Five Lagos dancers from ADL, ASSOCIAÇÃO DE DANÇA DE LAGOS dance school recently flew to Orlando, Florida to represent the city of Lagos and the talent of Portugal in the biggest world dance competition, the ALL DANCE WORLD HYBRID 2021.
Despite the difficulties posed by the Sars-Cov2 pandemic, the group managed to qualify and received the chance to fly to fantasy world Orlando: A fantasy that came true!
After a journey of over 4.509 miles, these talented dancers, brimming with anticipation and excitement, faced the most important event of their lives. The hearts of the four ADL youngsters and their teacher Tatiana Ursu suddenly beat faster as the United Airlines pilot announced their presence on the plane and welcomed them to the U.S.
Ahead were five days of competition against schools from all over the world which had qualified in their national ALL DANCE competitions. With over a thousand choreographies to remember, and jet leg to recover from, this was not going to be an easy task.
Their commitment and passion for dance, combined with the creativity, talent and experience of their teachers and choreographers, resulted in their nomination for Best School.
Receiving many compliments from the juries and other international delegations, the group of five couldn’t feel happier. They performed colourful, creative choreographies of various dance genres, providing a taste of different national world dances, as well as displaying creativity, technical precision, as well as beautiful costumes.
Other children, who unfortunately could not make it to Orlando, also performed superbly in a streaming category, winning a trophy for 1st place in a Contemporary dance called “Changing” by the nominated best choreographer Tatiana Ursu and a trophy for 2nd place in Contemporary dance with “Jewish Bottles”, choreographed by Marina Khametova, who has also been nominated for Best Choreographer. Dancing and smiling throughout, the dancers did not let any bottles fall from the top of their heads, dancing with elegance, precision and grace.
On the way home, the competitors’ suitcases weren’t big enough to transport all their trophies: ten in total.
RESULTS:
WORLD DANCE choreographies by Marina Khametova 2nd place WORLD DANCE GROUP – “Jewish Bottles"
1st place WORLD DANCE TRIO - “Yurocika” (Vicente Viana, Joana Correia and Laura Susana) 1st place WORLD DANCE SOLO – “Buliba” (Laura Susana) 1st place WORLD DANCE SOLO - "Lezguika" (Olesia Vinyk) 1st place WORLD DANCE SOLO 18+- "Mongolian Dance" (Tatiana Ursu) 1st place WORLD DANCE DUET - "Charming Dance" (Olesia Vinyk and Tatiana Ursu)
MODERN DANCE choreography by Yuri Stroganov 1st place MODERN DUET – “Notes” (Joana Correia and Laura Susana)
CONTEMPORARY DANCE choreographies by Tatiana Ursu 1st place CONTEMPORARY SOLO – “No solo” (Tatiana Ursu) 1st place CONTEMPORARY DUET – “Ferox” (Tatiana Ursu and Olesia Vinyk) 1st place CONTEMPORARY GROUP – “Changing"
As well as their trophies and medals, students brought back with them memories of a great adventure in a magical setting. In addition to holding alligators in their hands, visiting the famous Universal Studios and Kennedy Space Centre and meeting Mickey Mouse, they were thrilled by their experience being with other talented dancers and seeing their magnificent choreographies from Finland to Canada, Argentina to Singapore.
The school thanks their supporters who kindly helped raise funds to make this journey happen, as well as the Lagos local authorities.
You may see these talented dancers performing at events in their local community as early as April at the Lagos Cultural Centre.
