The Finals for the Jr. Division has just finished. We’re awaiting the award ceremony.

Jr. Female Solo

Gold Medal – USA – Brittany Danek

Silver Medal – Canada – Samantha White

Bronze Medal – Canada – Laura Smanthkia

4th Place – USA – Christina Montisi

5th Place – USA – Nancy Riveria

Out of 21 Competitors

Jr. Duo Division

Gold – USA – Christina Montesi & Nancy Riveria

Silver Medal – Switzerland

Bronze Medal – Canada

Jr. Formation

Gold Medal – Canada – Feakizoid

Silver Medal – USA – Apache

Bronze Medal – Germany – Beat It

The children’s competition has ended. They are preparing the stage for the medals ceremony. The 2006 World Championships in Reisa Germany.

Solo Female Division

Gold – Canada – Celine Tyson

Silver – USA – Talia Vendetto

Bronze – USA – Jasmine Clemens

7th Place – USA – Tiana Dyson

Total of 22 competitors

Small Group

Gold – USA – “Giddy-Up”

Silver – Germany – “Beatles Forever”

Bronze – Russia – “Do the Tango”

Total of 11 Competitors

It was a very exciting day for our competitors as well as the family members in the audience.

Tomorrow competition continues with the Jr. Divisions finals being held in the evening.

In between competition, I’d thought you’d like to know that the Team has 3 dancers moving from the Semi-final round to the Finals round this evening. Congratulations to our Jr. Solo Female competitors

• “Hey There Good Time” – Christina Montessi
• “A Train” – Brittany Danek
• “Hernando’s Hideaway” – Nancy Rivera

Good luck this evening ladies!

I’ve found an Internet connections right here at the arena, hooray! I’ll be posting reports and photos right here from the audience.

Today marks day two of competition. Apache dances this afternoon in the first quarterfinals, the semi-finals will be this evening, and when they qualify for the finals they will dance tomorrow evening.

Our 3 Female solo Finalist and the childrens Small Group “Giddy-up” will also dance  this afternoon.

Stay tuned!

It’s Wednesday evening and I’ve finally found an Internet connection. I’ve had quite a time trying to get connected here in Reisa!

The team left Berlin on Tuesday morning for a leisurely paced ride to Reisa. The roads for most part were divided highway’s until we were about 50 km from the town, then it was country roads!!

We arrived at the Edgas Arena around 3:00 and then stood in the cold until about 5:00 before we could make our hotel payments.

Then it was on to the hotel for check-in and a team dinner. The resturant was not big enough to hold the whole team at once, so we ate in shifts. The younger children and Apache were first, then Drumline followed by the parents. The food was good, the beer was better (so I was told).

Early today the team made thier way over to the arena for the first day of competition. Today was Solo females, Duo and Trios and Small Groups for Children & Juniors.

Throughout the day the kids watched the competition, made new friends and traded pins!

By the end of the day, the USA Team had qualified for finals “Giddy-up”, and the three Children soloist all qualifed for their finals. Congratulations to Talia Vendetto, Tiana Tyson and Jasmine Clemens!!

Go USA!!

(Hopefully, by tomorrow I’ll be able to post some photos)

We’ve landed in Berlin! 7:30 a.m.
102 people rushing through passport control, to stand around and wait for thier luggage. After collecting our luggage we were met outside the the gate by a young women holding a sign that read “USA Tap Team”.
Two large double-decker buses awaited us. It was a tight squeeze with all the luggage and carry-ons, but we finally all found seats on the buses. We left the airport and traveled to the Fruheling am Zoo hotel on the Kurfurstendamm (ie. New York’s 5th Ave.) Neon, glitz, “expensive shopping”.
Located near the Zoo, the hotel was one block from the Christmas Market a street-side festival surrounding the Kaier-Wilhelm Gendachtniskirche (church), the festival was small kiosks selling everything from ornaments, scarves, jewelry, cookies, candies, brots & wurst, and rides for the children.

Miss Gloria, Luis, Stacy, Sara, the Vendatto’s and the LaLuna’s and myself walk a few blocks to Ming’s Garden, a Chinese resturant. However, Chinese doesn’t translate very well. Our favorite menu item was: Fish sweet and sulky. The lychees in the drinks were not liked by all, also water comes with or without gas! Otherwise the meal was a success and we made fast friends with our waiter Chung.
It’s been a long day, some of us still have not slept since yesterday! It’s going to be another long day tomorrow as we travel to Reisa.

After a little delay, we departed West Haven at 12:15 p.m.

The trip to JFK went smoothly, we collected our luggage, proceeded to check-in, stood in line, recieved our boarding pass and headed out to the gate.
After a quick bite, we gathered at gate 12 for our 5:35 departure.
We’ll be in the air for 9 hours, eewh!
I’ll let you know what happens tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the day! We leave early Sunday morning for a rendezvous in West Haven where we will meet the rest of the team and board a motorcoach for the trip to JFK.

Our flight is at 5:30 p.m. on a direct Delta flight to Berlin Germany. We arrive 8:30 a.m. Monday morning Berlin time or 2:30 a.m. our time.

Safe trip to everyone and good luck in Germany!