Ever since she was little, Samantha McNamara has been dancing. In December, all of her hard work and dedication paid off when she was named the Federation of Dance Competitions’ (FDC) ICON of the year.
Samantha will serve as the face of the FDC, a non-profit organization that strives to recognize excellence in dance on advertising and pictures throughout the year. The FDC nominated 13 dancers from across the country to receive the award, and Samantha was the only nominee selected from the hundreds of talented dancers in Minnesota.
Samantha dances at Victoria Dance Productions (VDP), owned by her mother Victoria McNamara, in Edina. Samantha has skills in a variety of dance styles, including jazz, tap, musical theater and lyrical. She has competed in both solo and team competitions at VDP and with the Edina High School Dance Team throughout her 13 years of dance experience.
She says that both solo and team competitions are equally fun, but she loves to compete individually in the lyrical style because of the emotional connection she can make with the music. She also believes the style has helped her grow as a dancer.
“Lyrical is all about the eyes,” Samantha says. “The eyes tell the story, and you tell that story to the audience through your eyes and body.”
Samantha’s passion for dance was noticed by BravO!, a National Dance and Talent Competition that nominated her for the ICON award. She’s been competing with VDP at their competitions for seven seasons.
Brendan Buchanan of BravO! chose to nominate Samantha because of the growth he’s seen in her as an artist over the years, and also simply because of who she is as a person.
“She’s a fantastic young lady. I’m looking forward to see how she develops as an artist in the future. It’s been a blast watching her grow up,” Buchanan says, “She’s an absolutely wonderful person, and she’ll do great in whatever she chooses to do in her future.”
Over 1,000 people voted for Sam on the Federation of Dance Competitions’ Facebook page to receive the ICON award. According to comments that were left on BravO!’s Facebook account during the course of the polling, it was a tight race that went down to the wire, leaving Samantha jockeying for first place up to the minute before the polls closed.
Sam admits that she was really nervous leading up to the final polling date on Dec. 5. She was at dance team practice at Edina High School when the polls closed and she found out she won.
“I didn’t get to check my phone until 5:30 p.m., and everyone had called me to tell me that I got [the ICON award],” Samantha says. “I was really excited and I couldn’t tell anyone, but I was just beaming!”
Needless to say, Victoria shared her daughter’s delight.
“We are so excited for her. She’s been dancing basically since she was born, and for her to be nominated for this competition was such a great honor,” Victoria says. “I especially loved to see all the friends, family and members of the public who turned out to support her and vote her in for this honor. It was great to see.”
