Dancing Queen

Tatum earned two medals in her recent dance competition - the Golden Tap Championship. The first was a silver for amateur acapella clogging, the second a gold for amateur clogging. She really enjoyed herself this year compared to the last few competition experiences.

She still has a couple of performances remaining this summer. At least two are during the week of the fair.



This was the first time she competed in the acapella category. For this the dancers lined up behind a screen so only their feet were visible to the audience and the judges faced the audience rather than watching the dancers. Here's what it looked like:

The clogging part of the competition was much better to watch. The kids come out on stage in age and experience brackets. Tatum did a great job. The caller tells the girls to "rush the stage" and they all start forward toward the judges table pounding their clogs into the stage floor. They get warmed up and retreat to the curtain side of the stage and line up.

Then, one at a time, they are called forward with the words, "next little lady rise and shine." They dance forward toward the judges and have about 30 seconds to impress the judges with their best, fastest and fanciest steps.