VESTAL – Amber Perkins School of the Arts students and choreographers brought home high honors and cash prizes from the American Dance Awards competition held at the Anderson Center in Binghamton May 8-10.
Twenty dance studios from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Canada competed in the annual event. Ninety students from the Amber Perkins’ dance studios of Norwich and Vestal participated.
Perkins, studio owner and principal teacher, won the top choreography awards in the following categories: duo/trio; small and large group; class competitive; and adagio. The studio’s two large group adagio pieces, “Stone Henge” (ages 17 to 19) and “The Great Wall” (ages 15 to 16), scored first and second, respectively, in three catagories of judging.
Perkins’ adagio duo, “Simple Gifts,” featuring Robin Wonka of Oxford and Travis St. Denny of Norwich, took first place; fourth in choreography and third in overall scoring. Other pieces that placed included the modern group dance entitled, “Home Front,” “Boheme” and “Ava Maria”; a jazz dance, “Ain’t Nothing”; and the adagio number, “Poignant.”
Travis St. Denny won choreography awards for his trio, “How It Ends” featuring Angela Beers of Mt. Upton, Tara Franklin of South New Berlin, and Lane deCordova of Norwich, and for his duo, “To Kill a Mockingbird” featuring Beers and Lucas Lyons of South New Berlin.
Tap teacher Stacy Eastman’s piece, “Unsquare Dance” took first place in the small group tap competitive category.
Michael Perkins’ choreography for the large group production piece, “Liquid Matter” took fourth place.
The studio’s costume designer, Stacy Ludovici’s creation for “Boheme” won in the best costume category.
Perkins’ students won numerous awards for solo performances. Wonka and Thomas Sutter of Johnson City took home American Dance Awards regional Dancer of the Year titles. Blake Zelesnikar of Vestal won the Teen Dancer of the Year title. The three are invited to advance to the ADA’s national championship competition in Florida in June.
Also receiving awards were: Brittany Danek of Johnson City (1st runner up for Dancer of the Year); Kali Keis of Appalachin (4th runner up for Dancer of the Year); Lane deCordova of Norwich (1st runner up for Teen Dancer of the Year); Ariana Tagliaferris of Binghamton (2nd runner up for Teen Dancer of the Year); Franklin (3rd runner up for Teen Dancer of the Year); Marika Matuszak of Johnson City (4th runner up for Teen Dancer of the Year); Ricky Shieffer of Norwich (2nd runner up for Dancer of the Year); Andrew King of Endicott (3rd runner up for Dancer of the Year); and David Allen of Oxford (4th runner up for Dancer of the Year).