Tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical dance, gymnastics -- at the Laurel Highlands Regional YMCA in Mount Pleasant, young dancers learn it all. Twelve of those dancers recently got a chance to show their stuff at the Nextar Dance Competition in Coraopolis, and all 12 came home with awards.
The Rising Stars, a group of eight girls, were among those 12.
"This is part of our competition group," dance instructor Leslie Rosensteel said, noting that the YMCA's Dance Dynamics Company boasts 43 participants in all. "These girls range in age from 8 to 9. They do five competitions a year. The whole dance company does all five competitions, but this is the only group that went to the Nextar Competition."
Rising Stars dance team members Lauren Johnson, Alexa Johnson, Chelsea Krinock, Carmen Kubasky, Hannah Porter, Lauren Czerniak, Megan Viazanko and Abigail Prevenslik brought home a High Gold first-place trophy, as well as receiving the third highest score overall for their group tap routine. That routine also garnered the Energy Plus special award, along with the performance award for the most entertaining routine in the junior division.
Rising Stars members also won several individual honors, as did Kolony Miller, Nina Giacobbi, Katelyn Prevenslik and Lauren Love.
Abigail Prevenslik, Alexa Johnson, Miller and Giacobbi all won High Gold first-place medals for their solo performances, and Czerniak and Love received gold medals for their lyrical solos. Krinock and Kubasky captured golds for their jazz duet.
In addition, Katelyn Prevenslik and Viazanko earned age-group awards. Katelyn Prevenslik tallied the 10th highest overall score in the 8 and under age bracket, winning a High Gold medal, and Viazanko nabbed a High Gold medal by placing seventh overall in the same division with her jazz solo.
The Dance Dynamics group as a whole was given the Backstage Performance Award for its professionalism and good sportsmanship during the course of the competition.
Rosensteel said although the Rising Stars are a young group, they have been together for quite a while.
"Most of them have been dancing with me since they were 4 years old, so they've been a competitive group for four years," she said. "They're the group that's been together the longest."
Rosensteel herself has been with the Laurel Highlands Regional YMCA for five years and has been teaching dance for 20.
"Before (coming to Mt. Pleasant), I had my own dance studio in Indiana (Pennsylvania)," she explained.
Rosensteel isn't the only dance instructor at the YMCA.
"I have several assistant teachers. My older girls in the dance company assist me, and I have two teachers who are also older students," she said.
One of those is Love, a senior at Southmoreland High School. The other is Westmoreland County Community College freshman Felicia Huffine.
Between them, the three spend several hours a day, five days a week, teaching a variety of dance classes at the facility on Bessemer Road.
"(The dancers) are very well-rounded," Rosensteel said.
Thanks to their strong showing in Coraopolis, Dance Dynamics has earned a spot in the Nextar National Competition in July in Panama City, Fla.
