Please help us get Leiya to the US Open West Coast Swing!

Hello, I am Leiya's mother Taryn Crosbie. My daughter Leiya loves to dance. Leiya's studies in dance are intense for an 11 year old girl, but she remains focused and committed to her dance goals.

Weekly, she takes classes in ballet, tap, jazz, acro, drama, commercial dance, and West Coast Swing, which we drive her to three times a week from 30 minutes away (the closest) to an hour away from home. Twice a month we travel 4 hours down to London where she works with Paul Warden, her dedicated Champion instructor who has become a much loved member of our family.

Leiya has wanted to compete in West Coast Swing since she was 7 years old; we made her wait until she was 9 as she was too small for any dance partners we could find for her. In 2023, at 9 years old, she was just tall enough to dance with adults and she entered the competition floor for the first time at the French Open in Paris; winning 4th place in the Juniors division and making semi-finals in the adult novice division.

In 2024, at 10 years old, Leiya performed her first floor routine, a Pro Am with Paul Warden; and she caught the bug for routines.

Since then, Leiya has picked up World Swing Dance Council points at Midland Swing Open, Westies Angels, French Open, Detonation Dance, Liberty Swing, and West In Lyon. At the moment she has 8 Juniors Division points and 15 adult Novice points, making her only one point away from the adult Intermediate Division!

Leiya and Paul would like to take their routine to the US Open 2024, in Burbank, California starting on November 27th. (https://theopenswing.com)

As you can imagine, studio time, hotels, a tutor to ensure she stays on top of her academic studies and flights from Scotland are all required as we enter this 2 month period of time between now and the Open. The financial expense of the US Open is considerable, however, Leiya has done the hard work and committed herself to practice, so we want to try our best to give her a shot at making her dream of the US Open become a reality.

Leiya has put 2 years of birthday money toward this trip and we have spent thousands towards her private training and many trips to events in Europe and the USA. Any amount of contribution makes a difference to our ability to bring Leiya to the US Open. Please feel free to share this with anyone you think would be interested; we appreciate all the help we can get.

We are sincerely grateful for your time and consideration to make Leiya's dream come true!

Many, many thanks,

Taryn & Neil