National Dance Competition Petite Diamond Level

8-year-old dancer Gavin Morales

From Dolce Dance Studio in Fresno, CA

This 8-year-old dancer is only in his second year of dance training and already shows exceptional skills and the beginnings of artistic expression.

Are We Aiming This High with Our Gymnasts?

The question for gymnasts and coaches is “Are we aiming high enough with our gymnastics dance and expression from our young gymnasts?”

Are We Requiring This Level of Flexibility From Our Gymnasts?

Flexibility = Beauty. This 8-year-old boy shows exceptional leg flexibility and control (although he appears to have tight shoulders) and that allows for excellent execution of leaps, jumps, kicks and scales.

Can We Get Multiple Turns in Gymnastics Dance?

This dancer is commonly doing quintuple turns of a variety of sorts and doing 10 turn combinations with no problem. Can we get a few more gymnasts, other than Mai Murikami, working triple to quintuple turns on beam and we certainly should be able to get that on floor.

Begin Training for Artistic Expression

Our young male dancer is not yet proficient in emoting and artistic expression, but you can clearly see the beginnings of the work being put into it. This does not seem to be a priority in our sport, “Artistic” Gymnastics, at any level. If you want to see more artistic expression, watch his 10-year-old sister, McKenzie: