Golden Girl

Photo courtesy of Cindee Spurgeon

Winning Performance – Alyssa Spurgeon performing her dance routine to “Don’t cry mama” from the musical Cabaret during the IDO Show Dance Championships in Riesa, Germany.

Third times a charm for Alyssa Spurgeon.

The 13-year-old Cottonwood resident went to the IDO World Show Dance Championships in Riesa, Germany as part of Team USA for the third year in a row and came back with gold.

“I couldn’t believe it! I started crying. My dad was on stage with me, I turned and looked at him and he told me to go up there,” said Alyssa, who dances over 25 hours a week.

For the second time, Alyssa competed in the female soloist junior division, which was comprised of 48 dancers between the ages of 12 and 15, said mother Cindee Spurgeon.

Alyssa, who competed under the name Alyssa Banwarth because the adoption by her step-father wasn’t finalized until after she had already started competing for a spot on Team USA.

The West Cottonwood student said she danced to “Don’t tell mama” from the musical Cabaret.

“It’s set in 1930s Berlin, Germany and I didn’t realize that when choosing my routine. I have just always wanted to dance to that song,” said Alyssa. “I remember being seven or eight and hearing the music and seeing the routine and thinking someday I want to do that. I wasn’t old enough to do it until now.”

According to her mother, they knew this would be Alyssa’s year.

“It was just the right combination of things – routine, costume… She is stronger this year. We just knew she would do well this year, and were hoping for gold all along.”

Cindee Spurgeon said that Sonia Kennedy, Alyssa’s dance instructor at California Dance Company in Anderson, was there to watch her daughter compete this year.

According to Spurgeon, after the six finalists danced, the MC called each dancer forward then the judges held up a number between one and six and the MC would read the score from each judge to the crowd.

“Alyssa got one, two, two, two, four, four, five… We wrote it down and Sonia and I were sitting there trying to figure out where she would place. We thought second or third.”

However, Spurgeon said, the captain for Team USA already knew how the scoring worked and knew Alyssa won gold.

“The judging isn’t like anything here in the states. To choose first it’s the person who gets four ones or more out of seven. Since no one had more than three, then it goes to the person who has the most ones and twos and that was Alyssa. Then they figure out the rest of the scores from there,” said Spurgeon.

Upon returning to the States, Alyssa said the biggest surprise was coming to the dance studio Nov. 28.

She said it was decorated with banners congratulating her from the different dancers and her ballet instructor made cupcakes with gold medals on them.

Her mother added that even though Alyssa danced on Thanksgiving, different members of the dance company watched the live feed that morning and saw Alyssa dance in Germany.

Spurgeon said Alyssa doesn’t have to compete in any of the competitions to make Team USA, that she automatically gets a spot and can defend her title next year, but they aren’t sure if they will go back.

“Alyssa reached her goal of getting gold. She is thinking about trying other things.”