Dancer's Edge All Stars has a long history with UDA. Directors Alisa Ruppenthal and Kelly Bettin started attending the National Dance Team Championship back in the late 90s and early 2000s as athletes with their high school dance teams.

After school, Alissa and Kelly decide to make their dreams a reality and they opened Dancer's Edge All Stars Michigan in 2002. Just a short two years later, the studio brought its first teams to compete at the championship. 

“We knew we wanted a program for our students to be able to experience the NDTC championship like we were so fortunate to, so that is when we decided to form our first all star team,” they said.

The studio earned their first national title in 2006 in the Youth Pom division. Since then, Dancer’s Edge has won around 30 national championship titles.  

This season, Dancer’s Edge is brining eight teams to the championship in Orlando. The studio has teams competing in Youth Pom, Youth Jazz, Junior Pom, Junior Jazz, Senior Small Pom, Senior Large Pom, Senior Large Jazz, and Senior Small Contemporary.  

"Our dances are choreographed around all of our dancers and their unique and amazing strengths that they bring,” the directors said. “Each of our dances have moments that truly stand out, and each of our teams bring such a wonderful and exciting dynamic, and this year they are truly so hungry and excited for this event.” 

"One of the greatest qualities of our teams this season is their amazing energy. The dances are so challenging, but these athletes have a way of truly pushing and going harder each and every time they perform!"

This weekend marks the 35th annual UDA National Dance Team Championship, and it will be the 11th time for some of Dancer's Edge Seniors to be competing at this prestigious event. 

"This will be our only national championship this year, so our dancers are extremely excited and truly looking forward to it," the directors added. "Especially our seven graduating seniors who have been with us since we opened our studio!"

"Our dancers are so connected with their music this season, and they truly have a way of impacting and captivating their audience. We cannot wait to see them perform this year at UDA Nationals."

Dancer’s Edge prides themselves in building a story behind the music and choreography of each routine that will help their audience feel connected to their movements. The directors said one of the hardest components for their team isn't any individual skill itself, but putting all the movements together. 

"From performance, to maturing with the movement quality, to working as one unit, to mastering skills. . . . Once they start to find this, their performance quality takes on a whole new life and is the most gratifying experience for us to see as coaches."

Tune in to Varsity TV this Friday, February 2, to watch all the teams from Dancer's Edge Studio take the stage to defend their titles at UDA Nationals.

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