On December 2, Rex Putnam and West Albany hosted the third weekend of dance team competition. Teams are bringing their best work to the floor, as many prepare for the DDCA Invitational on December 9th. The DDCA Invitational will mark the conclusion of the Novelty, Modern, and Contemporary categories this season. Teams competing in these three categories have created quite a dynamic and competitive line-up for each style, and the performances over the weekend were no exception.
The Jazz, Pom, Kick, and Hip Hop categories will continue throughout the full season, and were also represented with some excellent routines.
At a packed event at Rex Putnam, the teams dancing their hearts out were Canby, Century, Clackamas, Estacada, Forest Grove, Grant, Lakeridge, Lincoln, Milwaukie, Mountainside, Nelson, Newberg, Parkrose, Reynolds, Sam Barlow, Scappoose, Sherwood, Sprague, Sunset, Tigard, Wilsonville, and the host team Putnam. Putnam hosted a three round event that included all the team categories in two rounds, then a final solo/duo/trio round that concluded the long day.
The one-round event at West Albany included teams from North Eugene, Lebanon, Corvallis, Westview, South Albany, Philomath, and the host team, West Albany.
At both events, teams and routines were divided into categories based on style, and in some cases school size.
The Putnam competition had quite a compelling line-up for Pom and Contemporary, with both categories having 10 or more teams, each combining all 1A-6A schools who entered. With two remarkable performances, the Sherwood Arrows took home first place in both categories. Sherwood also ended up with the highest score of the competition and the day with a Contemporary score of 86.11. Noteworthy performances by Contemporary routines from Clackamas (2nd place) and Canby (3rd place), as well as Pom routines from Tigard (2nd place) and Mountainside (3rd place) rounded out the top three in each of those jam packed categories.
Congratulations to Parkrose, Sprague, and Sherwood for taking home first place in the two categories they entered, and to all the teams that ended up with top honors for the day:
Rex Putnam Competition, Category winners - Categories are combined 1A-6A unless otherwise noted
Modern: Sprague
Pom: Sherwood
Hip Hop (1A-5A): Parkrose
Hip Hop (6A): Lakeridge
Kick: Forest Grove
Novelty: Sprague
Jazz (1A-5A): Parkrose
Jazz (6A): Mountainside
Contemporary: Sherwood
At West Albany, Hip Hop was the most dynamic category with five teams competing, and Lebanon taking home top honors. Lebanon also received first place in Pom and Novelty, and was the only team that won three categories over the weekend. Westview made a strong showing with their Jazz receiving an 80.94, the highest score of the West Albany competition. Congratulations to all teams who competed.
West Albany Competition, Category winners - Categories are combined 1A-6A unless otherwise noted
Pom: Lebanon
Kick: North Eugene
Hip Hop: Lebanon
Contemporary: North Eugene
Novelty: Lebanon
Jazz: Westview
At both events there was a top ten selected for Novice and Advanced drill down. Scappoose had a strong drill down showing at Putnam, ending up with seven dancers in the top ten! Those novice drill down finalists were Cassidy Piccolo, Lexi Sapp, Hannah Reardon, Hope Jeremiah, Abby Lemen, Ava Asla, and Addison Schrotzberger in advanced.
The DDCA Invitational is Saturday, December 9, in Sherwood. The Invitational marks the end of our solo/duo/trio performances, as well as the end of the line for Contemporary, Modern, and Novelty routines. After this weekend's event, competitions will resume in the new year with Hip Hop, Pom, Kick, and Jazz continuing their runs, but also introducing Show and Traditional routines to the mix!