Just Dance Studio, Great Bend, will present a spring recital Friday, May 23. “Dance Opposition,” a study of opposites such as Lost and Found, Good and Bad (competition winner), and Captive and Free, will start at 7 p.m. at the Great Bend High School Auditorium.  
Kelly Scott, owner of the studio, spent some time reflecting on the history of Just Dance recently.  Opened in 2000 in a converted church building on Harrison Street, she pulled together the first competition team, Just Dance Performance Company.  While their first competition taught them they had plenty left to learn, they were on their way.  
“Our first competition was a complete and utter disaster however the following did a whole lot better,” she said.  “I always told my competition dancers that the competitions we would go to were an exercise in humility.”
And while that’s true, perseverance pays off. One of Just Dance Performance Company’s senior small groups won second place recently for their dance, “Good and Bad,” at the Dance Olympus - Dance America competition held March 14 and 15 in Kansas City, Mo.
“The dance we took was in an open jazz category because the level partnering and number of tricks were over the top for a typical jazz number,” Scott said.  “The dance was fun because it is so fast and furious and they are throwing each other over themselves, off themselves and the girls had to learn to partner the guys as well.”  
This group has been together for the past three years.  They are currently working on their next dance which they plan to compete with in January, 2015.
Meanwhile, in studio, Scott has stressed the importance of finding a passion and love for dance above all else.  
Dance parents have been an invaluable resource as Scott has grown the studio, and members of Great Bend’s business community, including Roger Sell and Kim Vink, Great Bend real estate agents and Steve Sell of Community Bank of the Midwest, and Scott’s parents, Dave and Ann Scott helped make the purchase and renovations of the studio’s current location at the corner of Williams and Forest streets possible.
Scott’s background is in ballet, and she encourages her students to focus on fundamentals that will make them better dancers, she said. Just Dance Studio is a technical studio, where Scott teaches the fundamentals for all disciplines of dance, including jazz, lyrical, tap and hip hop too.   
“Ballet is my baby! It is what I was trained in, got my degree in, breathed it on a daily basis, and hated all in the same week,” she said.  “What the dancers learn here will translate to any other technical studio.”
Tickets for “Dance Opposition” can be purchased at the studio or will be sold at the door for $5.00 with children under six free.  Scott guarantees amusement with a side of skill.