The Island Dance Competition Team joined famed choreographers and dancers from the popular TV show “So You Think You Can Dance” at the Codance Seattle Regional Convention in Tacoma for a chance to learn from the greats in back-to-back classes in multiple dance genres from ballet to street jazz. Dancers attending were Cassie Neil, Sylvia Hurlburt, Abbie Rookstool, Grace Rookstool, Melissa Smith and Weslee Doucette, who came home with six ribbons and three trophies.

At the gala culminating the weekend, there was special recognition of dancer Doucette, who was singled out by all the teachers for her hard work in every class. During one of those classes, teacher Nancy O’ Meara, who teaches dance to many famous stars, phoned her student Miranda Cosgrove, teen TV star of “iCarly”, put the star on speaker phone for the whole class to hear, and the entire class cheered their good-luck wishes for that evening’s Kid’s Choice Awards. Doucette is to receive an autographed photo of Cosgrove, who wanted to reciprocate her support of a Codance Seattle dancer.

That same weekend, Island Dance Competition team members Graham Vanderwood, Eva Sherlock and Zane Vanderwood were burning up the dance floor taking classes and competing at the “Monsters of Hip Hop” Convention in Portland, Ore. The team’s young people were taught by the likes of the same choreographers who work with such superstars as Britney Spears and Janet Jackson. Choreographers even taught the participants the same dance they designed for the show, “So You Think You Can Dance.”