2020-2021 Performance Team Auditions

We are so excited for our 2020 - 2021 Performance Team Season! But first we need to get to the auditions.

AUDITION SIGN-UPS

NEW this season, sign-up for an audition time slot for your age group. We are limited the number of dancers in the studio space for the dancer, staff, and instructors safety.

Each audition session is 45 minutes long. Parents / Guardians will not be allowed at the auditions. Our lobbies are currently closed due to COVID.

Auditions will take place:

August 24 and 25, 2020

GSD - Downtown Studio 524 7th St N, Fargo, ND 58102

What to expect?

• Dancers should come ready to dance.

• They will learn a routine from one of our choreographer / coaches.

• If they have a special skill or trick, they will have 20 seconds to demonstrate it.

• Facial Exercise (for performance)

• The coaches will also want to see:

• Splits: left, right, and center.

• Pirouette Turns: left and right.

• Leaps & Jumps: Jetés, Leaps in Second, Calypsos

SIGN-UP FORM

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AUDITION FORM

Our audition form is now online. Please do not bring a paper copy. Due to COVID we are trying to keep as much digital as possible. Plus it saves a tree!

If you have multiple dancers in your family, please fill out one form per dancer.

AUDITION FORM LINK

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Once you have signed your dancer up for an audition time slot, we will send you the packet of detailed information. If you missed the meeting and would like more information before you sign-up, please email us.

And we will see you at the Auditions!!!

Triple S 2020 - Results

We had a wonderful weekend in Grand Forks, ND for our first dance competition of the season. We are SO incredibly proud of our dancers and the passion and love of dance they brought to the stage this weekend! Congratulations to all Gasper Dancers and all those from studios around the region that competed this weekend!

Below is our weekend results.

A few things to note:

• Triple S has 3 levels: Single S, Double S, and Triple S (Triple S is the hardest level).

• They score with 1 Star, 2 Stars or 3 Stars (3 Stars being the highest award).

• They have 3 top overalls as long as there are more than 3 numbers in a Level and age group.

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July Intensive Guest Instructor

Today we want to introduce a second instructor for our July Summer Intensive. AND she is also celebrating her birthday today!! Coming back to the area is Aysha Upchurch. We met Aysha when she taught and choreographed at Trollwood many years ago and couldn't be more excited to have her energy at our studio for part of the July Summer Intensive.

Photo Credit: Ill-Digital

AYSHA UPCHURCH

Aysha Upchurch, the Dancing Diplomat, identifies as a seed planter, soil agitator, and curious and passionate artist. Professionally, this translates to her working as a dancer, choreographer, educator and arts administrator who is committed to social inclusion, community engagement and artistry development. While based out of Washington, DC, where she founded and directed the award-winning dance ensemble, Life, Rhythm, Move Project. Blending her dance training and professional backgrounds in youth advocacy and conflict resolution, she uses Hip Hop dance to entertain and educate audiences while supporting youth voices. Trained in Advancing Youth Development, she also facilitates movement and conflict resolution workshops for young people. The thread of Hip Hop culture and arts runs throughout her work as an artist, and deeply informs how she positions herself as a facilitator and instructor with students of all ages.

Aysha has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the White House and has been selected as a US State Department Cultural Envoy in Dance in Bolivia, Honduras and Guatemala. In 2007, she won the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage Local Dance Commissioning Project and created Am I On?, an award-winning evening-length Hip Hop work about the space between youth and adult voices. Aysha holds an M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University and is currently on faculty at Salem State University – only the second college to allow dance majors to concentrate in Hip Hop. She received her Ed.M., concentrating on Arts in Education, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she has served as Teaching Fellow and Project Zero Classroom faculty member and is a current Visiting Practitioner in Education, documenting and creating works as the Artist-in-Residence seeking to raise the profile on dance education and Hip Hop pedagogy. Key to all of Aysha’s work is the belief that an empowered body is a powerful liberation tool and that culturally responsive arts education is central to progressive and inclusive education reform.