Kent’s Allegro Performing Arts Academy racked up a number of awards this summer at competitions.
Allegro won the Best Musical Theater performance for 2013 at the KAR Dance Awards in July at the MGM in Las Vegas for the “Too Darn Hot” piece, choreographed by Eddie Strachan.
“We are ecstatic that our dancers are having such amazing opportunities and we are excited for what is to come,” said Tonya Goodwillie, owner of Allegro.
The academy’s dancers won several national awards starting with Effie Tutko, 14, who won the dancer of the year title from Hollywood Vibe Competition in Orlando, Fla.
Adam Vesperman, 15, won the Elite teen male dancer title from West Coast Dance Explosion in Las Vegas. Vesperman won the junior title a few years ago just before he left to go perform “Billy Elliot” in London for 18 months. Allegro earned a fourth place at the competition for a jazz group number entitled “Something Goes Right.”
Dancer Kristina Doucette, 12, secured Miss JR National Spotlight at the Seaside (Ore.) Nationals.
All thee national title winners needed to qualify at regionals then go through an audition process as well as compete their solos to be considered for a national title.
The end of July brought two more very prestigious titles back home to Kent.
Allegro dancers Trinity Inay, 12, and Connor Gormley, 15, competed against more than 120 dancers for 12 slots known as the Pulse’s Elite Protégé program. These 12 dancers will travel with the Pulse on tour convention and will work directly under some of the industry’s biggest choreographers on a potential pathway to becoming a working dancer in the commercial industry.
Inay also is one of 12 featured dancers that are dancing hard for $100,000 grand prize and a Joffrey Ballet Scholarship. She will perform on “Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition Season 2” that airs on Sept. 3 on the Lifetime channel. It’s similar to a “So You Think You Can Dance” for dancers under age 13.
Another Allegro dancer, Adam Agostino recently attended Juilliard’s three-week summer dance intensive. While in New York, he experienced his fifth call back for the Broadway musical, “Newsies!” The verdict is still out, but Agostino could be on Broadway in the near future.
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