Whitney Medovoy, a second grader at Village Elementary School in Syosset, was named the winner of the state’s PTA Reflections for dance choreography.
Medovoy won the Award of Excellence in the primary division (pre-K to second grade) and will be moving on to the National PTA competition. The PTA’s theme this year was “accepting imperfection.”
The state PTA said it received 484 art entries for state-wide judging.
Whitney’s mother, Dana, said that the competition begins on a district level before moving up to county-wide judging, which then pushes submissions to the state competition.
Medovoy submitted a video of a dance routine to Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb ” and a summary of how the dance is related to the theme. She was just six years old at the time of her submission, and she turned seven in November 2024.
And this wasn’t Medovoy’s first time winning either; she won the award of merit from the state last year for dance choreography as well.
Dana Medovoy, said her daughter, has always had a passion for dancing. She is the oldest of three children and was just two when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Living in Manhattan at the time, Dana said it was difficult to find a place open for her daughter to participate in classes.
“I remember she had perfect splits on both legs since the age of two,” she said. “She was doing perfect splits in diapers.”
Dana said Whitney begged her to find a class for her, which led them to a studio in eastern Long Island that was open during the pandemic.
“She just fell in love with it,” Medovoy said.
The family moved to Syosset shortly after, and Whitney Medovoy was immediately enrolled at a dance studio. Medovoy said her daughter was there every day and called it “her second home.”
“She loves spending time in the basement, her little dance studio, constantly working on new tricks,” she also said.
The National PTA award winners will be announced on May 1. After two rounds of national-level review, National PTA awards over 200 student artists with national-level Awards of Excellence and Merit and honors seven students with the top Outstanding Interpretation Award, according to its website.
The PTA says the reflection program starts in September when its theme is announced. Each student completes an entry form that must be signed by a parent or guardian. Their submission is also accompanied by a 10 to 100-word artist statement that describes how their artwork relates to the theme.
Each student submits their reflection artwork by early December, which then goes through each round of judging.
Dana Medovoy said that Whitney is very skilled and wants to become a professional dancer when she is older.
