Six dancers from Victoria’s School of Dance in Powell cleaned up at the Big Sky State Games recently, bringing home 10 medals in a variety of categories.

The Big Sky State Games are an Olympic-style amateur sports festival for people of all ages and abilities who reside in Montana, according to the event’s website. Residents in bordering states are invited to participate in a variety of different sporting events, including dance.

The six competitors from Powell, ranging in age from 8 to 14, danced in a variety of styles and won 10 medals total: Seven gold, two silver and one bronze. They were one of two dance schools from Wyoming to compete in the games; the other was the Absaroka Mountain Range clogging team from Powell, which won the gold in the International Folk category (see a future Tribune story for further details). There were 28 dance studios competing in this year’s event.

“The way the competition works is they compte by category: Tap, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, all within their age bracket,” explained Victoria Danovsky, owner of Victoria’s School of Dance. “In the jazz category, for instance, the girls won first, second and third place, taking the sweep in that category.”

The school will also hold its summer recital this Saturday. The event is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. at the Powell High School gym; tickets are $8, with kids 5 and under free, and can be bought at the door. The showcase will feature all 34 students at the school.

“Basically how the dance recital works is they start at the beginning of the school year in September, and in June we put a big showcase on,” said Danovsky, now in her 29th year as a dance instructor and her 10th in Powell. “We do all the different styles of dance: Tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, hip-hop, the whole variety of dances. The ages range from 3 to 15.”

The theme for this year’s showcase is “Broadway Bound,” a story about dancers who are traveling across the country to New York. Part of the reason Danovsky and her students chose that theme is that a group of 10 Powell dancers are heading to New York in July to perform in Times Square as part of the program “Dance the World Broadway.”

“After the performance in Times Square, the girls will perform in a Broadway theatre, and will also see a Broadway show,” Danovsky said. “They also get to go on a dinner cruise with some of the ‘Dancing With the Stars’ company. They’ll be amongst kids from Canada, the US and Mexico that will all come together for one big performance in Times Square.”

Danovsky said the group of girls heading to New York are always excited to dance and are methodical in their approach when it comes to events and competitions.

“The group of girls I have, they’re just simply excited to dance,” she said. “They build calendars and count down to which events are coming up. They’re just all around excited to be dancing, so I’m not sure what I could pinpoint for what they’re excited about the most. They just love it all.”

The school’s main competition team practices Monday through Friday, often 2 1/2 to 3 hours a day. Danovsky said the level of commitment the group shows to their craft, many from a young age, is impressive.

“Most of the girls started out as preschoolers and have come up through the ranks,” she said. “It’s been really neat to watch them grow and change. I look at my preschoolers now and think, ‘OK, one day that’s going to be them too.’”