Christmas came early this year for Mount St. Mary junior Sydney Kellam (center), the Rockettes team manager and former MSM dance team member who was one of 19 dancers picked to be on the first-ever Team USA for a competition known as “the Olympics of dance.”
In early December, Sydney traveled with her coach and teammates from the Rock City Dance Center and other states across the country to the International Dance Organization’s World Jazz & Modern Championships in Warsaw, Poland. There they competed against more than 4,000 dancers from 32 nations and 4 continents.
Sydney received fifth place for Team USA for her group’s Adult Jazz Dance Formation and Adult Modern Dance Formation routines and sixth in the Adult Division for Small Group Modern.
“I loved it. It was a lot of hard work and hours,” Sydney said, explaining that the team practiced six days a week leading up to the competition. She said it was well worth the extra time to hear their country announced as placing fifth and to know they were the first ones in modern and jazz to compete in their division at the IDO World Championship.
Sydney described the experience as one she will never forget. “The different styles of dance from all of the countries were so amazing. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”