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Posts Tagged ‘dance’

Twice the talent, twice the opportunities

Posted in Baseball, Dance, tagged baseball, dance, Green River Community College, Joey Lippo, Skyy Lippo, University of Missouri-Kansas City on May 31, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville twins Skyy and Joey Lippo are off to new adventures. She’s got a dance scholarship, he’s rejoining high school teammates on the college baseball diamond. (Teresa Besaw photo)

They’ve spent much of their life together, but now the diamond and the stage will separate them for a bit.

Twins Skyy and Joey Lippo, who graduated from Coupeville High School in 2018, have recently pledged themselves to different colleges.

Skyy is headed off to the Midwest, where she will attend The University of Missouri-Kansas City on a dance scholarship, while her brother has signed to play baseball at Green River College in Auburn.

That move reunites Joey with former CHS teammates CJ and Hunter Smith, who will be sophomores on next year’s Gator diamond squad.

Lippo, who bounced between the infield and outfield in his Coupeville days (with some stints at catcher and pitcher as well) figures to be a full-time outfielder at Green River.

He’s studying criminal justice.

“I hope to play center field, but anywhere in the outfield would be great,” Joey Lippo said. “I plan to transfer to UMKC after two years to join Skyy and finish my degree and maybe play tennis there, since they don’t have a baseball team.”

During his time at CHS, Joey was an All-League baseball player and teamed up with William Nelson to form the #1 doubles duo for the Wolf netters.

His sister, who performed with the Whidbey Island Dance Theatre, will study modern dance and ballet at UMKC, with a minor in business.

Skyy, who was a regular in productions of The Nutcracker, will also perform outside the school as she pursues her dance dream.

“If I get the opportunity to dance professional, I will,” she said. “If not, I will teach at a dance studio and hope to manage a studio of my own.”

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Lippo dances into new spotlight!!

Posted in Dance, tagged CHS Wolves, dance, Duke University, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Skyy Lippo, Whidbey Island Dance Theatre on April 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

CHS senior Skyy Lippo (right) is off to North Carolina this summer after being accepted for a prestigious three-week dance program. (Photo courtesy Connie Lippo)

Skyy Lippo is conquering the world, once dance stage at a time.

The Coupeville High School senior has been accepted into the Pre-Professional Dance Intensive, a three-week summer event hosted by the American Dance Festival.

Held in Durham, North Carolina from June 30-July 21, it draws in 400 dancers and artists from around the world, with Lippo’s group numbering around 60 students.

While there, dancers will work with top choreographers and musicians on the campus at Duke University.

Classes will include modern dance, ballet, Afro-fusion, hip hop, and repertory.

In repertory class, the dancers will create a new work which they will premiere on the final day of the summer session.

Along with the classes, where she’ll often be putting in 6-8 hours a day, Lippo will also have a chance to be front row for performances by a variety of professional dance companies.

Some of the artists she and her fellow dancers are scheduled to see include Abraham.In.Motion, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, the Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Pilobolus.

The rare opportunity to take part in the Dance Intensive is one Lippo has fully earned, according to Char Brown, Artistic Director of Whidbey Island Dance Theatre and co-owner of Island Dance.

“As Skyy grew as a dancer she didn’t get involved in the dancer drama of the classroom,” she said. “Instead she developed relationships with her instructors that allowed her to focus on all their critiques, which made her a stronger dancer.

“Skyy never challenged what her teachers wanted to give her; instead, she embraced every exercise, every combination, every choreograph piece, and every correction,” Brown added. “Skyy has been an inspiration and a role model to all of her peers, and all those young dancers that look up to her and are inspired to be a dancer like Skyy someday.”

Working with Lippo over several years, the teacher has seen the student grow and blossom.

“Skyy is just not a dancer but has evolved into a wonderful choreographer, a teacher, and an amazing mentor to all those involved with her on a daily basis in her studio and company,” Brown said. “Skyy’s leadership for the last three years as a dance captain has taken the company in a positive direction, building moral and leaving no one out and creating a family environment.

“Skyy has been a true joy in my studio, in my classroom and in my life.”

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Dance queen caps stellar stage run!!

Posted in Dance, tagged dance, Skyy Lippo, Sylvia Hurlburt, The Nutcracker, Whidbey Island Dance Theatre on November 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Skyy Lippo has been active on the ballet stage for most of her 18 years. (Photos courtesy Connie Lippo)

The early days of a dance queen.

The company and the dancer are both hitting milestones.

When Whidbey Island Dance Theatre stages its annual production of The Nutcracker in Dec., it’ll be the 25th anniversary for the holiday staple.

At the same time, Coupeville High School senior Skyy Lippo, who is dancing the lead role of the Faerie Queen, is capping her own 12-year run in the ballet.

Lippo, who has “danced pretty much since she could walk,” has spent her entire school life chasing her dream.

Over the years, she’s progressed from being a bumblebee buzzing around in the background to taking center stage.

Last year, the production shifted the Rat King role to being the Rat Queen for Lippo.

Now, in her final Nutcracker — at least as a high-schooler — she’s settling in to the lead performance, which in most previous years has gone to a pro dancer.

As Lippo has progressed from bit roles to starring parts, she’s also risen in the company and currently occupies a dance captain position.

After graduation, she plans to continue pursuing dance while attending college. Lippo is undecided on a career, but is entertaining thoughts of training to be an EMT or nurse.

The thought of her leaving Whidbey and not being in a future production of The Nutcracker is an idea which will take some getting used to for all involved.

“I don’t think we can let her graduate,” WIDT President Dierdre Sherman said with a laugh. “She really is the backbone of this company and I greatly appreciate all she brings as dance captain and as a dancer!”

It’s a feeling shared by many who have worked with Lippo during her days as a dancer.

“I don’t have enough positive ways to describe Skyy,” said Head Ballet Mistress Katelyn Lodell. “She’s hard working, mature beyond her years, and always brings light into the room.

“I’ll never forget watching her as a baby flower and her beaming smile,” she added. “So excited to watch her as faerie queen!”

When they look back at her career, Lippo’s former dance instructors do so with great pride.

“Skyy has been a blessing beyond words to me personally as her teacher, choreographer and director,” Jamie Pitts said. “I’ve so appreciated her helpful and organized nature and her willingness to push herself herself physically and emotionally in everything we have worked on together.

“She is a poster child for current and future dancers and has been a gift to her company girls as their captain.”

Lippo was a student in the first modern dance class Amy Jo Lehman taught after returning home for college, making this an especially emotional performance for her former instructor.

“Baby Skyy is all grown up! She made it so easy for all of us,” Lehman said. “She’s the heart and soul of the studio and the company and she represents the epitome of hard work.

“I’m sure there were years where she didn’t get cast in the roles she was hoping, or got criticism in class that stung, but she pushed through and didn’t let it faze her, only motivate her,” she added. “Now look at her — she’s developed into such a beautiful, strong, confident, amazing dancer.”

The Nutcracker runs over two weekends, with performances Dec. 8, 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17.

For more info and to buy tickets, pop over to:

http://widtonline.org/

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Dance, man, dance!!

Posted in Mr. CHS, tagged Dalton Martin, dance, John Fisken photos, Lathom Kelley, Magic Mike, Mr. CHS on May 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Lathom Kelley (left) and Dalton Martin arrive chock-full of pep and school spirit. (John Fisken photos)

Then Kelley shows fellow Wolf gridiron warrior Jacob Martin how to drop it like it’s hot.

Before seguing into an impromptu audition for “Magic Mike 3…” Dude’s gold, Jerry, gold!

Jesse Hester is surprised to discover it’s raining men.

Cody Menges (left), Coupeville’s answer to Bill Murray, teaches Jose Marcos the art of being perpetually laid-back.

“I’m a bunny!”

“And now I will never get that image out of my head, Martin…”

Cheridan Eck and her new dance crew, “The Gun Show”.

The curtain goes up tomorrow night.

The annual Mr. CHS pageant hits the stage Wednesday (7 PM) in the Coupeville High School PAC, and the dollar bills will (hopefully) rain down.

A fundraiser for the Class of 2016, the event will feature a who’s-who of Wolves taking the stage to show of their diverse talents and (possibly) rock a few frocks.

Every dollar is a vote, and the action promises to live up to previous years.

In the last hours before showtime, contestants worked with CHS cheer coach Cheridan Eck Tuesday to fine-tune their moves.

Along for the ride, camera in hand, was wanderin’ photo man John Fisken, who provides us with the classy pics seen above.

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The awesomest of the awesome!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged Cheer, dance, Hall of Fame, Sylvia Hurlburt, Track on April 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Sylvia Hurlburt, the first still-active CHS athlete to be inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame. (John Fisken photo)

Sylvia, the teammate. (John Fisken, Kristin Hurlburt and Deb Smith photos)

The toes, the toes… (Michael Stadler photo)

Sylvia inherited the awesome gene from mom Kristin. (John Fisken photo)

Dear Sylvia Hurlburt,

You stepped in to Coupeville High School as a freshman right as Coupeville Sports started up, and, along with the rest of the Class of 2016, have been the first generation of Wolves to have their athletic accomplishments exhaustively detailed on a day-to-day basis.

And yet, it is fair to argue you have perhaps not received your full due.

Today, five days before your birthday, I want to right that (at least a little bit) by bestowing on you an “honor” that no one else has received.

As the sole honoree in the 41st class to be inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, you are the first athlete to be enshrined before graduation.

Yes, even before you-know-who.

A handful of other Wolves still competing have landed in the Hall for creating magical moments, or as part of a team, but, up until this moment, there was always sort of an unwritten rule that we would laud an athletic career after it became a complete career.

But why wait?

I know you’ll be in the Hall, for a ton of reasons, and setting some sort of future date for enshrinement would be pointless.

You’re gonna be in there, you deserve to be in there, so you’re going in now, to stand alongside your aunt Kristan (literally, because when folks hit the Legends tab up on the top of the blog, your name, in alphabetic order, now sits between your aunt and Kyra Ilyankoff.)

You were a superstar before the birth of Coupeville Sports — May 2, 2012 you won three events (100, 200, 4 x 200) as a CMS 8th grader — and you’ll be one long after you move beyond my coverage area.

But during the time this blog has been active (Aug. 2012 to today) you, Sylvia Lawanda (yeah, probably not your real middle name…) Hurlburt, have been as truly transcendent as any one I have covered.

Track, where you have never been able to compete at home due to a crumbling CHS oval, is your first, but far from your last, calling card.

A superb sprinter and a relay anchor with ice in her veins, you’ve been to state with four relay teams (with 3rd and 5th place medals in the 4 x 200), and you currently are one-fourth of the most dangerous squad in the land.

Running along with Lauren Grove, Lindsey Roberts and Makana Stone, you, Sylvia, are part of the current fastest 4 x 200 team in 1A and the second-fastest 4 x 100 unit.

I fully expect you to add more state meet medals to your trophy case when the season winds down in May in Cheney (or maybe Chelan? No, probably not Chelan…).

Pack some sunscreen, for yourself, cause it’s hot over there, and for the other teams, cause they may finish the race with severe wind burn from you lapping them so hard.

But, of course, you are about much more than just track, Miss Hurlburt.

You’re a cheer captain, a strong student, and a highly-accomplished, life-long practitioner of the brutal, beautiful art of ballet.

When I hear athletes complain about the rigors of their sport, I think about sending them your way, because, frankly, they have nothing on dancers.

That you have endured years of bodily abuse (the toes, the toes…) while continuing to perform so elegantly, always amazes me.

And then, of course, towering over everything, over the speed on the oval, the grit on the stage, the spirit on the sideline, the commitment in the classroom, we have you, Sylvia the person.

Even when you’re being snarky, even when you’re dropping side-eye at me as I lamely try to explain why I’ve never traveled to one of your track meets, you remain one of the friendliest, most thoughtful, considerate, truly caring, well-spoken young women I have ever known.

Watching you interact with your teammates, especially in the quiet moments when you don’t know people are watching, I have come to know just how special you truly are.

You’ve been willing to be in a ton of photos, Sylvia, and the funny ones are gold for me here on the blog.

But the ones where you and Makana are hugging each other, and joy spills out of both of you because of your pride and happiness in each others accomplishments, that’s what I will remember.

The moment where you and Lauren are standing alone at the line, heads bowed, holding hands, united by something far, far deeper than being part of the same relay unit, still slays me.

It has been a joy to write about you these past four years, and to be a small slice of your life, even when you’re giving me (well-deserved) grief, Miss Hurlburt.

I hope you know how special we all think you are, as an athlete, yes, but even more as a person.

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