Sienna Morris, an 8-year-old dancer from Wilton’s The Conservatory of Dance, participated in the six-day “Turn It Up National Competition” in Long Branch, NJ at the end of June. Sienna qualified for the national event in late March when her solo routine won the title of “Mini Miss Turn It Up” at the Turn It Up Dance Challenge in Bridgeport, CT. At Nationals, Sienna placed 3rd in the highly competitive Title Division and then went on to place 4th out of 25 competitors in the Mini Solo division.
“Title competitions consist of three scoring categories,” explains Christine Titus, director of The Conservatory of Dance. “Competitors are evaluated on their dance, a head shot, and a 30-second on-stage introduction. Sienna nailed her acrobatic/jazz dance solo to the song of “5-6-7-8″ and showed terrific poise for an 8-year-old during her on-stage introduction, where multiple judges commented on Sienna’s infectious personality.”
In addition, Sienna was invited to take part in the Turn It Up National Dance Team which required her to participate in rehearsals all week long in order to perform the opening number of the Turn It Up Dance Battle. The invitation provided her with an amazing opportunity to work with guest choreographers and other dancers from different states. She also participated in the Convention with nationally-known master teachers in hip hop, ballet, contemporary and jazz funk.
During this year–her first year of competition dance–Sienna competed in tap and jazz for the studio’s Mini Team and also competed as a soloist. In addition to her Mini Miss Turn It Up title, Sienna’s solo also took first place at the Celebration Talent Dance Competition with a score of High Gold, and later took first place at the International Dance Challenge in Waterbury with a Platinum score and special judges’ awards.
Sienna’s award-winning routine was choreographed by Conservatory of Dance instructor Alicia Magliaro. “Alicia is very talented and terrific with all of the kids at the studio,” says Sienna’s mom, Renee Morris. “She and Ms. Christine are amazing and work so well together choreographing routines for all of the studio’s Competition teams.” This past year, the studio had 24 competition dancers–eight on the Mini Team and 16 on the Junior Team. The teams competed in three events during the season, winning multiple awards.
Sienna, along with the other mini team dancers, take three days of ballet instruction and tap and jazz classes. The Mini Team will be adding a lyrical class next year. She has also been on the Level 3 gymnastics team at the Wilton YMCA for the past two years.
The Conservatory has added 14 more dancers to their Mini and Junior Competitive Dance teams and they have also added a Performance Team. For more information about The Conservatory of Dance or its competition programs, please call the studio at 203.544.8455.