Valencia High School junior\u00a0Brooklyn Covington said she began dancing at age\u00a05\u00a0because her parents needed to\u00a0find something to put all her energy into, not knowing it would be all she would ever want to do forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Covington\u00a0is a dance\u00a0finalist\u00a0in\u00a0The Music Center\u2019s \u201cSpotlight\u201d showcase\u00a0that celebrates young artists across Southern California\u00a0at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles\u00a0in May.\u00a0She is performing her tap solo to \u201cUptown Funk\u201d by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said she won a $5,000 cash prize in addition to being a finalist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI came back from school, and my dad told me I won, and I was so excited. I was so honored because I really do think this\u00a0is a big deal, and\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0wanted to win it for years now, so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0just,\u00a0yeah,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0very honored,\u201d Covington said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said that she decided to do a tap solo because it was something different than her competitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Video courtesy of Brooklyn Covington.<\/p>\n
Before her performance in the competition to become a finalist, she said she felt\u00a0nervous but\u00a0got a lot of adrenaline when she performed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI always get a little nervous, which is a good thing. But at the end of it, I was so proud of myself, and I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know, I just got so much adrenaline from doing my solo, because I love this solo,\u201d Covington said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Covington said the competition began with hundreds of people,\u00a0and for the dance category that Covington competed\u00a0in\u00a0there were 11 in the finals.\u00a0Once she auditioned\u00a0for the finalist spot, she was one of the winners in the category, alongside Gracyn French, who is a junior at Mission Viejo High School.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0just excited. Like, nothing can go wrong.\u2029There\u2019s\u00a0nothing\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0fighting for.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0more like this is what I did this year, and I\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0wait to show everybody. And\u00a0yeah,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0an honor to dance at that showcase, so I\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0wait,\u201d Covington said about getting ready for the showcase.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Covington said she\u00a0gives\u00a0thanks\u00a0to\u00a0her\u00a0dance studio, Studio 1 Dance Academy,\u00a0her choreographer,\u00a0Mandy Dray,\u00a0and Studio\u00a01\u2019s owner, Jan\u00a0Frishette,\u00a0for all their support and love in helping\u00a0her achieve her goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Valencia High School junior\u00a0Brooklyn Covington said she began dancing at age\u00a05\u00a0because her parents needed to\u00a0find something to put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-168716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}