Whidbey Island dance divas (l to r) Tessa Sherman, Skyy Lippo and Kelsi Lampe. (Niki Lampe photo)
The dance is strong in these ones.
Five of Whidbey Island’s best stage warriors stormed the big time in Seattle Saturday and will return home bearing big honors.
They were performing as members of the Island Dance Performing Team at the Rainbow National Dance Competition.
And now we’ll flip you to our dance dad/constantly-tweeting man on the scene at the Highline Performing Arts Center, Mr. Joe Lippo, for the following report:
The alarm goes off at 5:30 AM…
Why? Because you have to be at the venue by 8, because you go on at 10.
And 5:45 PM.
That’s right, you’re going on stage a full 12 hours after you rolled out of bed.
How do you react to that? Most of you would just quit, but five girls from three Whidbey Island high schools reacted very, very differently.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
At the 10 AM show, the entire Island Dance Performing Team took the stage to compete in the Large Production class of dancing, and put on a heck of a show.
But, it was a new show, and all the kinks weren’t worked out yet.
They got third. They were mostly happy with that.
Mostly.
At the 5:45 performance, it was the highly competitive Small Production category.
Skyylynn Lippo (Coupeville), Kelsi Lampe (Oak Harbor) and Tessa Sherman, Grace Colby and Nikki Greene (South Whidbey) danced their hearts out, completed the piece, and then waited.
They were wiped out. Tired. Some still had solo acts later that day.
Coach Jamee Pitts was hoping for a third-place finish.
But it was a new piece, and all the kinks hadn’t yet been worked out.
In the dance world, when awards are handed out, the announcer says something like: “And in third place…”
Then the music from the piece will start. It’s kind of like the award shows.
So…
When third place was announced, then second place, with no mention of Island Dance, coach Jamee said “It’s OK, I’m still proud of those girls, they did their best.”
Only the last part of that sentence was drowned out by some very familiar music.
That THUD you may have heard this evening around 6:30 PM was jaws hitting the floor as Island Dance was announced as the new (if unlikely) regional champions.
Dancer Kelsi Lampe: “I heard them announce third and second, and I was thinking ‘OK, next year we will do better’ and then I heard OUR music playing!
“We all just looked at each other, not really believing it. Then we went and got the awards!”
Coupeville Sports 