BOONE — Ashley Moseley, owner of Appalachian Rhythm and Clogging, used one word to describe her dance team’s experience in the past summer’s Dance World Cup, which took place at Fairmont Tremblant in Quebec City, Canada.
That word was eye-opening, and she felt it fit on many levels.
“It was a lot of good team-building time, but the competition part was fun, and the dancers and their families, they all, they all enjoyed sitting out and watching all the other styles of dance — it was just a very eye-opening experience,” said Moseley. “I think it was very eye-opening to watch so many different dancers from across the world express their form of dance, and so I think a lot of the dancers, watching how amazing they were and then watching all of them.
“I think that they learned a lot about what it means to work hard, to show up at practice, and give it your best,” added Mosley. “I feel like they’ve done a good job of that in the past, but I think they’ll do even better in the future because they all left saying, ‘Wow, I want to be that good” and I’m kind of like, ‘well, you are, you’re, that’s why you’re here’; I think they learned a lesson in how, when you really give something all that you’ve got, you can potentially reach new heights.”
After arriving in Montreal, the group drove an hour-and a-half to Mont Treblant where the competition was held. According to Moseley is was very much like a ski resort that consisted of a massive village with a big stage where they had outdoor concerts almost everyday.
The setup gave the dancers and the adults plenty of opportunities to enjoy experiences outside of the competition.
One of the activities that Moseley noted that the girls enjoyed the most outside of the competition was the Cabriolet ride, which she compared to a local ride in the High Country.
“The girls enjoyed the hotel swimming pool, but there was this ride called the Cabriolet. It was this massive box that you get into; the top of it’s open, and it shoots you up the mountain, and then you come back down,” said Moseley. “It’s kind of like going to Tweetsie and riding the chairlift, except it’s a little bit higher, and it’s a standing thing. It’s kind of like a hot air balloon kind of base, except for the whole balloon part, because it’s on those, those, like, cables or whatever, but it goes over the whole. The kids loved it, they would ride it up, only to ride it back down, and they would do this every day — that adults loved that too.”
In addition to enjoying the experience outside the competition, Appalachian Rhythm fared very well in the competition as they had three different routines and each earned a medal.
The first routine to perform was a solo one from 13-year old Stella Cook, who took home a bronze for her performance.
Cook competed in the Folkloric Solos for ages 13-to-16, and did a clogging rendition of “Working 9-to-5” by Dolly Parton.
Another routine came from the Game Time Variety team of Moseley, Cook, Ava Holste, Delia Goddard, Gina Holste, Grace Shore, Heidi Reagan, Joanne Hughes, Libby Reagan, Lisa Aycock, Lyla Corbett, Sarah Bruce, Shelley Wallin and Whitney Goddard.
They competed in the Variety of Styles Group for ages 20-to-29 and also claimed a bronze medal.
“It was so great to see everyone medal. I’m proud of Stella for a whole number of reasons because she’s mine, but also, just for her to just get out there and be willing to get on the stage by herself, and she did, she got a bronze,” said Moseley. “Game Time was our next routine, and it was a mix of adults and kids, so it was where our younger ones that we got to kind of showcase, so that one was great, too.”
The Classic division, which competed in the adult Folkloric Group, was made up of Moseley, Cook, Ava Holste, Delia Goddard, Gina Holste, Grace Shore, Heidi Reagan, Joanne Hughes, Lisa Aycock, Sarah Bruce, Shelley Wallin and Whitney Goddard.
That team captured the gold medal for that group; in addition, they were chosen to represent the United States in the Performance Gala for the closing ceremonies.
According to Mosley, medalists were not announced until the end of that week.
“We didn’t find out who won until the very end of the week, so we got on stage, we danced our dances during the two days that we competed, and then we joined the audience if we wanted to. Some people might go to the pool or go ride the Cabriolet or explore the village; then, the one thing that they would do, though, at the end of each day, would pick their top routines, their highest scoring routines, and they would make an announcement. I think they would pick four or five teams at a time, and that was how they chose who would perform at the closing ceremonies, so we all had to be prepared to be at the closing ceremonies because everybody had to come in with their country, so we were already doing the closing ceremonies.”
Moseley felt it was a major honor on several different levels to perform at the closing ceremonies and earn gold for their division.
But following their performance in the closing ceremonies, Appalachian Rhythm received another major honor as it was announced that they were highest scoring 30-and-up for the entire competition — a recognition not lost on Moseley.
“We ended up with Classic landing as one of the top performances and were asked to compete in the closing ceremonies. We did that, and here’s where it got even better: the award ceremony was going to take place at the end of the closing ceremonies. We all did the flag thing, and then all the top teams performed,” said Moseley. “As we were walking off stage, they came on stage with the trophy, and that’s where they announced that we were the highest-scoring 30-and-up team for the entire competition.
“We were also the only U.S. team chosen to represent the U.S. in the closing ceremonies, so that’s why we were doing that dance again — so we knew we had done well with it,” added Moseley. “We didn’t know how well until we got through our performance for that ceremony and started to walk off — it was honestly one of the most, the most amazing moments of my entire life.”
Started in 2006 by Moseley when she was a freshman at Appalachian State University, Appalachian Rhythm offers classes in clogging and Hip Hop for all ages and levels.
A fun fact that Moseley mentioned was they have dancers as young as two and as old as 80. They have traveled to perform and compete as far west as Hawaii, as far south as Florida (Disney World) and as far north as Montreal, Canada for this past year’s Dance World Cup.
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