Desert Sun dancers proven winners, but it’s all about the art (with video)

Winning competitions is not the goal of Desert Sun Performing Arts.

But it happens.

“We don’t ever anticipate the winning. That’s not the point of doing competition,” said DSPA owner and artistic director Ceylan Gentilella. “The point of competition is to have exposure and also to teach our children there is a performance element.”

The critiques they receive from the judges are more valuable than trophies, she said.

They compete only a few times a year and perform at special events. They danced at Disneyland, California Adventure, Ostrich Festival and Maricopa’s Salsa Festival.

“I’m not a competition school,” Gentilella said. “I’m a school that focuses on the artistry and the exposure. We’re not one of those schools that goes eight or nine times a year for competition.”

They will perform a special number at the Maricopa Relay for Life, which begins at 6 p.m. on April 25 at Copper Sky Regional Park. “We’re doing a really beautiful piece called ‘Beam Me Up,” Gentilella said. “It has a lot of meaning and we’re hoping it gets a good response.”

May 30 is their ninth annual dance recital, titled “Iconic,” set for 2 p.m. at the Maricopa High School Performing Arts Center, 45012 W. Honeycutt Ave.

Also in May, DSPA will perform at Starbound, one of the few competitions in which it participates during the year.

Another is the Dance Masters of America. DSPA took several solos and groups to the most recent regional competition of the Arizona chapter of DMA in Phoenix.

“We did very well at the competition,” Gentilella said. “We were surprised, actually.”

While all of DSPA’s dancers performed well, the studio’s team Ruby placed first and second overall out of 26 entries. The groups are judged in various age groups and genres.

They took first with a number called “Hip Hop Crew,” choreographed by Nick Harron. The group is comprised of Natasha Nechvatal, 15, Erin Hildick, 12, Riley Bell, 12, Tonya Thacker, 15, Kivarah Deluca, 12, and Athena Van Auken, 10.

The group’s “Long Story Short” took second place in the 12-and-under category.

“We have a great dynamic of teachers that teach the technique and also choreographers who come in and kick it up and add a different flavor,” said Gentilella, who is a dance master herself.

Harron said an important factor for a successful dance studio is having instructors who still dance and, like him, are continuing their dance education. He is a student at the renowned Arthur Murray school and is beginning to learn ballroom, worlds apart from his specialty hip hop and crew numbers.
 

Hip hop dance has exploded in popularity recently, Harron said. He went from teaching a handful to full classrooms. Some of that is exposure to the potential of the style on televised competitions like “So You Think You Can Dance,” and some is due to an interest in something different.