Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Dancers Win Awards

Five local dancers from Shirlene's School of Dance in Prescott and their instructor, Shirlene Gills, received first place ratings at dance competition on December 10-12 at Hall High School in Little Rock.

The Showbiz national talent regional competition featured dance schools from Arkansas and surrounding states. This was a three-day event with 262 dance numbers in competition.

The local girls included Rebecca Barfield, daughter of Cleve and Judy Barfield; Laura Williams, daughter of Ron and Carol Williams; Jill Hubbard, daughter of Carlton and Juanita Hubbard and Megan and Madeline Taylor, daughters of Bill and Karen Taylor, all of Prescott. Barfield is the granddaughter of Helen Tarpley of Gurdon and the late Bob Tarpley.

The group danced a number in the modern division, entitled Point of Origin. They received a first place rating in this division and finished eighth out of all competitors in their age group.

Gills was awarded the highest number of points possible and received a first place rating for choreography of the number. Gills, who has begun her seventh year in Prescott, is a graduate of Henderson State University with a BSE in art and a minor in dance.

She received additional dance training and college credit for attending the summer-long American Dance Festival at Duke University, where she studied with notables such as Betty Jones, Jose Limon, Bill Cratty and Bill Evans.

She has attended master classes at Louisiana State University, Texas Women's University, UALR and HSU.

In addition, to choreographing musicals for the HSU theater department and area high schools, she choreographed numbers for the Arkansas Repertory Theater, Arkansas Celebration of the Performing Arts and performed in Celebration of Dance.

Mrs. Gills and her husband, Barry, live with their two sons in Gurdon.