Monroe Dancer Wins National Competition in Gatlinburg

Kaleigh Ireton (Left)

Students from the Jeanie Moreland Dance Theatre recently returned from the Applause National Dance Competition held in Gatlinburg, Tenn. July 11-15. Kaleigh Ireton, 12 of Monroe was part of the local group of dancers that have been winning awards all over the state this year and competed at the national event.

Kaleigh took tops honors by winning 1^st place overall for her duet tap routine to “Black Horse and a Cherry Tree”. She won a $75 cash award for her winning performance. She also won gold awards in lyrical and musical theatre jazz and her solo musical theatre jazz routine from the Broadway musical, “Hairspray”. Earlier in the year she also won 1^st place Overall awards at the Applause regional competition held at West Carrollton in May and 2^nd place overall for the same routine at the Encore regional in Mason. She was one of 7 dancers selected out of 100 for the Applause Regional Dance Scholarship.

While in Gatlinburg, Kaleigh was selected to perform in the Applause National Showcase with dancers from other studios from across the country. They worked with the Applause choreographers for three days learning the opening number routines which they performed on the last day of the national event in the show titled, “Best of the Best”.

Kaleigh has studied dance for the past 7 years in the areas of ballet, tap, jazz , hula, Tahitian, and acro/gymnastics. She has served as a student teacher at her local studio. She is a member of the Hornets Pee Wee Cheerleaders and the select soccer team. She is the daughter of Paul and Tiffany Ireton of Monroe. She will be in the 6^th grade at Monroe Middle School.

For information on new groups forming and fall classes, contact the Jeanie Moreland Dance Theatre at 937-746-9400.