Middletown Dance Team Wins National Championship

A Connecticut hip hop dance team won That's Entertainment's national dance competition in early August at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Middletown's Caffery's Dance and Gymnastics School earned the high score in the "all-senior group, line and production routines" and had the highest overall score with 299.5 out of a possible 300, according to a letter confirming the title from That's Entertainment Director RoseMary Pontuck.

The team competed as Caffery's Dance Crew and is made up of 16-to19-year-old students from Portland, East Hampton, Middletown and Higganum.

The dance crew did their routine to the song, "Bring Em Out."

"We rocked this dance competition," Kaitlyn Charton, Caffery's dance student, said. "Receiving the highest score of the entire competition was an indescribable feeling!"

The national championship-winning team includes Charton, Vanessa Lastrina, Adrianna Aresco, Lauren Billings, Megan Barnett, Kaitlyn Charton, Calvin Dempsy, Krysten Nye,Desiree Owens, Gina Palmieri, Kaitlyn Tomer, Gabby Varela and Chelsea Winborne. Lindsay Almquist choreographed the routine.

Caffery's dance director Maureen Aresco said that she's never before seen "a whole panel of judges jumped to their feet clapping and cheering" in her career as a dance teacher.

Nationals ran from Aug. 4 to 6. Before that Caffery's won the regional level competition in April in Windsor against about 1,000 competitors.

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