By Marie Abramov
Laker correspondent
Cassidy McDaniel’s pale blue-green eyes lit up merrily when she first found out she would embark on an adventure of poise, elegance, natural beauty and talent.
Loving the spotlight, performing and being in front of the camera, the bubbly 9-year-old from Lutz has become a finalist in the National American Miss Florida Pageant in Orlando later this month. This is McDaniel’s first pageant, and she couldn’t wait to start all the preparations, including her talent portion.
To Esther Dean’s “Let it Grow,” McDaniel began her two-minute dance routine, a combination of ballet and jazz. She moves fluidly from a cartwheel, to a number of different standing and sitting turns, to a few pointed kicks and splits to show her grace and flexibility. The up-tempo song sets a fast pace for the rather complex routine McDaniel’s dance instructor, Kathleen Dunas, choreographed for her.
McDaniel has been one of Dunas’ pupils at Contempo School of Dance in Lutz.
“She’s a hard worker,” Dunas said. “At the beginning of the year, she got added into my jazz class and her flexibility – she really needed to work on. I can tell throughout the year that she would go home and practice on what I would tell her every single week – I’d tell her to point her foot or put her head down. I can tell she has a very good work ethic.”
Unlike dance and a host of other interests like acting and soccer, McDaniel got involved with the National American Miss serendipitously.
Cassidy’s father, Richard McDaniel, said she never would’ve thought to compete if an anonymous source didn’t recommend her to the pageant organization. A subsequent call from pageant officials led to McDaniel’s participation.
“Someone submitted my name, and I was just like ‘I want to do it,’ ” McDaniel said. “My mom was like ‘Are you sure?’ and I was like ‘I want to do it.’ ”
McDaniel’s eager spirit convinced her parents to bring her to pageant open call auditions. Out of about 200 kids in the junior preteen seven to nine age group, McDaniel was one of three or four who were chosen as finalists to compete in the Orlando state pageant.
“She had four interviews,” her father said. “They can’t wear makeup. She just went down there and dressed casually.”
The judges asked Cassidy questions about the color of her room, favorite animals, her hobbies and interests and her hopes for the future.
Now as a state finalist, McDaniel is actively practicing her ballet and jazz routine for the talent competition and taking special classes to learn how to enunciate and walk with confidant elegance.
The pageant is divided into four distinct categories. The first is formalwear, where McDaniel will don her deep pink multi-layered gown and strut across a grand stage escorted by her father.
Cassidy will then make a personal introduction in front of the judging panel and a live audience, speaking clearly and loudly into a microphone about where she lives, her penchant for stuffed panda bears, her love of dance and her aspiration to become a jazz dance instructor one day. After that, she will showcase her personality and conversational skills by answering interview questions posed by the judges.
Each of these categories is worth 30 percent, and the last 10 percent of the overall score is attributed to community service. Cassidy is also active in her local church, where she participates in car washes to help raise money for the poor, acts in plays and goes to a special Sunday mass with other children and attends Sunday school.
If Cassidy wins the state pageant in Orlando for her age group, she will advance to nationals in August in San Diego. The state prize includes $1,000 in cash, a trip to Disneyland for two and a modeling scholarship. The national prize awards $5,000 in cash, extensive travel and major event opportunities as National American Miss for the year, a digital camera and a meeting with a Hollywood acting coach.
Apart from her stage interests, she loves to play soccer and is part of a couple of local teams in Lutz where she plays mostly defense. She usually has one practice and one game per week.
Her favorite color is purple, which is also the color of the curtains and walls in her room. She has a massive collection of stuffed panda bears, elephants, frogs and dogs on her bed and another large set of dolls on the other side of her room. Posters of Justin Bieber, Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush and photographs of Cassidy in various dance poses adorn her walls.