It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

The Christmas season is one of our favorite times of the year at Ballet Emmanuel so we took a festive survey of our dancers' favorite things about the Holidays. Here's what they said:

Melanie
Favorite Carol:  She has 3 but she loves listening to and singing "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts roasting, etc.) while cooking in the kitchen.
Favorite TV/Movie:  The claymation version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which she got as an early Christmas present this year!

Amy
Favorite Carol: When she was around 6 her family had a cassette tape with a kids choir who sang "The Holly and the Ivy" and she loved it so much that she'd sing it at the top of her lungs in the shower for months.
Favorite TV/Movie: Prep and Landing the newer cartoon about the elite special ops elf teams who prep each house for the reindeer to land.

Laci
Favorite Carol: Laci loves The Home Alone/Acapella version of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" and emphasized that she likes that version the best because it's silly, just like her.
Favorite TV/Movie: Elf because "I just like smiling, smiling's my favorite!"

Erin
Favorite Carol: She couldn't pick just one so she loves them all!
Favorite TV/Movie: "White Christmas" It's tradition in her family to watch it every year.

One of the biggest reasons we love this time of year so much is that we get to perform a lot! In addition to our own Christmas production of "The Gift" we also participate in the Christmas celebrations of several local churches.  Last weekend we kicked off the season with Sunrise Church's "Christmas Celebration." With four shows in 2 days we were quite busy.  Watch the slideshow below for photo's from the event taken by Tyler Dexter.

Surprise at St. Vincent!

One of our favorite events during the Kansas tour was returning to St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Andover, KS. This time they had a surprise in store for us. Since they knew that our performance depicted the story of the Flood their chef created an entire Noah's Ark cake!

There were even sugar cookies depicting all of the animals. Two of each kind.

Melanie loved the shark cookies. 

Amy and Laci loved the whole thing :-)

Right now we're busy busy busy preparing for the Christmas season. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving will be here in a week and a half! Check our website for all of the events we're a part of as well as for information about our annual production of The Gift. Hope to see you there!

Midwest Tour 2011 Part 2!

We've been home from our last tour for about a week and a half now and dove right into choreographing and preparing for our Christmas concert! Crazy how time flies...

Looking back we are always in awe of the places we go and the people we meet when we're on tour. Here's a brief summary of some of the things we did during the second half of our trip to Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

On Sunday the 16th we returned to St. Vincent de Paul in Andover, KS for a full performance of "Rain". St. Vincent is so dear to our hearts and it was wonderful to see them again. We also were able to see some of our friends from Benton, KS who made the drive over. (Stay tuned for an upcoming blog about the surprise St. Vincent had for us!)

On Monday we were able to visit Amy's ballet teacher Ms. Sharon Rogers and take class at her school. We love getting into a studio and taking class whenever we can but it's especially nice on tour.  When we travel we usually perform on tile or carpet over concrete and we spend a lot of time in the car. The combination of these is brutal on our bodies. Thank goodness Ms. Sharon was able to help put us back together!

We devoted Tuesday to Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Centers. It is so important to us to make time for community service while on tour.



Wednesday evening the First Assembly of God church in Wellington, KS hosted a "Rain" performance.  Though it is a small community the sanctuary was standing room only.  We want to give a special thanks to Connie Schaefer for bringing 19 Awana girls over from the Cornerstone Fellowship Church in Winfield, KS.





On Friday we offered some masterclasses at the Bethel College Academy of Performing Arts in Newton, KS. Melanie taught a short modern class to ballerinas between the ages of 6 and 11. They weren't so sure about it at first but by the end they kept saying "modern is fun!"



Saturday was our main event in Wichita, KS hosted by West Evangelical Free Church.  We had a workshop all afternoon and a full concert that evening.  As usual the 4-6 yr olds stole the show with their enthusiasm and everyone did such a great job.  This was our first church workshop of the season and it was so exciting to finally see the kids pieces that we choreographed come to life on stage. Amy's husband also surprised her and made the drive to Kansas to see the show. He definitely earned some brownie points!



Sunday was our eaaaaaarrly morning. We left our host home a 5:45am to get to Salina, KS for church services at the University United Methodist Church.  Thank goodness for coffee! Later that afternoon we were at the Stepz Dance Studio where we taught ballet and a fun lyrical piece.  After that it was homeward bound!!



We are so thankful for all of the opportunities God brought us during this tour. Please check out our Facebook page for more pictures from each of our events!!!

Crafty Card Night!

On Saturday we were invited to Sandy Appelhans' house for an evening of crafts and fellowship.  She is a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and regularly hosts classes for the community.  Turns out we can be pretty creative in more than just dance :-)

Looking back it's really funny to see how each of our personalities came out during the card making process.
 
Laci loves to figure things out for herself. She took on the challenge of  just looking at the example card and ignoring the directions.

Amy is by the book. Not only did she follow the directions but checked them off one by one as they were completed.


Erin has her own way of doing things. She decided that even though the cards were beautiful she'd rather mix up the colors and rearrange things a bit.

Melanie loves COLOR! She spent the most time with the watercolor markers and didn't want to move on to the next station. 


Card #1 Telescoping Fall Card- This one was a challenge at first. All the colors on the top were actually painted on with chalk!







Card #2- Maple Leaf Woven Card- This one was the favorite of everyone. The inside of the leaf is painted with the watercolor markers that Melanie loved. See how the edges of the "woven" part look burned? Don't worry, we weren't playing with fire. It's actually torn and brushed with dark brown ink to appear burned. Very cool.

Card #3- Thank You Banner Card- This was the first card we attempted and it was intimidating at first. With words like Big Shot, Embossing Folder, Dimensional, and Huffing we knew we were in a different world. It is interesting how the arts develop their own jargon and they'd probably be just as intimidated if we started talking about arabesques and pirouettes.





All Done! 4 projects in one evening, whew!



Apparently Stampin' Up! demonstrators can be found all over so look online for classes near you. If you're in the Wichita area check out Sandy's classes at http://sandyappelhans.stampinup.net

Thanks again Sandy for letting us crash your class!

Our 2011 Midwest Tour so far...

We began our Midwest Tour with a weekend in Siloam Springs/Springdale, Arkansas. We arrived late last Friday night at Erin's great aunt and uncle's, Paul and Louis Kimball. It is always extra fun when we get to spend time with one of our families on tour.

On Saturday we held a 6 hour workshop with the beautiful students of Adonai Ballet Academy. New Creation (a new professional dance company from Little Rock) also came and participated in taking our workshop that day. We had a lovely time with all of these dancers and are very excited to work with them again in the future.

On Sunday, we performed during a service at Siloam Springs Bible Church (in Arkansas) as well as danced for a nursing home right on the other side of the road in Oklahoma. It was very strange to be so close to the border and dance in 2 states in one day! Monday night we premiered our new original concert "Rain; Hope in the Midst of the Storm". We packed the house at John Brown University and received such a wonderful reception of the concert that we can hardly wait to share it with all of you.

On Tuesday we packed up and said goodbye to Arkansas headed to Kiowa, Kansas (a very small farming town). On Wednesday and Thursday evening we had the privilege of working with the girls from CH Dance Productions (a studio with a location in Alva, OK and one in Anthony, KS). We spent an evening at each location and we were very impressed with the girls' eagerness to learn and dive deeper into ballet technique. For more pictures of these events, visit our Facebook page.

We are so excited for the rest of the tour and what God has in store for us!

Goodbye Summer and Sleeping In...Hello Fall and Aching Feet :-)

The beginning of the season is always a little rough trying to get back in shape. We started taking classes in August this year to try to lessen the amount of bubble and/or ice baths we take. It definitely helped but ultimately warm bubble baths are just part of our job!

Now the season officially started August 30th, but let's face it, we were working all summer. We started the season having 5 new dances choreographed and half our Midwest tour booked. We are very excited to be expanding our Kansas tour to include Arkansas and Oklahoma. Make sure you check out our calendar to find out when we are near you. God willing, later this year we will be heading back to Michigan, Minnesota, and Wyoming, and hopefully will be making our first Southern tour to Texas. (If you know anyone around those areas that might like to host an event, let us know!)

We are also very excited about our concert this year. It is entitled "Rain... Hope in the midst of the storm" and it follows the story of the Flood from the perspective of Noah's wife. We can hardly wait to share it with all of you.

Though we did get to sleep-in more than usual over the summer; we definitely kept busy too!

This past summer, Erin headed back to Ecuador for 5 weeks. She went with 3 of her siblings to work with an orphanage in Shell. While there, they taught bible classes, helped tutor the kids for school, took them on special outings and activities, and taught a couple of movement/dance classes to some of the younger kids. This wad her 3rd trip, and God willing, she is looking forward to returning.

Amy spent most of summer teaching at The Ballet Society of Colorado Springs. She taught ballet , worship, jazz, and choreography classes, even an adult ballet aerobics class. When she was not teaching, she was busy taking care of 6 newborn puppies. They decided to keep one and they now have 3 beagle doggies named Regal, Royal, and Raina.

If you wanted to say hi to Melanie, you simply needed to stop by Focus on the Family where she was giving tours this summer. She even had the privileged of giving tours to students from past BE workshops from Kansas and Wyoming. What a small world! Melanie also became an aunt this summer to a beautiful little boy named Walker.

Laci wore herself out working camps this summer yet again. She was even the dean of a dance camp in Michigan for 4th-6th graders. She and Nathan also moved into his Grandmas to take care of it for her while she spends more time at her cabin in the mountains. Now that they have a back yard they decided it was time to add a member to the family. His name is Leo and he is currently a little ball of fluff. But wait about 5 more months and he will be a 50lb husky!

Check back for updates on our Midwest Tour!

Goodbye 2010-2011 season, Hello summer!

Summer Break is here, and going by fast!!! Here's how we finished up last season.

1^st Attempt using the camera timer…Not so good

Many Attempts later…yay, about to finish the final performance of the season!

We spent May traveling to Wyoming where we were able to see many of the friends that we met back in November. If you looked at the weather though you might think it was still November!

Normally on tour we travel to a new city nearly every day but this time we got to spend several days in one place. Less driving meant there was more time for fun and games.

We also had time to volunteer at Comea, the local homeless shelter/food kitchen. They asked us to put the newest donations away in the pantry. We probably gave them more than they bargained for when our OCD natures took over and we reorganized the whole thing :-)

While in Wyoming we had quite a few workshops, church performances and full concerts. Here are photos from some of our events:

Always interesting spaces :-)

Bible Story time.

Good morning! Lots of early mornings while on tour, this was a 6am departure time. Thank goodness for coffee and tea.



Whoops, wrong way! She was such a trooper for being so young.



After returning home we spent the last week of the season planning for next year. It's already shaping up to be an exciting season. Stay tuned for what God has planned!

Busy Bees

April was a busy month for us, as always ;-)

Here’s just a quick recap of a few of the events we did:

· Woman Come Forth 2011-

This is a women’s event that we were able to participate in a while ago during the Fall of 2009. Our schedules and logistics almost didn’t match up for their April 2011 event but near the last moment things fell into place. We spent the day in Denver and even got to sit through some of the speakers between our performances. If you haven’t had a chance to attend one of the Woman Come Forth events we really recommend it! The daylong event takes women through the story of Lazarus and uses speakers, worship, dance and hands-on stations to remind us of how all women struggle at points in their lives and need a personal resurrection from our Lord. Please check out what the amazing women of Woman Come Forth will be up to next.

Here’s a link to their website and some more information:

www.womancomeforth.org

“Woman Come Forth is not a conference...but a Gathering of God's Daughters.
He longs to speak into your heart the truth of who He originally created you to be. He wants to free you of the lies which have falsely defined you. You are being called out of the tomb!! Through professional dancers, speakers, musicians and artists, Woman Come Forth will take you through an interactive, imaginative encounter with the Lazarus Story for YOUR LIFE.”

· Freedom Night at North Springs Alliance Church- For a long time we talked about putting together a girls night to impact and encourage high school and college age women. Dance is so relevant to the culture of today’s youth and high school/college is such an important time in their lives. This year North Springs Alliance had a very similar idea and asked us to join them. Of course we jumped at the chance! We spent an entire evening with around 15 girls who were so open and curious about how their faith and their lives connect. Several speakers and videos explored how God can wash away all of our scars, even the ones we don’t realize are there. We are hoping to use this event as a launching point to bring evenings like this one to young women across the country.

· Easter Chapel at Focus on the Family-

We had the privilege of dancing during Focus on the Family’s annual Easter chapel. For the performance we brought back the piece “Why” that depicts the last day of Christ from the perspective of a little girl. During the service they also had a group of painters who created a beautiful piece of artwork from scratch during only 2 songs. We were very excited to find out that the chapel was being broadcast live in places all over the world like Egypt and Australia. Does that mean Ballet Emmanuel is now international? :-)

Check back soon for stories from our recent tours to Grand Junction and Wyoming! Also visit our website www.balletemmanuel.org for pictures.