This past weekend, Saturday, April 26th and Sunday, April 27th at Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in North Hollywood, auditions for The 2008 SparKids official dance team were held. Hundreds of kids between the ages of 8-13 showed up Saturday morning to give it their best shot at making this prestigious WNBA dance team. The auditions were held in the largest dance room at Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio and it was “wall to wall kids” who were all eagerly waiting for their chance to strut their stuff for a panel of judges.

The choreographer for the preliminary and Final Call Back rounds was top dance industry choreographer, Mr. Tim Stevenson. He taught a dance combination to Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall” that left the kids begging for more. The kids performed five at a time for a panel of industry experts. This was quite a difficult task, since the judges needed to quickly cut hundreds of SparKid applicants down to just 80.

After the first round of elimination, choreographer Tim Stevenson went on to teach a few more 8 counts of choreography. The kids performed 5 at a time for the judges and then patiently waited to see if their names were called to return Sunday morning for the Final Call backs. Only 35 kids would be selected to return the following day to get their “one chance” at being a 2008 SparKid.

As the numbers were called out loudly, you could hear periodic screams of excitement and sighs of relief that certain number were called. There were a lot of happy faces and of course a few sad, disappointed ones, as well. But, as always, it is explained and encouraged for these little ones to come out again next season and give it another try.

Sunday morning, final callbacks started at 9:00 A.M. with yet another amazing routine by Tim Stevenson. These 35 kids quickly learned 8, 8 counts of dance choreography, then would immediately perform for the panel of judges for their evaluation. Every single kid did such an incredible job that it was extremely difficult for the judges to decide which group of kids would move on for the final selection of the NEW 2008 SparKids.

Congratulations to all SparKid applicants & finalists! You should all feel very proud!

Cheers,
Aimee Edmundson
Director, SparKids

And the 2008 SparKids are (In no particular order):

• Kristopher Wagner
• Robert Wells
• Taylor Bourne
• Alex Wasserman
• Kaelynn Harris
• Juliana Carbonaro
• Skylan Brooks
• Sara Llanos
• Zoe Soul
• Lynette Paz
• Bianca Morales
• Nadji Jeter

Congratulations to the NEW 2008 Los Angeles SparKids!