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The Junior Elites clogging team helped serve meals to the SHINE Soup Kitchen in Easley on November 3rd, 2011. This is their one of their 212 community service projects for this year. They also entertained the crowd of 30 with an award winning clogging routine! They were a great hit and loved the opportunity to help this amazing facility.

A few facts on the Soup Kitchen:
Pickens County has a poverty level of 16.5% with a population of 118,144. SHINE operates a soup kitchen in Easley and serves a meal every evening M-F from 5:30-6:30. As the only soup kitchen in Pickens County, SHINE serves an average of 250 meals every week and relies on donations and volunteers to operate. SHINE has a foundation board consisting of dedicated volunteers who meet each month to address issues and make decisions. SHINE had approximately 25-30 kitchen managers who oversee the planning of the menu, preparation of the food and the cleanup. More than 150 volunteers donate their time to operate SHINE.

UCDC student Emily D’Ornellas attended the 12th annual Peg Leg Bates Tap Memorial. She was invited to open the show with her clogging solo “Blah Blah Blah” and close the show with her jazz solo “Fashionista”. Emily is a member of the Rising Stars Challenge Clogging Team and the Mega Motion Jazz Company. Thank you, Emily for representing UCDC at this amazing event.

On Saturday, November 12th, 2011 – 2 UCDC clogging teams attended the 2011 CCA Moutain Classic held in Columbus, N.C. UCDC competed against some of the best teams in the country with over 115 team dances. UCDC won 3 Grand Champions and 1 Overall Title. Congratulations to all the solos, teams, duos and choreographed solos that competed. We are so proud of you!!!!

Here are the results:
Shining Stars Challenge – 1st Place Exhibition & Grand Champion Exhibition, 1st Place Standing Line and Grand Champion Standing Line & Overall Amateur Team of the Day.
Elite Stars – 3rd Place Open Line, 1st Place Small Team & Grand Champion Small Team.

Choreographed Solos:
Emily Gilliland – 1st Place Age 12
Baylie Weeks – 1st Place Age 16

Duo/Duets:
Sydney Jones and Emma Kate McCoy – 1st Place 9-11

Rise n Shine Solos:
Sydney Jones – 2nd Place 10-12 Challenge

UCDC Alum, Wesley Quinn returned on October 22nd and the 29th to choreograph Hip-Hop Routines for the Elite Stars and the Senior Jazz team. He began his technical dance training at the age of 6, studying extensive jazz, contemporary, ballet, and hip hop. He went on to win National titles at various dance conventions in his youth. At 17, Wesley booked his first tour with Ashley Tisdale and shortly after was handpicked by Warner Brothers music executive Tommy Page to be one of the 5 members of the boy band, V Factory. Their music hit top 40 on the pop radio charts. In addition to the band, Wesley’s presence as a top dancer and choreographer in Hollywood has become more and more apparent. In 2009, he danced in the epic MTV VMA tribute to Michael Jackson. You can also see him on TV, dancing regularly on the number one hit show in America, Glee. Wesley has been on several Disney and Nickelodeon shows such as I Carly, Victorious, and Austin and Ally. He also stars in motion pictures The Muppets Movie and Honey 2, which are both coming out in late 2011. Wesley has performed along side of many great entertainers including Janet Jackson, MC Hammer, Backstreet Boys, Sugarhill Gang, LMFAO, Pitbull, and many more. UCDC could not be more proud of the success that Wesley Quinn has achieved!! Thanks Wesley for 2 great routines…we always love having you back home.

On Saturday, October 22nd, 2011. – The UCDC clogging teams attended the 2011 Deep South Dance-Off in Atlanta, Ga. UCDC did outstanding with 3 teams in the dance-off and Amateur Grand Champion of the Day. We are so proud of each and every team!!!!

Here are the results:
Rising Stars Amateur – 2nd Place Exhibition
Shooting Stars Amateur – 3rd Place Open Line
Shining Stars Amateur – 2nd Place Exhibition
Rising Stars Challenge – 1st Place Artistic Expression & Pee Wee Team of the day.
Shooting Stars Challenge – 1st Place Artistic Expression
Shining Stars Amateur – 1st Place Standing Line & Grand Champion Standing Line, Junior Team of the Day. Overall Amateur Grand Champion
Jr. Elites – 2nd Place Open Line, 1st Place Standing Line.
Elite Stars – 2nd Place Small Team, 1st Place Open Line, 1st Place Artistic Expression and Grand Champion.

Choreographed Solos:
Emily D’Ornellas – 2nd Place 8 & under
Chloe Eskew 3rd – Place 8 & under
Caroline Wilson – 2nd Place 12-14
Emily Gilliland – 3rd Place 12-14
Baylie Weeks – 2nd Place 15-18

Rise n Shine Solos:
Kerigan Bryant – 1st Place 7-9 Amateur
Chloe Eskew – 3rd Place 7-9 Amateur
Kerigan Bryant – 3rd Place 7-9 Challenge

Great Job to Everyone who competed choreographed and rise n shine solos.

Photo Gallery

On October 23rd the UCDC Jazz Company attending Shock the Intensive in Charlotte, NC. This was a one-day dance convention with some of the countries leading dance choreographers. They had classes in Hip Hop, Lyrical, Contemporary, Jazz & Latin. The choreographers were Tina Cyphert, Ryan Cyphert, Nick Bass, Melody Lacayanga, Hannah Wintrode, Merissa Gassel, Matt Boyce and Gustavo Vargus. It was an awesome day of technique training for our dancers. Congratulations to our own Emma Jane Zaher (Minis) who received a Shock T-Shirt for her hard work and dedication at the event and Tara Moore (Seniors) who received a tuition scholarship to attend a free Shock next year. We are very proud of all our dancers!

Havic & Michele visited UCDC October 14th – 16th to choreograph the Hip Hop numbers for our Junior and Senior Hip Hop teams. Havics career took off when he started dancing in high profile music videos for some of the top artists in the world including Michael Jackson, Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child, Missy Elliot, the Backstreet Boys, along with many others. He eventually transitioned into tours and live performances with highly respected artists such as Diana Ross, Chris Brown, Diddy, Madonna, TCL, Toni Braxton, Sisqo and Prince to name a few. Havic has been in several national commercials for companies like Coca Cola, Kmart and General Motors. Recently he co-choreographed the feature films “Honey 2” and “Rio”. He also assist choreographed the Jonas Brothers tour and MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” season 5, along with top choreographers Tabitha & Napoleon. Havic has grown with hip hop and is passionate about passing down the knowledge he has acquired throughout the years to the next generation of dancers all over the world. Micheles love of hip hop has taken her all over the U.S. since the age of 15, and has worked with artists such as Rihanna, Will Smith, Young Buck, Kirk Franklin as well as with Nike, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon and upcoming artists Erika Fatale and a new London-based group named “Cushh”. Michele has also worked closely with top choreographers including Chuck Maldonado, Rosero and Johnnie Smith. She is currently teaching and touring with Urban Jamm Dance Conventions. Michele is a featured dancer as part of the ‘juvie crew’ in the new soon to be released movie, “Honey 2”. Thank you, Havic & Michele for always giving us 110% and choreographing two more outstanding dances for our studio!

On August 5th-7th, 2011 Bethany Lowery visited UCDC to choreograph 2 lyrical numbers for our Mega and Junior jazz company members. Bethany was chosen as one of the nine Dance With The Force Members of 2003-2004. She trained for 3 months at the Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles and performed in a Hollywood show. More recently Bethany choreographed for the group Quest, which opened up the Juvenile, Lil Flip, J Kwon concert in Johnson City, TN. Bethany was recently on the Fox TV show “So You Think You Can Dance?” as one of the last 22 girls in the country. She travels the nation as a teacher for the convention Fire and Ice and The Circuit, as well as guest teaching around the country. Thank you Bethany for the beautiful choreography. You never cease to amaze us all.

Choreographer and Dancer Brandon Norris visited UCDC in August to do choreography for several of the UCDC clogging teams. He worked with the UCDC teams for and with a lot of hard work they completed two amazing routines. Check them out at our first competition in October or this season at CCA competitions. Thanks Brandon for all your hard work with these teams. We love you!!!

Rachel Wyatt was recognized by the Greenville Little Theatre as their 2010-2011 Best Female Dancer of the Year. The award was presented Thursday night, September 15th at the opening show for this year’s theatre season. Rachel performed at GLT in their Christmas Spectacular and the Gala Fundraising Event. She was very surprised and honored by the Theatre’s decision regarding her dancing performances over the past year. Her years of training at Upstate Carolina Dance Center, and the wonderful theatre choreography by Mrs. Kimberlee Ferreira, were credited by Rachel in achieving this award.