellent venue for routines to be showcased two weeks before state.
In attendance at Forest Grove, a two round event, was Aloha, Astoria, Banks, Canby, Clackamas, Estacada, Gladstone, Grant, Mountainside, Newberg, Oregon City, Putnam, Scappoose, Sprague, Valley Catholic, West Linn, Westview, and the Forest Grove hosts.
Forest Grove, with significant extra space in their gym, was a great place for Show teams to store their large props and folded floors. Among the teams sharing work in Forest Grove were eight show teams, the largest line up of show teams this season in one location, and the largest category of the weekend between the three events. Clackamas went home with a score of the 86.72 for their Show routine, the highest score of the competition.
Metro played host to another great line-up of teams for another two round event. The teams at Metro created an electric energy in the gym, as a handful of the scores ended up in the 90s, a higher scoring event in general compared to Forest Grove and Thurston. Barlow, Bend, Century, Cleveland, David Douglas, Lake Oswego, Lincoln, Nelson, Parkrose, Pendleton, Reynolds, Sandy, Sherwood, Silverton, Sunset, Tualatin, and the host team Centennial made the trip to the Metro competition.
Metro showcased 5 routines that scored above a 90, all performed by Lake Oswego and Sherwood. Sherwood entered three routines, Pom, Hip Hop, and Traditional. Lake O entered two, Jazz and Pom. Sherwood’s Hip Hop went home with the highest score of the weekend, receiving a 95.28.
Both Forest Grove and Metro had five out of six categories at play, with some amazing Jazz, Hip Hop, Traditional, Pom, and Show routines. At Metro, Cleveland stood alone in the Show category, as did North Eugene down in Thurston.
Thurston had a bit of a weather setback, as the adjudicating process was impacted due to a virtual format for judges who could not get through the snow from their locations. Teams that attended Thurston still danced their hearts out for the virtual judges, and in the end had a successful day of competition with some additional teams qualifying for the state championships.
Thurston was a slightly smaller event, but had all six categories represented. Along with a selection of Pom, Hip Hop, Traditional, and Jazz routines, was North Eugene's Show routine and one Kick routine by the host team, Thurston. Thurston is the only team doing a full kick routine this year. The host team's Kick routine gave its home audience a fun adventure with an Indiana Jones themed routine.
The teams at Thurston were Grant Union, Lebanon, Marshfield, North Eugene, Sheldon, South Albany, South Medford, Stayton, Sweet Home, West Albany, Willamette and the hosts, Thurston.
Top two placing teams are listed below. If a category doesn't indicate school classification, then the category was combined into one group:
Forest Grove Competition
- Hip Hop (1A/2A/3A/4A): Scappoose (79.56), Astoria (78.28)
- Hip Hop (6A): West Linn (73.17), Oregon City (69.83)
- Jazz (1A/2A/3A/4A/5A): Valley Catholic (86.61), Putnam (80.00)
- Jazz (6A): Clackamas (81.61), Mountainside (78.61)
- Pom: Mountainside (77.36), Forest Grove (76.94)
- Traditional (1A/2A/3A/4A/5A): Valley Catholic (80.67), Canby (78.06)
- Traditional (6A): Mountainside (81.00), Westview (75.17)
- Show: Clackamas (86.72), Canby (85.28)
Metro Competition
- Hip Hop (5A/6A): Sherwood (95.28), Tualatin (79.56)
- Jazz (4A/5A): Parkrose (81.06), Pendleton (78.94)
- Jazz (6A): Lake Oswego (94.33), Tualatin (89.78)
- Pom (5A): Parkrose (77.28), Centennial (72.94)
- Pom (6A): Lake Oswego (93.78), Sherwood (91.50)
- Traditional (4A/5A): Silverton (79.72), Pendleton (79.06)
- Traditional (6A): Sherwood (91.78), Lincoln (84.50)
- Show: Cleveland (78.83)
Thurston Competition
- Hip Hop (5A): West Albany (80.28), South Albany (78.11)
- Hip Hop (6A): South Medford (84.17), Sheldon (78.89)
- Jazz (1A/2A/3A/4A): Grant Union (53.78)
- Jazz (5A): Lebanon (77.22), South Albany (75.28)
- Jazz (6A): Sheldon (80.22), Willamette (49.61)
- Pom (1A/2A/3A/4A): Marshfield (73.56), Grant Union (57.83)
- Pom (5A): Lebanon (76.56), Stayton (72.89)
- Pom (6A): Sheldon (75.41)
- Traditional (1A/2A/3A/4A): Marshfield (79.44), Grant Union (54.44)
- Traditional (5A): West Albany (81.22), South Albany (80.06)
- Traditional (6A): Sheldon (79.22)
- Show: North Eugene (68.94)
- Kick: Thurston (71.39)
As always, Drill Down awards were given at all three events to dancers in the Novice and Advanced levels, but special acknowledgement the Cleveland Warriors, who had 15 dancers total on the lists of drill down finalists at Metro. Quite the accomplishment to have so many drill down finalists from one team.
On March 15 and 16, all the hard work reaches its climax at the Salem Pavilion, as the OSAA State Championships have arrived. Months of hard work culminating to a fabulous denouement, dance teams will all come together to celebrate their amazing work and spend one last official weekend together with their teams this season.
healeyjamesr@gmail.com
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