Dance USA is Proud of...
Nicole Lauzardo
Nicole Lauzardo first attended Dance USA in March of 2000, when she was crowned Miss Petite Dance of Florida. It was a moment that would change her life. The relationships formed that weekend would guide her dance career for the years to come.
Dance USA was not just another competition; it was an opportunity to learn and to expand horizons - with Mark Marino as your tour guide. Nicole's style evolved as her solos explored new topics, like depression, the Holocaust, and anorexia. Mark encouraged Nicole to seek out new venues for performance. As a result, she auditioned for, and was cast in, a 12-week tour with Radio City Rockettes in their Christmas Spectacular.
As a member of Dance USA American Dance Team, Nicole attended the Grand Prix Italia in June of 2002, where she was awarded the top individual ballet prize. She has continued to attend Dance USA throughout the years and has won national titles in the Petite, Junior and Teen Division. Mark continued to encourage her "to fly" and expose herself to as many areas as possible.
So, in the summer of 2005, her performance experience led her to the fashion runways of New York, where Nicole won the Next New Face national model search and was signed to a contract with NY Model Management and LA Models. Since that time, she has been back and forth to New York and shot with some of the top fashion photographers, including Bruce Weber. She was seen as an Abercrobmie girl last spring when her picture appeared on the walls of stores throughout the country and on million s of their famous shopping bags.
This past summer, Nicole lived alone in Athens, Greece working for some of Europe's leading fashion magazines. Back in Miami, she continues to juggle her studies at the School for Advanced Studies in Miami, FL and continues her modeling career. Nicole hopes to attend Stanford University in the fall of 2008. but meanwhile, she will be at Dance USA regional competition in Florida, where she's been every spring!
Jennifer Russell
Jennifer Russell was one of the most consistently successful competitive dancers in the country from 1996 through 2004. She earned an amazing 116 regional or national dance titles or scholarships during that eight year period. This included the Regional and National Junior, Teen and Miss Dance USA Titles as well as the Overall Season Super Grand Champion awards for 2003 and 2004. In 2003 Jennifer was selected by Dance USA to represent the United States as part of their American Dance Team. She traveled with the Dance USA International Dance Team to Barcelona, Spain where they captured the World Dance Grand Prix Championship Cup. Jennifer also performed with Mark Marino's professional dance company, The American Dance Company, in their New York City Premier of "Mixed Emotions". She participated in Dance USA events each of her eight competitive years starting in May of 1996 in New York City, where she first met Mark Marino, and ending in August of 2004 with her very last competitive performance at the Dance USA National Finals in Orlando, Florida.
Jennifer's accomplishments as a dancer go way beyond the competition stage. In fact, by the time she graduated from high school she had completed hundreds of Broadway performances as well as having appeared on several nationally aired television shows, off Broadway and regional theater productions, television commercials, corporate industrials and as a runway and print model for several dancewear companies. Jenifer had performed more professionally by the age of eighteen than many dancers do during their entire career. She accomplished all of this while attending public school, playing in the band and participating in as many school activities as possible.
Jennifer is now a Junior at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida majoring in Dance Performance. She is a member of the USF SunDolls Dance Team and is a trumpet player in the USF "Herd of Thunder" Marching Band. In addition to on campus dance performances, Jennifer competes with the SunDolls, performs in Corporate Industrials, choreographs and teaches for Tampa area dance studios and judges for dance organizations. She is in the third year of a Bright Futures Scholarship, has been recognized for the past two years as a scholar athlete and has received four performance scholarships. College performance and other photographs are on Jennifer's internet site at http://www.JenniferRussell.com.
This past August, Jennifer added one more competitive dance award to her list as she earned the title of 2006 Drum Corps International (DCI) World Champion Dance Soloist. For the past two summers, she has traveled the country on a 6 week 31 City tour as a musician in the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps. This past summer, the DCI World Finals were held in Madison, Wisconsin. She performed her Individual dance solo to music titled "Harem" by Sarah Brightman. This was the last piece Mark Marino choreographed for her in 2004 with costuming by Mark's mother Marie Lynn. She plans to tour again next summer with the Boston Crusaders and will compete again in the individual and ensemble competition to be held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
Jennifer reflects on her time with Mark: "Meeting Mark Marino has made a lasting impression on my life as a person and as a dancer. I remember one night we were having dinner at Applebees on 42nd Street and I told him of my plans to go to College. He respected my decision on College but that came as no surprise to me because Mark supported me in whatever I was doing. I realized after Mark passed away that he had impacted the lives of so many dancers and teachers. I judged for Dance USA this past season and was happy to see that the competition was run just as I remembered. It was nice to know that Mark was looking down and watching my performance of his "Harem" last August at the DCI individual and ensemble competition. I love you Mark."