Moses Lake teen in TV competition

MOSES LAKE - Most of the TVs in the sports lounge at Papa's Casino weren't tuned into sports channels Thursday evening. Dancers graced the flat screen TVs instead of athletes, and instead of cheering at home runs or scored goals, patrons cheered whenever a certain young dancer came on the screen.

That dancer was Caitlynn Lawson, 18, of Moses Lake, who made it into the top 20 dancers on FOX's TV program, "So You Think You Can Dance?"

Caitlynn's friends and family packed into the lounge, their eyes glued to the myriad screens mounted on the walls as they waited to find out if Caitlynn would advance to the next step of the competition.

Applause filled the air when it was Caitlynn's turn in front of the judges, followed by an abrupt silence as everyone's ears strained to hear what the judges had to say.

But the cheering erupted once again when the judges told Caitlynn she'd made the top 20.

"This is the proudest day of my life," said Caitlynn's mother, Vickie, with tears in her eyes. "When she was 10 years old, she watched the show for the first time and said, 'I'm going to be on that show someday.' And I said, 'Yeah, you are, Caitlynn, just practice as hard as you can. You can do anything you want.' And now she's on the show. My husband, her brother and I are so proud of her."

Caitlynn took every dance class possible, said Vickie. She danced for her school's drill team, Today's Generation dance studio and the Ballet Academy of Moses Lake, even as she went to high school and attended Big Bend Community College through the Running Start program.

And she practiced constantly - every day of her life in their basement, said Vickie.

"I'm not even kidding," she added.

Lori Baker, one of the directors at Today's Generation, said Caitlynn has danced with the group for all eleven years the studio has been open.

"I never worked with anyone that worked as hard as Caitlynn has," she said. "She's one in a million and I'm not surprised at all that this is where she is. The thing about Caitlynn is she's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. She's an amazing individual, not just an amazing dancer."

Baker stressed the importance of voting for Lawson and adding her on Facebook and Twitter if people want her to stay on the show.

"It's all about a fan base; the more people that like her, the better, because that's how they stay on."

In addition to voting over the phone, viewers can now vote for contestants online at www.fox.com.

"She's just this little girl that had a dream and really just believed in it, and we believed in it," said Vickie. "Even if she doesn't go any further, to accomplish this from this little town ... And the thing about Moses Lake people need to realize is it supports kids here, and their dreams, more than any place that you could imagine because without all the support and the teachers and friends and stuff, we would never be where we are."