The National Dance Week© and Dance Spirit®
Annual Essay Contest

The National Dance Week© 2007 and Dance Spirit®

Dance Theme Park Essay Contest

The Premise: If you were given unlimited resources with which to build a dance-specific ride at a theme park, what would you design? Tell us every last detail: what it looks like, how thrilling it is, what kind of music you’d play, how interactive it is.

One first-place winner receives $250

Three second-place winners receive one-year subscriptions to Dance Spirit

Five third-place winners receive Dance Spirit T-shirts.

How to Enter:

1.    In 300 words or less, tell Dance Spirit your plans for the very first dance-specific ride at a theme park.

2.    All essays must be received by April 1, 2007 .

3.   Enter your submission by e-mailing it to editor@dancespirit.com with “ Dance Theme Park ” in the subject line.

First place, receiving $250:
THE GOLD PENDANT
By Joanna Yao Shi
19 years old
Republic of Singapore
       Even the village elders agreed that Mae-Kim was gifted. When she danced, the basket-weaver’s daughter had the grace of silk ribbon in the cool evening breeze. She enchanted all who saw her perform. So when a distinguished red-haired gentleman announced that she should dance at the Royal Opera House in London, her mother knew exactly what to do. Mae-Kim left with the old gentleman two days later, bringing with her only a few provisions and a gift from Mother—her great-grandaunt’s cherished gold pendant.
       It was in London that Mae-Kim’s world began spinning out of control. As she auditioned for the title role in the upcoming Giselle production at Covent Garden, she had her first taste of intense competition, bitter betrayal and foul play. Later, the old gentleman fell mysteriously ill, and disappeared suddenly from his hospital ward. Letters from her family stopped abruptly. And all the while, someone was slowly, constantly slipping old, faded magazine cutouts under her apartment door.
       It was only when Mae-Kim returned to a backstage changing room to retrieve a forgotten pair of slippers that she discovered something more. And as she delved deeper into the perilous mystery, she uncovered a powerful money-laundering syndicate, an underground psychic cult and a dangerous plan surrounding the grand opening performance of Giselle at the Royal Opera House. Alone in a foreign world, she realized that she had the one thing they were all after…The Gold Pendant

Three second place winners receive a year’s subscription to Dance Spirit:
SECOND PLACE - A
THE WOODEN BOX
By Madison Selby
14 years old
Austin, TX
“Do you think it’s okay to be back here?” I whispered.
“Come on, don’t wimp out on me,” came Lucy’s voice from the gloom ahead.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped through the backstage door to the stage of the Paris Opera House.
“Hey, Cassie, come look at this!” said Lucy.
I followed her voice farther into the dark. “What?”
“It’s like a sort of old box,” Lucy said. “Come see.”
I found her in the dark and crouched down beside her. In her hands she held a small wooden box with three initials carved into the cover: M. V. G.
“M. V. G.?” I read. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” said Lucy, “but we’re bringing it with us.”
When ballerinas Cassie Darling and Lucy George sneak backstage in the Paris Opera House, all they are looking for is a little adventure. Instead, they discover a window into Renaissance Paris, through the diary and meager belongings of a dancer from the early days of the Opera House, a girl named Marie Van Gothem.
          At first the two are delighted, but as they read more and more of Marie’s diary, things keep getting stranger and stranger. Marie writes about a secret, something so dark and terrible that, if revealed, it would destroy the Opera forever. Just after her mention of the secret, Marie’s entries abruptly end. And as the pair becomes more and more involved in Marie’s disappearance, the girls come ever closer to the danger of the truth.

SECOND PLACE - B
THE BHAVAN BELLS
By Kavita Mistry
16 years old
Mount Kisco, NY
As the thick, spice-filled evening air descended, Kirti climbed to her hideaway atop the roof of the celebrated Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan. She tried to bury her nervousness in the rhythmic bustle of Bombay, focusing on the myriad dancing flames that were now springing to life, littering the dusky horizon. But how could she relax? Her Arangetram—the traditional coming out ceremony for every aspiring Bharata Natyam dancer—was to take place later that night; soon, the eyes of the entire city would rest upon her. She pushed the thought away, held her restive hands out in front of her, and began to practice, moving her red-tipped fingers into the familiar symbolic positions of fire, love, and peacock. She breathed in—fire, love, peacock—and out again—fire, love—but before she could complete peacock she started violently; Dilip had clasped her wrists, his face contorted with worry.
          “You must help me!” he whispered urgently. “The Bhavan bells have been stolen!”
          Kirti gasped at her handsome fellow-dancer. It was tradition for every Arangetram dancer to wear those very bells around her ankles; she could not hope to perform without them.
          And so, Kirti allowed herself to be swept away with Dilip through the wild celebrations of the dangerous streets of Bombay, on a search which would bring her new friends and new foes, show her the meaning of true love, lead her perilously close to shattering her dreams of dancing, and bring her face to face with a very deadly enemy.

SECOND PLACE - C
MEMORY AND THE DANCE
By Shannon Leigh Murphy
Merrill, WI
She knew the pictures had all burned, but Gracie still couldn’t grasp why she wasn’t able to remember anything before her tenth birthday. Her parents, both psychologists, told her that she had just suppressed her memories because the fire was so traumatic. Though she truly yearned for a glimpse of her hidden history, she didn’t press any issue too much in fear that something might trigger her horrible memories of the fire in which her sisters, who she couldn’t remember at all, were both killed. After she graduated, Gracie enrolled in the psychology program at NYU where she registered for a beginner’s ballet class, not knowing that her first turn would send her life spinning into a whirlwind of mystery. 
Madam Clare instructed the class to all attempt one pirouette. As she spun around, Gracie had a remarkable feeling of familiarity. She was so entranced that she didn’t even notice the rest of the class staring at her. Without realizing it, she had just done a triple pirouette, spotted her head, pointed her toe, and landed it perfectly. 
“Have you taken ballet before?” Madam Clare asked with awe. 
“Never...at least not that I remember,” Gracie hesitated. She tried it again. She could do perfect pirouettes. On the tenth one, she stumbled; everyone thought she was just getting dizzy, but that wasn’t it. Gracie had had a memory. What really happened in her childhood, and why couldn’t she remember? Dance had become the key to unlocking Gracie’s mysterious past.

Five third place winners receive a Dance Spirit t-shirt:
THIRD PLACE - A
POINTE SHOE SLUETH
By Eugenia Poland
20 years old
The Woodlands, TX
Karyn’s heart quickened as the first notes resonated from the orchestra pit of the Metropolitan Opera House. She steeled her nerves as she prepared to go onstage, perfunctorily tapping the tips of her pointe shoes to the pulse of the music’s soft chords.  As she fidgeted with the netting of her tutu she reflected on the lifetime spent in arduous preparation, both mentally and physically. She glanced at her pointe shoes, remarking that embedded in the sole of the shoe lay the soul of the dancer. The pristine satin masked the blistered foot beneath, sore from laborious hours spent perfecting technique in the studio. 
          Karyn’s meditation was shattered as a strong hand clamped over her mouth. She tried to scream but found herself being dragged away and shoved into a car parked outside. A woman was seated inside the car. “Karyn,” she said, “you’ve been brought here by the CIA because we need your help. We have reason to believe that there is an international terrorist plot to demoralize the country by destroying the cultural epicenter of the United States by infiltrating the American Ballet Theater and planting an explosive in the Met. None of our agents are trained in classical ballet and we cannot successfully cover this operation without someone who knows the internal structure of the ballet company. Will you help us?”
          Follow Karyn in her daring exploits full of new friendships, laughter, and excitement to save her beloved ballet theater and to help her country.    

THIRD PLACE - B
DEATH OF A DANCER
By Coleen Cavanagh
18 years old
Norristown, PA
When Andre Asimov learned he was promoted to a principal for the Pennsylvania Ballet, he ran the 12 blocks from his Philadelphia apartment to the Academy of Music. He had performed in this magnificent opera house for five years, but now this 150-year-theater was the place where he would make his mark. Andre tiptoed through the back door toward the stage. The empty theater created a silence that was both comforting and frightening. He had an appointment with the choreographer, but his meeting was delayed by a producer’s telephone call.
            Andre gazed up at the ornate gilded columns and the 5,000-pound crystal chandelier that made this theater one of the most elegant in the world. His eyes moved from the chandelier to the red velvet seats and finally to the dimly lit stage. He sat down and let his feet dangle into the orchestra pit.
              Instinctively, his eyes went upward again, but this time it wasn’t the opulence of the room that made his heart skip a beat. This time, it was the silhouette of what looked like a large bird hanging from a light above the stage. It took only seconds to realize that the swaying bird was in fact a body—a woman’s body. He couldn’t make out the face, but he could see the black leotard, skirt and the long, flowing dark hair. He jumped to his feet, focused his gaze, and then he knew. Katharine McIvey, the Pennsylvania Ballet’s star, was dead.

THIRD PLACE - C
THE THIRD TIME IS A CHARM
By Katie Walter
31 years old
Portland, OR
It was a moment of stillness. The audience had been seduced into a queer state of reverie, and the shimmers of gold stage makeup and muslin were the only suggestions of movement. The lighting, which resembled the moon shining through scattered clouds, created an indefinite maze of shadow and light, and ushered this eerie scene to its perfection. It was at this moment that a speeding object pierced the stillness to strike Astrid, unwinding her from her épaulement and causing her to stumble forward. She regained herself immediately, soundlessly, but the suddenness of her movement had attracted the attention of all onstage and in the audience. Astrid now stood directly in a bright patch of light and turned her face upwards. Her blank expression of shock changed before the onlookers’ eyes. Like a hologram, it shifted between fear, confusion, and sorrowful comprehension. This display lasted for only a moment before Astrid did a graceful détourné and then cast herself into the orchestra pit, where the first chair bassoonist sprang up to catch her as if on cue.
And thus, Giselle died for the third time.   
The dressing rooms and backstage hallways of the New York Met become the home of secret meetings, found clues and lost assurances in this murder mystery. Each member of the dance troupe becomes someone quite different under the shadow of suspicion, and many of them begin to question their own sanity as each subsequent performance of Giselle becomes even more haunting than the last.

THIRD PLACE - D
A MYSTERIOUS DANCE
By Laurie R. Capece
52 years old
Sandy, UT
Is modern dance becoming the dance of death? One by one, dancers at The Joyce Theater in New York are being overwhelmed by a mysterious illness. They are falling into a malaise that leads to high fever, convulsions and death. The venue has been closed by the New York Health Department until the cause of the illness can be found. Is this a natural disease? Detective Mylo Barnes suspects murder.
Detective Barnes enters the world of dance and befriends the beautiful dancer Amy Bell. With her help, the intricate and complex dance community of New York City is opened to Barnes. Can detective Barnes solve the mystery, apprehend a clever and elusive killer, and get the Joyce reopened in time for National Dance Week? And will he get the woman who has become the girl of his dreams?

THIRD PLACE - E
A LAST DANCE
By Shivaani Prakash
18 years old
Vienna, VA
It’s the year 2012, and Ballroom Dance has finally been approved as an Olympic sport for the upcoming summer Olympics. As the finalist teams from eighteen countries gather in London for a chance to perform in front of the world at the famous Royal Opera House, the atmosphere is heavy with excitement and anticipation…at least, until the dead bodies of the Australian team are found on the dance floor, hours after their arrival in the Olympic Village. Then two of the dance competition judges vanish. Suddenly, the Royal Opera House has become a house of horrors, where danger lies behind every dressing room door and those who dance must fear for their safety.
Fiona Dyer, Star of Samba and half of the American team, begins to understand the grave danger the dancers are in when she recognizes the eerie symmetry between the events in London and the recent disappearance of a famous waltz instructor in Budapest, Hungary. With the help of Sarah and Ross, dancers on the English ballroom dance team, and Fritz, an unsuspecting track athlete and former dancer from Switzerland, Fiona finds herself sleuthing it out on a whirlwind chase from Hungary to Italy and back to the Royal Opera House for the dance performance of a lifetime. Can Fiona get to the bottom of things before the Olympics finish and Ballroom Dance is removed as a category? Can she survive long enough? Or has she given her last dance?

You Can View the 2005 Winners Here!