Braden River senior earns spot on Alabama Crimson Cabaret

To understand Alexsa Dietrich's best moment as a dancer, earning a spot in April on the University of Alabama Crimson Cabaret dance team, some reflection is needed on her worst. 

Now a senior at Braden River High School, Dietrich remembered everything about a solo dance competition 10 years ago in Orlando.

Like her other competitions, she had one chance to impress the judges. A song would be keyed up, and it was up to her to improvise, to rock the judges' world with her moves.

Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n Roll" should have been perfect when it blasted over the speakers. But it wasn't perfect.

The 8-year-old Dietrich didn't move.

Her mother, Sandi, watched from the crowd. She knew her daughter was locked up, but there was nothing she could do. Sandi wanted to cry, but what kind of example would that set?

Then, with everyone wondering what would come next, Alexsa Dietrich ran off the stage in tears. ...

Fast forward a decade, and Alexsa Dietrich faced the biggest moment of her dance life. On April 15-16 at the University of Alabama, she was up against 76 of the best potential college dancers the nation had to offer. They came from all over the country in an attempt to earn one of six spots on the Crimson Cabaret.

A decade's worth of work and experience, mostly successes to go with that one painful failure, had prepared Dietrich for the moment.

"It was absolutely the most stressful thing I have done," Dietrich said with pride during a workout at Sarasota's Soul Studios. "All the hard work showed up."

Marion Powell, who coaches the Crimson Cabaret, split the 77 dancers into three groups on April 15. One group was tested on overall physical fitness, another focused on gymnastic skills while the third covered techniques such as turns, extensions and leaps. The groups rotated between the stations.

That night, 40 ladies were cut, leaving 37 for the second day. Alexsa was coming back.

The second day, those remaining showed their dance skills in disciplines such as jazz, hip hop and pom. "They wanted to see if we were diverse," Alexsa said.

Eventually, Powell and her coaches left for an hour, then came back and started asking some of the dancers to come forward for a closer examination. Alexsa was not called.

"I doubted myself," she said.

It turned out the coaches were testing only a few borderline prospects. After they finished, the dancers gathered around Powell, who called out the six who made the team. The selections were called by their assigned number.

The third pick was No. 19. It was Alexsa.

"It was so much anxiety," she said. "They called No. 19 and my heart dropped. I gasped for air and I immediately started crying."

Alexsa wanted to tell her mom, who like the other parents was not allowed to watch the tryout. She was waiting in the parking lot.

However, the six dancers who made the team still had some photos to take in Alabama gear along with some meetings.

Sandi Dietrich waited nervously in the parking lot.

"I was seeing the other girls coming out crying," Sandi Dietrich said. "They were carrying their backpacks.

"Alexsa finally came out, and she didn't have her backpack and she wasn't wearing her regular clothes."

Sandi knew immediately her daughter had made the team.

"We ran toward each other like we were in a commercial," Sandi Dietrich said. "We ran and we cried. She has worked day after day by herself."

It was day by day work for years.

"I've been dancing since I was 3," said Alexsa, who is 5-foot-4. "I loved dancing, but I did want to try other things. I tried competitive cheerleading for two years, basketball for two years, softball for a year. But I grew out of those phases.

"Dance evolved so much for me each year. It makes you work harder and you learn to express yourself."

As she matured as a dancer, she dreamed of being a professional in a dance company doing theater performances. Eventually, she thought about doing commercial dancing, such as appearing in a television commercial or by touring with an musical artist and dancing on stage.

In December of 2014, those goals changed. Alexsa attended "The Bridge" convention in Chicago that provided information about what opportunities elite dancers would have after high school. She was told it was a long shot to earn a commercial dancing job.

"They told us the harsh reality," said Sandi, who has combined with her husband, Billy, to watch their daughter battle for years to open doors of opportunity.

Not sure of her dance future, Alexsa attended the National Dance Team Championship at Disney World the following February.

"I instantly fell in love with the feel of the competition, the competitiveness that you want that title," Alexsa said. "And I wanted to be part of something for four years, to be part of a family."

She wrote down universities that might interest her and eventually began to focus on Alabama. Her brother, Tyler, is the starting catcher for the University of South Florida baseball team. But college dance programs, even though they are under the athletic department's umbrella, don't recruit.

"It's not like other sports where they can scout you," Alexsa said.

She eventually learned about the April tryout. One shot to soar, or freeze.

Alexsa has been sky high ever since.

"I'm still in shock I made the team," she said "It's like a dream."