DANCERS PUMP UP HOMECOMERS

JACKSON, Mo. -- Bev Holst danced an Irish jig at the Homecomers talent show when she was 12 years old. Decades later she trains dancers in Desloge, Mo., and Ste. Genevieve, Mo., who invariably bring electricity to the competition.

Eighteen different acts and 40 dancers from Holst's La Premiere Danse Center presented more than half the dances in the two categories, one for ages 6 to 12 and the other for ages 13 to 21. One group danced around and atop garbage cans while another dressed in spiffy military uniforms tap-danced to the Village People's "In the Navy."

A big crowd watched Friday night's dance competition, which led up to the finals of the talent competition on the stage in front of the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse.

Buzz Calhoun of radio station K-103 emceed.

The overall talent winner, chosen past press time, earned the right to compete at the Mid-South Fair in Memphis. A representative from the fair had the option of selecting other acts as worthy of advancing to the Memphis competition.

Homecomers concludes tonight with the Miss Homecomers competition beginning at 7 followed by the Mike and Robyn Show starring local favorites Mike Dumey and Robyn Hosp.

In one of Holst's most inventive numbers, "The Clean-Up Crew," girls used shiny garbage cans as props and dancing platforms. Another of her acts wowed with their duet to the Charlie Daniels tune "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."

Last year's Holst-trained tap-dancing duo of Doug McDermott and Mandi Harris won the talent competition at Homecomers and went on to the grand finals of the Mid-South Fair in Memphis.

Other highlights of the dance competition included a group tap number called "Fabulous Feet" and Ashlee Harris' "All That Jazz" solo.

Eddie Naeger and Aaron Ogden, both of Ste. Genevieve, performed the first comedy routine presented at Homecomers in recent memory. In Monty Python's dead parrot sketch, a customer disagrees with a pet store clerk over whether the parrot he has been sold is deceased or merely, as the clerk insists, "resting" or "stuns very easily."

The performance, their first in public, was merely something they like to do at home. "We love to get together with our friends and do Monty Python," Naeger said.

He also sang a duet from "Phantom of the Opera" with his girlfriend, Lindsey Rapp.