Many people travel to Croatia seeking a European vacation. Guilford High School junior Juliana Montgomery made the trip seeking a gold medal. Her mission was successful, as Juliana took home the gold at the International Dance Organization (IDO) Tap World Championships in Croatia in November.

Juliana earned her gold medal in the Junior Duos category, dancing alongside Madisyn Bernier of Cheshire. Duos was one of five events that Juliana competed in at the championship event.

Juliana also brought home the bronze medal in the group competition. She finished fourth in the Trio category and her group finished sixth in the Formations category. Juliana finished 11th in the Solo category.

Months of rigorous practice and dedication went into preparing for the event. When it is all said and done, each dance lasts between two and three minutes. Looking back on the experience, Juliana is most proud of the countless hours that went into preparing with her team for those moments.

“[I am] most proud of the work that I put in along with the hard work of my teammates,” Juliana says. “Everyone was very committed, we got together almost every weekend for the past six months and put our heads together, worked super hard, with an amazing coach Jillian McNamara.”

Adding to the demanding practice schedule were multiple injuries for Juliana in the month leading up to the event. She broke her hip in August and later broke her foot – an injury she performed through in Croatia.

The injury sidelined her for significant practice time and forced her to watch her teammates rehearse. Her instructor and coach Jillian McNamara praises her work ethic as well as her patience while she recovered.

“Having those two injuries was tough because Juliana is a dancer that – she puts in the work all the time,” McNamara says. “She doesn’t like to not work, she doesn’t like to take a day off, so having a few of those days where she just had to watch or just had to take a break and not do her dance was definitely difficult for her.”

When she was finally allowed back on the dance floor, Juliana locked in on her goal, medaling at the World Championships. In order to achieve that goal she knew she would need to align and perfect all aspects of her routine.

“I worked on performance,” Juliana says, “making the feet sounds as clear as possible while making sure your facial expressions are going out to the audience and you’re looking at the judges, so it’s really just working on the entire package.”

McNamara reiterated Juliana’s improvement in this regard and describes her footwork as “exquisite.” When she brings the performance aspect together with that, she is difficult to beat.

“Her feet are naturally just so incredible,” McNamara says. “So a lot of our work goes on her upper body and her performance and all of that so when she got to Worlds it clicked in her head and she was ready to do whatever it took to get that gold medal and her performance was stellar.”

The competition at this year’s IDO Tap Championship was world-class, hailing from all corners of the globe. Juliana says it was an adjustment competing with that type of talent. “It definitely is a big change,” Juliana says. “You almost forget how different it is from competing regionally, the competitions around New England where I usually compete, they’re hard but it is no comparison, everyone has such a different talent caliber when you’re competing internationally, that can be a little bit intimidating, but I knew that we worked hard so we were all ready. It’s nerve-racking but exciting too.”

McNamara also recognized the level of competition Juliana was up against and leveled high praise for how she dealt with it. “The most talent I’ve seen [compared with] years past,” McNamara says. “They really did achieve such an amazing goal. Juliana has the drive and determination more than I’ve seen in any young dancer in a long time.”

Juliana hopes to continue dancing in some capacity in college, but right now she is looking forward to one last run at the IDO Championships next year as a high school senior. The September 2023 event is scheduled to take place in Germany. “September will probably be my last time at this specific competition, and I’m looking forward to it, should be really fun.”

No matter where her career takes her, Juliana wants to thank her support system for being vital in supporting her at home and in Europe. “I couldn’t have done it without my coach Jillian, my duo partner Maddy, along with the rest of my teammates,” says Juliana. “I’m part of Team USA which is the American Dance Collaborative — the organization that it’s under — and then also my home dance studio which is Eastman Dance Company and all the support from there, and my friends and my parents really helped to make this all come together.”