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Southwest School of Dance girls racking up accolades

LYND — They may be dancing from a new location, but the Southwest School of Dance girls are still racking up the accolades.

The Southwest School of Dance, which is now owned by Larvita McFarquhar, and instructed by former owner Charlotte Wendel, was formerly located on Main Street in Marshall and is now a part of the Lyndwood Center in Lynd.

The dancers, Taliya McFarquhar, Saphi McFarquhar, Cameen McFarquhar and Avianna McFarquhar, traveled March 24 to Bloomington to compete in a regional event at a DanZa Competition and won awards including best presentation, second runner-up for high score and high scoring small group.

They did well in every dance they competed in.

“We got all scores in the 90s,” Wendel said. “I’ve never had those kind of scores. It’s extraordinary.”

What’s even more extraordinary is the dancers are first year modern dance students.

“They have gymnastics backgrounds, not dance. And they didn’t incorporate any gymnastics moves into the dance,” Wendel said. “This was pure Martha Graham — not a gymnastics trick in it.”

Wendel said the girls are great to work with.

“Music and emotion just runs through their bodies,” she said.

The girls were named best presentation which encompasses “emotion, execution and choreography,” said Wendel.

Wendel deserves a medal for making it to the Twin Cities on March 24, which saw a major snowstorm in southwestern Minnesota. The girls drove to the dance competition the day before with their mother, but forgot their dance costumes, so Wendell got in her vehicle with the costumes.

She got stuck a half mile from her home near Marshall for four hours.

“I couldn’t see what was the road and what was the bike lane,” Wendel said. “It took a plow and two tow trucks to get me out.”

Wendel said she is grateful to the plow driver, Mike Foley, who kept plowing until Wendel was able to drive out of Marshall.

“He didn’t have to do that,” Wendel said.

Wendel and the costumes arrived late to the competition.

“We arrived at around 4 p.m.,” said Wendel. “The competition had started at 8 a.m. and went until 10 p.m.”

The dancers, who are ages 12, 13, 16 and 18, were supposed to compete in the junior division but missed it and had to compete in the senior division — “against the best,” Wendel said.

Forgetting costumes and getting stuck in the snow weren’t the only goof-ups to the day, Toward the beginning of their modern dance interpretation of “Adagio,” the music cut out. But that didn’t stop the girls — they performed as if the music were still playing.

“I kept on listening to music in my head,” said Saphi McFarquhar.

“We counted it out,” said Avianna McFarquhar. “Keeping on going — it’s what we’re taught to do.”

The girls said doing gymnastics helps their dancing and dancing enhances their gymnastics skills.

“Gymnastics helps with our form,” said Avianna McFarquhar. “Making it look better.”

“Taliya and Avianna made STARs and get to go to nationals,” said Wendel.

A DanZa STAR semi-finalist is an “exceptionally talented performer who has achieved a score level that qualifies them for the DanZa STAR title holder contest.” This year the DanZa National Finals take place in July in Charleston, S.C.

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