jilly donuts: Dance

My beautiful niece is a dancer at a dance college on a dance scholarship. She is amazing. And we all knew she was, partially because she's our niece, but mostly because she simply is. It's nice seeing a college see the amazingness in her, and recognize all the hours of hard work and dedication and TALENT in her, and have her audition for things above her age level and GET them, because again, she is amazing.

She just did a competition a few hours from her school with some other college dancers (8 from her school? I think? and probably 400+ from around the area not from her college). She did this one dance with another girl and two boys - very, well, different. The two girls danced together and the two boys danced together. Lovingly. It was a beautiful dance, truly, but probably a little weird for my 94 year old grandmom to watch. And maybe those in the rural town where the competition was. Anyway, as my sister in law texted me later that evening, she said my niece would NOT get an award, as they were only recognizing the top 12 dances, and again, there were hundreds of participants and probably over 1,000 dances, because dancers usually participate more than once.

So guess what? She and her 3 cohorts won Second Place. Tied with another group from her very school. And guess what again? She and her schoolmates (both Second place-ers) were invited to the Lincoln Center in NEW YORK CITY. To dance. Invite only. Just the top 3 placers in the competition. She's a freshman, did I mention that before? And did I say she is amazing? Because she is!

Here is a photo of her with her female partner in this dance that won second place (this was during rehearsal):

We 4 were able to watch the dance virtually, and naturally, afterwards, the kids got to dancing in the living room. They created a dance that was similar to theirs, and called it "The Bison." I won't go into the video here, although it is quite something, but more importantly, I wanted to share this picture.