Wasilla dancers step up for upcoming ABC TV show

WASILLA — All it took was a dance video choreographed in one day to rocket five Wasilla girls to potential stardom.

On Monday, Sept. 14, following ABC’s broadcast of “Dancing with the Stars,” Wasilla’s Courtney Millslagle, Penny Wojtacha, Sierra Kistler, Madi Coe and Camryn Smart will appear on the new show “Dance Battle America” with seven other competitive groups from around the country.

The show has grown out of holiday dance “battles” on social media between E! News Anchor Maria Menounos and former “Dancing with the Stars” judge and champion Julianne Hough, who are now the executive producers for “Dance Battle America.” This summer, Menounos and Hough challenged the rest of the country to join in by submitting dance videos choreographed to one of five songs. The producers then selected eight groups to bring to L.A. for filming of the competition.

Tricia Millslage, mother of Courtney Millslagle and Wojtacha and aunt of Kistler, said the girls heard about the competition from a fellow Mat-Su Valley dancer just days before the video submission deadline. A couple days later, Millslagle got the call that her family and friends had been selected.

“They must be naturals,” she said, because four of the five girls had little-to-no formal dance training, and were still selected.

Smart speculated that the group of girls were chosen more for being from Alaska than anything else, but could only speak to her own ability for certain.

“I love dancing but I’m not the best at it,” she said.

Smart said she has a more professional interest in acting, having had her start in “The Pink Panther” and the summer production of “Aesop’s Fables” at Valley Performing Arts. She “thought it would just be fun” to make the video for Dance Battle America, and was more than pleased to be selected.

“When we actually got (selected) it was definitely worth it,” she said.

Kistler and Courtney Millslagle took the lead on choreography for the submission video, and the team of best friends settled on the old Matanuska River Bridge in Palmer for their video shoot.

“We wanted a place that represented Alaska … and we just thought it would be the perfect spot,” Kistler said.

Kistler, like Smart, had never competed in dance, and neither had Millslagle, but this won’t be the 23-year-old’s first time on national television. Millslagle did a bit on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in April of 2013, when she was called onstage to participate in the “Sounds Good?” portion of the show. She won a pair of headphones and some other prizes for belting out the best rendition, according to an account in the Frontiersman at the time.

“I’ve always wanted to have a job in the entertainment world and be a part of that,” Millslagle said.

And slowly but surely, she’s getting there.

In addition to celebrity producers Menounos and Hough, the show is hosted by pop singer Jordin Sparks and actor Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton (a character whose signature dance became popular years later) on the hit 1990s TV show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” starring Will Smith.

The Alaska group worked with choreographers Tony Testa, who has worked with big names like Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, and Gerald Espinosa, who was named to MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” in 2012.

Millslagle quickly learned that the stars were a lot more normal than she thought.

“Everybody kinda has this idea that it’s fancy cars and clothes and makeup and hair, but the reality of it is long hours and lots of people,” she said.

And getting selected at random by some of those people is often all it takes to get into the industry.

“You just throw yourself at it and hopefully they grab you,” she said.

But that can happen in any field, she said, and having big ideas is the best way to get where you want to go.

“Believe in your dreams, ’cause that stuff really does happen in the world we live in,” she said.

For local viewers, “Dance Battle America” will begin at 9 p.m. on Monday on ABC (GCI channel 13). Fans can use the hashtag #dancebattleamerica to follow the show and its contestants on social media.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.