Export dance studio brings home 2nd consecutive World Dance Championship title

Last year, the 8-and-under team from DeStella Dance Centre in Export came home with a Star Dance Alliance World Championship title for its “Disco Fever” routine.

In late July, they did it again, earning a Level I World Championship title for their “Mister 305” routine, a medley of songs by pop artist Pitbull.

“It’s about the ‘wow’ factor, getting the crowd involved and making sure everyone is super-hyped,” said DeStella owner Alexis DeSabatine. “The icing on the cake is that this is my 10th year since opening the studio.”

Kyla Cerminara, 19, of Pittsburgh’s Morningside neighborhood, has been a DeStella dancer for a total of seven years, starting when she was younger and then leaving for a year or two before coming back to the studio.

“I’ve been with Alexis the entire time,” Cerminara said. “She always took at least one group to worlds every season since I’ve been there. The more she got into it, the more she felt that we should all experience it.”

But it’s not an easy road to the World Dance Championships. Dancers compete against teams from all the organizations that come together under the umbrella group, Star Dance Alliance.

“It’s a long, long process,” Cerminara said. “We started choreographing the dances last August, so it’s almost a yearlong thing. We compete at all these regional competitions to try and get a ‘golden ticket’ to get to worlds.”

The group’s winning routine included 20 dancers. But it started out with more.

“At the beginning it was going really well, then one of our youngest dancers got injured,” Cerminara said. “She’s really good and was in the majority of the routine. So we had to do some re-blocking and overcome that.”

The World Dance Championships take place at the Meadowlands Convention Center in Secaucus, N.J.

Cerminara said she usually tries to keep calm backstage before a big performance.

“I’m definitely nervous,” she said. “I try to hide it as best as possible, especially to help the younger dancers’ confidence. Everyone backstage is always like, ‘We’ll be fine. We’ve done this a million times’ But we all get nervous.”

DeSabatine said it wasn’t tough to get her dancers motivated for a return to the top of the youth dance world.

“I told the kids at the beginning of the year, ‘We won — let’s do it again,’” she said. “And it was the same thing at the competition. I always tell them to do the best they can, go out and have fun. But I don’t think any of us saw it coming, that would were going to win again.”

In addition to the championhip routine, DeSabatine said other DeStella teams also earned two top-ten finishes, making it their most successful World Dance Championship trip so far.

Following wins at the national and world levels, the studio also earned a nomination to the Star Dance Alliance’s “Circle of Excellence” awards competition, where DeSabatine and staff member Brittany Klofta are up for “Choreographer of the Year” for one of their lyrical dance routines.

“It’s amazing. Brittany was my first graduating senior, and now she’s my right hand,” DeSabatine said.

Circle of Excellence winners will be announced in mid-January 2024.

“Last year was huge, but this year has been even better,” DeSabatine said. “We’ve really had a wonderful, successful season.”