BALLET ROYALE GROUP WINS NATIONAL HONORS

After years of perfecting pirouettes and learning leaps, a group of Cape Girardeau dancers finally got their reward. On Aug. 1 they won the national dance championships sponsored by Starpower National Talent Competition.

The dance team Ballet Royale Midwest just returned from Orlando, Fl., where they won top honors in the grand national overall competition.

"We worked so hard for this and by the end we really had something to show for it," said Jennifer Jones, 16, who has been dancing with the company for five years. "We really have something to be proud of now."

All of the 40-member team danced to a jazz number entitled "We Are Family." In addition, 14 of those dancers also competed in a tap number called "The Swing Kids."

"It was really important for us to do it to this number because we really are like a family," said Gaymarie Tomlinson, director and choreographer for the group. "We even have 22 dancers that are brothers and sisters."

In April, the team competed in the Starpower regionals and won first place with 17 routines including jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical and pointe. They took all 17 acts to the national competition and placed first in their individual categories.

Out of more than 1,000 teams, "We Are Family" and "The Swing Kids" went on to compete in the top 50 contest called the Battle of the Stars, where they took home the trophies.

"I still can't believe that this is real," said Tomlinson. "I think we won because the routine is very entertaining and because of our use of our young students and our older ones dancing together."

The group received a $1,000 award for first place and a $100 award for third place. The money will go into an account that helps pay for the Royale Dancers' expenses.

At the dance competition, the routines were judged on the basis of technical merit, stage presence, routine, music and sound, costume and overall impression. Tomlinson and her staff made and designed the costumes; she created a whole package for the performance.

"When we won, a lot of the groups kept asking where we were from," said Tomlinson. "They just couldn't believe we were from Cape Girardeau and not some big city. But I could believe it because we have a lot of talented kids from this area."

In addition, Tomlinson won the Choreographer Award that went to the individual who brought in the most technically choreographed routines. Tomlinson thinks she won the overall award because of the variety of routines they brought to the competition.

The 40-member team of Royale Dancers that competed: Jun and Melanee Allego of Perryville; Ashley Arrott of Dongola, Ill.; Holly Bauer, Cameron Bennett, Myka and Lainie Bohnsack, Jamie Brakefield, Allison Burne, Kim Crader, Sally Dickson, Davique Dumars, Jessie and Elizabeth Fluegge, Jennifer Kaelin, Jennifer Jones, Tara Heisserer, Stephanie and Tiffany Miller, Tia Meyer, Alecia Thomas, and Brianna and Mary Beth Womick of Cape Girardeau; Heather Connell of McClure, Ill.; Heather and Lyndsey Cook of Oran; Amanda and Sarah Dumey of Gordonville; Jaci Hartle, Roni Hayden and Lacy Hayes of Jackson; Christina Hendricks of Advance; Kimberly Honey of Anna, Ill.; Michaelenne and Natalie Kapper of Jonesboro, Ill.; Lucy Mitchell of Sikeston; Danielle Morgan of Chaffee; Erin Prince of Oak Ridge and Christy Wong of Cairo, Ill.

Tomlinson already has some great ideas about next year's competition. She is currently preparing for company auditions. But if anyone wants to be a member of this national champion dance team, they will have to be willing to put in at least 20 and as many as 50 hours a week training and rehearsing.

Auditions will be held September 9, 10 and 11. In order to be in the company, dancers must be enrolled in jazz, tap and ballet and their strongest area must be ballet.

Regular classes at Royale Ballet begin Aug. 29.