Perkins School of the Arts wins national competition
Dancers from the Perkins School of the Arts who performed at the USTD National Championship competition. Top row: Victoria Abuiz, Ally Kennedy, Janessa Landers, Stephanie Marco, Chase Benjamin, Brandon Chandler, Camille Gordon, Chelsea Landers, Trevor Terry, and Andrew Van Allen, Bottom Row: Emma Cresci, Mikey Perkins, Anna Fregans, Temprance Dockray, Jessica Czachowski, and Isabella Natoli. (Submitted photo)
NORWICH — The Perkins School of the Arts dancers recently attended the United States Tournament of Dance National Championships, and one 13 and older group placed first out of approximately 1,300 entries with their adagio dance performance titled "More Than Words."
The competition, which took place over the weekend of July 17, saw dance groups from across the nation, according to Perkins School owner Mike Perkins. He said there were groups from Manhattan, Baltimore, Nashville, and more.
What's more, he said most other schools brought along large amounts of dancers and ensembles, some pushing 100 groups eligible for entry. The Perkins School only brought six.
"It’s pretty cool because we’re competing against studios three times our size that have way more members than we do. I mean we brought six that were eligible, some brought 100," said Perkins.
From the 1300 entered groups, judges select the top 30 performances, who then go on to perform their pieces a second time. The second performances are judged and ranked, which gives the final placing of each group.
"It’s a big deal. We were first place out of 1,300 entries," said Perkins School instructor and alumni Alexis Race. "For our students that are from Norwich, and Oneonta, and Binghamton, and the surrounding areas of Chenango County, its a big deal to them."
Not only did the dance place first, Perkins also won the competition's choreography award. He said preparation for the piece actually began two years ago, but was put on hold due to COVID lockdowns.
"We started these pieces last year, and our first competition was supposed to be at the end of April. And everything shut down in March. So we had all these pieces, costumes, everything was in the works. And then everything shut down," he said. "And then we came back and then I finished the piece, and it was like- it was interesting. So yeah, two years for these pieces. Normally it’s just a year."
"More Than Words" was all about love, according to Perkins, and was the third in a trilogy that began in 2017.
"The interesting thing about this piece was, it was written as a trilogy, and we had already performed the first two pieces. Actually it won with the first two pieces," he explained. "And last year was the third installment of it, and it never got performed. So it was supposed to be last year's piece. And the whole piece is about love and the varied stages of it."
He said the first piece, titled "A Course of Miracles," was about opening yourself up to love, trust, and forgiveness. The second piece, "Cosmic Fragments," focused on connecting with others.
The final installment, 'More Than Words,' was about giving love. Perkins said the group drew inspiration from historic love letters.
"It was a wide range of celebrities, to presidents, to composers, to movie stars. And we put it all together. And the piece was based around, it had a giant metal pole; the pole was a pen. And so we made it so it wrote," said Perkins. "We ended the final piece, the third section, with the pole in the middle where the original piece started. And all the dancers backed away. So it kind of came full circle from that."
Race said the piece was moving and emotional, which could be felt from the dancers even through her cell phone screen.
"You could feel the emotion from them. I was even watching it virtually, because I had to come back home to work, I couldn’t be there for the actual dance-off part of it," said Race. "I was watching it through my screen at work. There was so much going on around me and I'm like so infatuated with what’s going on on my screen."
According to Perkins, after the performance concluded, all of the teachers present stood and gave the Perkins School dancers a standing ovation.
"All the teachers kind of sit on a platform," he explained. "When they finished our piece, all the teachers stood and gave us a standing ovation, which I've never experienced."
"More Than Words" became a special piece to the school, as it was the conclusion of the trilogy, but also because it could have been retired before ever being performed.
"The thing I was most nervous about with the pandemic was that we wrote it, we composed this piece as a trilogy. And to not have the third piece be able to be performed was something that, that’s why this was all so special," said Perkins.
Each dance in the series won first place at national competitions, according to Perkins, making this year's performance all the more meaningful.
Perkins School of the Arts will begin their dance classes again in the fall, with registration being accepted until August 9. Perkins said they offer all styles of dance, in various classes for ages 2 and older.
"We have a whole young kid program, and we have a lot of fun. And we're not as strict as people think we are," he said. "We have all levels, from two year olds to older. But yeah, its fun. We have all styles too. We have a lot of fun. the teachers are all really fun, we all get along really well."
More information on Perkins School of the Arts can be found on their website, perkinsdance.com.
The competition, which took place over the weekend of July 17, saw dance groups from across the nation, according to Perkins School owner Mike Perkins. He said there were groups from Manhattan, Baltimore, Nashville, and more.
What's more, he said most other schools brought along large amounts of dancers and ensembles, some pushing 100 groups eligible for entry. The Perkins School only brought six.
"It’s pretty cool because we’re competing against studios three times our size that have way more members than we do. I mean we brought six that were eligible, some brought 100," said Perkins.
From the 1300 entered groups, judges select the top 30 performances, who then go on to perform their pieces a second time. The second performances are judged and ranked, which gives the final placing of each group.
"It’s a big deal. We were first place out of 1,300 entries," said Perkins School instructor and alumni Alexis Race. "For our students that are from Norwich, and Oneonta, and Binghamton, and the surrounding areas of Chenango County, its a big deal to them."
Not only did the dance place first, Perkins also won the competition's choreography award. He said preparation for the piece actually began two years ago, but was put on hold due to COVID lockdowns.
"We started these pieces last year, and our first competition was supposed to be at the end of April. And everything shut down in March. So we had all these pieces, costumes, everything was in the works. And then everything shut down," he said. "And then we came back and then I finished the piece, and it was like- it was interesting. So yeah, two years for these pieces. Normally it’s just a year."
"More Than Words" was all about love, according to Perkins, and was the third in a trilogy that began in 2017.
"The interesting thing about this piece was, it was written as a trilogy, and we had already performed the first two pieces. Actually it won with the first two pieces," he explained. "And last year was the third installment of it, and it never got performed. So it was supposed to be last year's piece. And the whole piece is about love and the varied stages of it."
He said the first piece, titled "A Course of Miracles," was about opening yourself up to love, trust, and forgiveness. The second piece, "Cosmic Fragments," focused on connecting with others.
The final installment, 'More Than Words,' was about giving love. Perkins said the group drew inspiration from historic love letters.
"It was a wide range of celebrities, to presidents, to composers, to movie stars. And we put it all together. And the piece was based around, it had a giant metal pole; the pole was a pen. And so we made it so it wrote," said Perkins. "We ended the final piece, the third section, with the pole in the middle where the original piece started. And all the dancers backed away. So it kind of came full circle from that."
Race said the piece was moving and emotional, which could be felt from the dancers even through her cell phone screen.
"You could feel the emotion from them. I was even watching it virtually, because I had to come back home to work, I couldn’t be there for the actual dance-off part of it," said Race. "I was watching it through my screen at work. There was so much going on around me and I'm like so infatuated with what’s going on on my screen."
According to Perkins, after the performance concluded, all of the teachers present stood and gave the Perkins School dancers a standing ovation.
"All the teachers kind of sit on a platform," he explained. "When they finished our piece, all the teachers stood and gave us a standing ovation, which I've never experienced."
"More Than Words" became a special piece to the school, as it was the conclusion of the trilogy, but also because it could have been retired before ever being performed.
"The thing I was most nervous about with the pandemic was that we wrote it, we composed this piece as a trilogy. And to not have the third piece be able to be performed was something that, that’s why this was all so special," said Perkins.
Each dance in the series won first place at national competitions, according to Perkins, making this year's performance all the more meaningful.
Perkins School of the Arts will begin their dance classes again in the fall, with registration being accepted until August 9. Perkins said they offer all styles of dance, in various classes for ages 2 and older.
"We have a whole young kid program, and we have a lot of fun. And we're not as strict as people think we are," he said. "We have all levels, from two year olds to older. But yeah, its fun. We have all styles too. We have a lot of fun. the teachers are all really fun, we all get along really well."
More information on Perkins School of the Arts can be found on their website, perkinsdance.com.
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