Katarina Sawyer and William Nealous
William Nealous and Katarina Sawyer took the Beginner’s Category crown back to Atlanta for the year and ChiStepper chats with the couple to see what the experience was like. [“People that normally wouldn’t say anything to us have congratulated us. I feel that Atlanta has redeemed themselves by wrapping their arms around us after the victory and that says a lot.” – William Nealous]
Soy: Congratulations to the both of you on your victory. What added element do you believe separated you from the other beginners?
Katarina: Well I think we went up there with a lot more energy. We were just ready to compete basically. We’ve been practicing and preparing for it. At first I thought I would be nervous but I wasn’t. I think we were more relaxed on stage. We just went up there and did what we knew how to do. We didn’t do any tricks or anything. (Laughing)
William: Right.
Katarina: We had fun doing it. We had a group from Atlanta that was there. So it helped to know we had some support in the audience while in Chicago.
Soy: Would you say that practicing and/or competing in the other contest (Step it Up Contest Atl) helped you?
William: Absolutely. Oh yeah I agree. We definitely did a lot of practicing but competing gives you a chance to be scored by other people so you can see what areas you need to clean up so you can be fine tuned.
Soy: Did you understand the scoring process and how you would be judged?
William: Yeah.
Katarina: Yeah we did.
Soy: What did you understand?
Katarina: Well I knew that they were looking for…let me see the categories were showmanship, appearance, synchronization, uh…..
William: ….Footwork and they were looking for originality.
Katarina: Oh ok. We knew appearance was the key so we got the outfits together. For showmanship we did a lot of smiling and tried to have fun with it. We did our dance and not something that we learned or copied from other people that may have won. So we were original in that aspect. Footwork…we did some but not too much because we are beginners and still trying to master that part of the dance. I think originality, appearance and showmanship we had fun with those. We really did.
Soy: Are you interested in competing in the WLSC again?
William: Oh yeah.
Katarina: Absolutely! (Laughing)
Soy: Why?
Katarina: It was fun.
William: We had a blast. Yeah I’ll do it again.
Soy: What challenges did you encounter in preparing for the competition?
Katarina: Hmm, getting more frequent practices in because I’m out-of-town a lot. Will what do you think?
William: I think our challenge was realizing that we were new to this dance. We had to learn to come together to do the dance and have fun with it. I think trying not to overdo it was the biggest challenge. We didn’t want to go out on the stage trying to blast the crowd with stuff we had no idea what we were doing. So, we just went out there and did what we knew. The challenge was staying focused and doing what you know in 3 minutes. (Chuckling) That was the challenge there.
Soy: In saying that is there anything about your preparation that you would go back and change?
Katarina: I think we’re good.
William: I don’t see anything, uh….yeah. (Laughing) I honestly don’t think there’s anything we would’ve changed.
Katarina: You’re right. Just like you said. In preparation, we did those other contests. The very first one was in January and that was our first one. So that prepared us because we got an opportunity to see what the judges were looking for in a contest. We were both real beginners. It wasn’t even a year yet at that point. We didn’t even have the crowd participation only a few people knew us. We didn’t place although we did a great job. So after we did that a lot of people complimented us on our dance and how we actually performed. We had a lot of people behind us after that. We went on and did two more contests after that and danced in different cities to see what other people were doing. We tried some things to see what worked for us and I had to learn Will’s style and he had to learn mine. I think we then began to mesh together. Although we’re not suppose to anticipate, I knew what he was going to do and he knew what I was about to do probably before I did it (Laughing) so we worked well together. So in preparing, learning each other really helped. Coming to Chicago was like we’re going to the “Mecca” of stepping so we got to bring everything we know. We got to bring it all. So all those contests, dancing with others and taking pointers from different instructors we put it in one big pot and made it work. We also knew that Katarina would probably get nervous on the stage. (Both Laughing) We tried to be relaxed took everything we knew out there and left it on the stage.
Soy: What did this win mean to you?
Katarina: (Both Laughing). Without being cocky?
Soy: I want you to be transparent and be honest. What did it mean?
William: I’ll open up and answer this one. I think what it meant for both of us… was that…and this just being truthful. We feel like we did a great job here in January and I think the fact that we were considered “Nobodies” we didn’t get a fair shake in the competition and because of that what it did was drove us to work that much harder. So what it meant was a little vindication because now we have proven ourselves somewhat. Uhm, like, like….
Soy: ….Like I am some damn body right, huh?
Katarina: (Laughing Hysterically)
William: Right, right pretty much yeah. We are somebody in the Atlanta community. You can’t just keep going with your familiarity of people that you know. Give other people a chance because that’s the only way stepping will continue to grow by giving “nobody” a fair shake.
Katarina: I’ll agree with Will on that. The feedback, the videos and what everyone said. Well before nobody knew us by name, just the faces so once everyone put the name with the faces it was like oh ok. Y’all did an excellent job. We got all the good feedback, so we were like what went wrong in January. This win shows that yeah we did good. Not that we haven’t grown since January but at this point I think it showed that we worked harder for it and we came out on top. So I’m good with it.
Soy: Well again I applaud you both and just to piggy back off what Will said about not being anyone and not being given a chance, that’s the whole purpose of me interviewing the two of you. I love the Atlanta Stepping Community and believe that we have a lot going on but if no one is reporting it how will others know. I was proud of you guys and extremely proud of Atlanta. There’s a lot of stories to be told about what’s happening in Atlanta and what we’re doing. I felt like the two of you were competing in the Olympics and bought home the gold. (Everyone Laughs)
William: I will go a step further and say that even after we didn’t get a fair shake in the beginning, that after today we have gotten nothing but love from the entire community and from all walks of life. People that normally wouldn’t say anything to us have congratulated us. I feel that Atlanta has redeemed themselves by wrapping their arms around us after the victory and that says a lot.
Soy: You know what I would love to see as a member of the stepping community? I would love to see Atlanta go up there in numbers and support each other. Did you notice the unity that Detroit had? Even though all of the participants didn’t win individually, they rejoiced together and celebrated their victory. They took home enough trophies. I would love to see that for us.
William: I would love that too but until we all come together as a community that will be a tough challenge but I believe it can be done.
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Tags: Interviews | WLSC
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