Christmas celebrations started with an amazing showcase on Saturday, as Athena Sports Academy held its 4th Annual show at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre. The weather outside was certainly frightful, but the gymnasts who took part in this showcase certainly brought delight to nearly 400 people, including the Mayor, Councillor Mary Dalton, who was guest of honour for the event. The showcase theme this year was “Number 1 hits”, with each class performing to a musical hit over the decades!
The showcase itself was totally amazing and had the audience engaged; singing and even dancing throughout the 2½ hour extravaganza, complete with full-floor display.
The Academy runs many different classes throughout the week at both Aycliffe and Shildon Leisure Centres and all the classes were well represented throughout. The first to perform were the Acro Bases class who performed a wonderful routine, to the King of pop himself, Michael Jackson, and ‘Thriller’. The biggest cheer of the first half of the showcase went to the youngest gymnasts, Rec 1, aged 3 and 4 year old who performed a lovely routine to Cheerleader, and all the audience were upstanding which will stay with the children for a long time.
All the other Rec Classes performed superb routines, Rec 2a did the Gangnam Style, Rec 2b wanted to know if this was the way to Amarillo, Rec 3 went back to the 80’s and became the Gymnasts from Fame, Rec 4 had a poker face with Lady Gaga, Rec 4 Shildon asked Are You With Me, Rec 5 did some Uptown Funk, The Warriors got Ready to Rumble, Fast Track 1 did All About the Bass and finally Fast Track 2 showed how talented Athena really are when not only did they perform a superb gymnastic routine, but they also sang to Any Dream Will Do from the stageshow, Joseph. The first half finished as fantastic as it had begun, with the very energetic Tumbling Squad performing a routine to Party Rock Anthem.
Athena had another successful year, with several Gymnasts reaching National finals in Stoke, including a bronze medal win! The hard work has already begun for several of next year’s NDP partnerships, who competed last week in South Shields who were on show too; Cheeky chaps, Josh and Henley, the magnificent trio Maddy, Asia and Kaytlen, last week’s gold medallists Nicole and Amelia and last year’s Bronze Medallists in the Nationals, Emily and Millie, who all wowed the audience with fantastic Acro routines.
This showcase had everything, superb gymnastic displays, brilliant music as well as a little audience participation, but the best was kept till last… Earlier this year, Athena performed two routines at The Sage in Gateshead as part of ‘Gymfusion’ 2015 and the club used these as the finale to this year’s Show. The Disability Group, who had earlier performed a Peter Pan routine, did a very emotional piece, ‘Athena Angels’. The routine was beautifully choreographed to Robbie Williams, Angels and was dedicated to the memory of one of Athena’s founders, Gerry Fuller, who sadly passed away at the beginning of the year. It was hard to find a dry eye in the house.
Finally, the most amazing routine of the day, the Gymfusion Team, inspired by the legend of our namesake – the Greek Goddess, Athena. All gymnasts looked elegant in their gold costumes matching the golden performance by all the Gymnasts, resulting in the audience showing their appreciation with a standing ovation!
The club would like to thank everyone who attended the Christmas Showcase as this is a major fundraiser for Athena, who aim to improve its facilities for its gymnasts and also to attract new gymnasts to the club. If anyone would like any more information about Athena Sports Academy please check out our new and improved website at www.athenasportsacademy.co.uk
