ATJ competitive dancers had the best weekend ever at Shawn Desman’s Competition April 1-3 in Toronto.

His competition entitled “MOVE – The Ultimate Dance Competition” was a blast.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed having the famous pop star be their host for the weekend and got the chance to take class from “So You Think You Can Dance” hip hop choreographer Luther Brown on the Sunday morning. ATJ did awesome. What made this dance competition unique was that there was a round robin type finals on Sunday in which each studio’s top numbers moved on to compete.

Madison Hetherington and Stacia Pepper moved on to finals with their solos. ATJ’s production modern piece “Seven Nation Army” and senior hip hop routine “Bad Chic” also represented ATJ in the finals. ATJ received special awards for “Seven Nation Army” choreographed by Emily Kennedy, “Cooler than Me” choreographed by Chris Rich, and hip hop routines “Pump It Up” and “Bad Chic” also choreographed by Emily Kennedy. Shelby Mackness, Madison Hetherington, and Stacia Pepper also received Special Awards for their solos.

I think the highlight of the entire weekend for the kids was meeting Shawn Desman and Luther Brown. ATJ will definitely be revisiting “MOVE” next year. “I feel the most important thing about these competitions is that the kids enjoy themselves and experience a sense of accomplishment – our ATJ dancers should be proud of what they have achieved”, says ATJ director Lisa Lester-Harris.