The National Dance Week and Dance Spirit
Annual Essay Contest

Dance Spirit's 2006 Essay Contest for National Dance Week The Premise: You've just written a best selling mystery dance novel that centers around a famous dance venue (such as the Met or Covent Garden) and features dancers as the main characters.  How would the summary on the book jacket describe the plot?   Brought to you by Dance Spirit Magazine and National Dance Week   How to Enter: In 250 words or less, write the book jacket for your novel. Entries will be judged on originality and grammar. Mail to: DS NDW Mystery Dance Novel Contest, 110 William St, 23rd floor, NY, NY 10038, or email editor@dancespirit.com. Include your full name, age, mailing address and your entry's total word count. Missing elements will result in disqualification.   Prizes: One first-place winner: $250. Two second-place winners: one-year subscriptions to Dance Spirit. Five third-place winners: Dance Spirit T-shirts.   Deadline for entries: April 30, 2006

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First place winner 17-year-old Francesca Caruso from San Marcos, CA, won the top prize, a $250 scholarship.
Two 14-year-old girls, Leena and Sofie, are moodily wiping down the mirrors in their small town’s aged ballet studio. They were very rambunctious, giggly and disrespectful during lessons, and as a punishment for their misbehavior, the instructors asked them to clean all the mirrors in the studio. Round and round they wipe the glass, their reflections showing their obvious displeasure. Leena sighs and leans on the barre, which suddenly detaches from the mirror and bangs to the floor. The mirror cracks, and shards of glass leap onto the floor as the girls scream in fright. When the echoes of their yells cease, the girls notice that the wall is hollow behind the mirror. With mischievous grins, they climb in and discover a secret passageway. Running their hands along the dewy, mossy stone walls, Leena and Sofie daringly stumble down the passage, still in their ballet slippers and tights. Where does it lead?
The teens time travel around the world, seeing various cultural dances of the century, from tribal dances to waltzes to the Charleston. I would cast ballroom dancers from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, and dancers from other nations, including non-professionals. I would film each dance scene in a different country and match the costumes and surroundings to the time period. I would hire cultural experts and historians to make each scene as accurate as possible. This movie would be rated PG so dancers of all ages could enjoy it.

Second places winners Katherine Harget, Nancy Dinh and Samantha Johnson each won a free year’s subscription to DS.
By Katherine Harget
Jasmine, a ten-year-old ballet and modern dancer in London, longs for the day when she can choreograph her own dance for the studio’s year-end recital. Her parents, Eric and Amanda, however, are Red Cross volunteers called to serve as part of a medical team in Africa after a flood has wiped away a small village. They decide to take their daughter with them, an idea that haughty Jasmine abhors, but cannot change. However, Jasmine’s attitude and idea of dance both undergo a large transformation as the leaders of a suffering African tribe show her the heart of dance as expression. Their fire-lit mountaintop ceremonies of energetic, pulsing dances allow the people to express the pain of their loss, the struggle for restoration, and their perseverance as a tribe. The tribe shaman takes Jasmine under her wing and teaches her the basics of their dances, allowing her to perform with them in one ceremony before the relief efforts are no longer needed. This scene incorporates flashes of fire with pulsating moves and a myriad of tribal costumes. The final scene is a sold-out dance performance at a massive London theatre intertwining the basics of the African dances with the fundamentals of modern dance and ballet, to a thriving, living beat with flying, vibrant costumes, all designed and choreographed by the now-adult Jasmine.
Dakota Fanning would play young Jasmine and Charlize Theron would portray Jasmine as an adult. The shooting would take place in London, England, and the Nairobi National Park in Kenya. The dance music in London would be traditional Bach suites played by the London Symphony Orchestra, and the African tribal dance music would be a combination of Roots Jam artists and African vocalists.

By Nancy Dinh
My movie, a teenage drama about ballroom dance, would star a lesbian teenager who attempts to overcome adversity in her small-town community. She is rejected by her homophobic classmates and her own parents. Her parents are highly religious people who try to “convert” her to heterosexuality by placing her in ballroom dance class. The girl is partnered with a teenage boy who later becomes her best friend. He tells her that he is gay and this news excites the girl. Together they set out to change the community’s outlook on homosexuality by fixing a different routine for the town’s annual black-and-white ball, where ballroom dancing is the feature. The teens mix-and-match the partners and convince the rest of the dancers to do same-sex dancing. On the night of the ball, they present the dance and the whole town admires how determined the two are to be accepted. The girl and boy decide to leave town to pursue professional careers in dancing, hoping to carry the message that despite their sexual orientation, they can still succeed.
For the leading female role, I would cast 22-year-old Kirsten Dunst. I have seen her impressively portray a variety of roles, such as Mary Jane in Spiderman and Lux in The Virgin Suicides. Her youthful look and personality show rebelliousness; however, she’s also sensitive and endearing. For the leading male role, I would cast 21-year-old Gregory Smith. He’s played such roles as Alan in Small Soldiers and Ephram in the television show Everwood. This movie would be primarily shot at the Rotarians’ International Fellowship of Ballroom Dancing dance hall in Independence, Missouri.

By Samantha Johnson
My movie would be about a high school girl named Tonya who plays basketball in NYC. She injures her back halfway through the season and is forced to quit the team. She starts seeing a chiropractor named Mahisha, who is also a belly-dancing teacher at a famous restaurant in Manhattan. Tonya decides to check out the restaurant and she likes what she sees, so she begins to take classes. Her parents find out and don’t approve—they are extremely conservative and think belly-dancing is too risqué. She sneaks around for a while and still goes to her belly dancing classes. One day, Mahisha’s son, Andrew, comes to watch and Tonya starts to like him. Mahisha has a huge student performance at the restaurant and asks Tonya to be the star performer in the show. However, her parents find a flier for the performance and ban her from going. Andrew finds out, and without Tonya knowing, he talks to her parents and convinces them to let her go. The final scene shows Tonya dancing, then Andrew tells her he convinced her parents to let her go because Tonya is so passionate about dance and asks her out.
I would cast Scarlett Johansson as Tonya, and a famous belly dancer as Mahisha, and film the movie in NYC.

Third place winners Timan Goshit, Chestina Schubert, Jackie Kimmel, Stephanie Reed and Christina Hodel all won Dance Spirit T-shirts.
By Timan Goshit
The Garette Morgan Memorial High School Hip-Hop Dance Team, HIP, is the hottest urban dance group in all of New York. But after the school’s principal dies suddenly, a replacement principal proves to be their ultimate nightmare. The prim woman threatens to allocate the majority of the team’s funds to a “more deserving” team, since she espouses the claim that hip hop is not an artful form of dance. There is only one way that the principal will change her mind about the funding—the team must put together a ballet routine for their next performance.
But there’s one problem: HIP’s next performance is the National Hip-Hop Dance-Off. It is up to the students whether they will change their routine in hopes of keeping their funding or if they will risk their funds in hopes of winning the national competition.
The cast would consist of dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, who are trained with all forms of dance and could pull off hip hop as well as ballet. In addition, it would be fitting to cast some dance students from the area where the movie is filmed—they would add to the essence of the movie, as they encompass the heart of their surroundings. The contrast between the styles of the dance will show the hidden similarities of the two. I would call it Mozart’s Crew.

By Chestina Schubert
In my movie, a ballet student struggles to discover herself while battling a tiresome relationship with her mother. Her mother, Catherine (Meg Ryan), wants her daughter to become a professional ballet dancer. “Strive to be the best,” her mother tells her. “This is the best time of your life; do not let it pass you by.” Catherine tries to relive her dream as a dancer through her daughter’s life. Her father, Dan (Dan Aykroyd), is a big-time corporate lawyer who never has time for his family. The brother, Eric (Michael McCormick), is struggling to find a way to tell the family about his homosexuality. And the daughter, Britney (Julia Stiles), is influenced by her wild best friend, Courtney (Alyssa Milano), to compete on a dance show called Dance 360. Britney falls in love with one of the hosts of the show (Kyle Mitchell and Freddo Star, playing themselves). When the American Ballet Company comes to the city to scout out new ballet dancers, the mother discovers the affection her daughter has for the host and tries to come between them. Meanwhile, the host falls in love with Britney and realizes how gifted she really is. He invites her to become one of his dancers in his new hip-hop music video and travel with him on tour. The mother hires a private investigator to find out about the host and discovers he has a criminal background. She threatens her daughter to in order to force her to break up with him and go back to the ballet school, saying she will go public with the criminal information. The daughter must choose between her feelings for the man she loves and having a life as a ballet dancer (and her mother’s approval).

By Jackie Kimmel
Typical gorgeous star quarterback Ethan (played by Matt Long) goes to Queens High School and dates head cheerleader (Lindsey Lohan). The summer before senior year, Ethan hurts his ankles, and his doctor recommends ballet to strengthen them before football starts. Willing to do anything to get back on the field, he agrees and at his first lesson, is mesmerized by a dancer (Emmy Rossum). He soon realizes she is Kara, a shy girl from his school. As his lessons progress, he becomes closer to Kara, and it becomes apparent that Ethan might be even better at ballet than he is at sports! Come the start of the schoolyear, Ethan realizes he must make some important decisions. With college choices (NYU or Ohio State), love problems (his girlfriend who dumped him because he wears tights, or the new girl who inspires him to wear tights) and parents who are afraid he might be gay, Ethan has to figure out who he really is, not who people want him to be. Everything comes together at graduation, when Ethan gives a speech to the crowd: “Throughout school, people start putting themselves in boxes. However, there comes a time when you need to step out of them. Once in a while, you need to try something new—it might be the one thing that lets you completely express yourself.” He takes off his graduation gown to reveal a ballet outfit, pronounces his love for Kara, and encourages everyone to be who they want to be, whatever that may be.

By Stephanie Reed
My dance movie would be about personal struggle, overcoming obstacles and realizing the passion in your life. In it, a high school girl trains with her partner in ballroom dancing, and they drive two hours to attend competitions in NYC. One winter evening on the way to a competition, the girl (Scarlett Johansson), her dance partner (Josh Hartnett) and trainer (Denzel Washington) are involved in a deadly crash. In an ambulance on the way to the hospital, memories of her and her partner flash through the girl’s mind. She then wakes up in the hospital, only to find that her partner has died and both of her legs have been broken.
She is devastated and becomes bitter and resentful, and vows to never dance again. She is in physical therapy to learn how to walk again, but hardly tries. There she meets a man (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) who is intrigued by her, but she continues to be cold toward him.
Her trainer, who survived the accident, visits her often to tell her that she had something special, and that she should not let the accident break her down and take away her passion for dance—but she doesn’t want to hear what he has to say. Soon after, she dreams of her dance partner, who tells her not to give up and dances with her one last time. She awakes with a renewed mission to get her life back and to dance again, and her physical therapist becomes her new dance partner.

By Christina Hodel
”Rhapsody in Blue” fades in and crescendos as two robbers break into a bank and steal some jewels. After the heist, robbers Marley and Snakes don’t know where to hide the treasure. They decide to hide the precious stones in a local dance studio, where they are found by the crazy Mistress Lizbet, who hires Marley and Snakes as a ballet teacher and teacher’s assistant. Marley, to the surprise of Snakes, is a great ballet dancer and teacher; he ends up completely forgetting about the jewels, and instead reignites his lost passion for ballet when he must teach 12 unruly tweens how to ballet dance.
Later on, a costume mom stumbles upon the jewels and, mistaking them for rhinestones, sews them on the dancers’ costumes. The dancers are then kidnapped by rival robbers for their valuable costumes. Marley and Snakes have a change of heart and set out on a quest to save the dancers. They eventually find them and in the end, Marley becomes head ballet teacher for the hopeless-turned-promising studio, while Snakes decides he will try his luck with ballet, and takes class alongside the ballerinas he rescued.
I would cast unknown dancers in all parts, and film the studio scenes in the dance studios of my college, Cal State University, Long Beach.