We had a workshop and concert at Country Christian Church in North Branch, MI. This was one of the first events we ever did in Michigan, and being that it's Laci's home church, this event is always very special. This year we had about 80 students from the ages of 4-18 attend the workshop and we packed out the house for the concert!
At Burton Place, a senior apartment center in Michigan, we had the opportunity to perform our concert "Rain," which tells the story of the flood from the perspective of Noah's wife. After the concert we met an older gentleman who used to be a Bible teacher. He thanked us for how we used the story of Noah and brought it to life, making Noah's wife seem so real and human. It was encouraging to hear since that is exactly what we were aiming to do.
After our concert at Hope Lutheran in Farmington Hills, MI, Amy got to talk with a large group of dancers and dance moms about what it means to be a Christian ballet dancer. They had the chance to pick her brain about everything (and we mean everything) that goes into being a Ballet Emmanuel company member.
Some of the residents at the nursing homes we performed for really enjoyed our gospel, jazzy dance to "You Can't Hurry God". We even had the pleasure of hearing some of them "hootin and hollering" and clapping along :-)
At one of the workshops we held we had a couple of sisters attend, lets call them Sister 1 and 2. Sister 1 is a christian and Sister 2 was not . After our workshop, Sister 1 got Sister 2 to go to church with her that evening where she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior!
We also had a student at one of our workshops who has a different faith background. Her mother stayed and watched some of the workshop and we heard later that this opened up doors for others to talk to them about Christ.
At our concert in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, we led the audience in a short dance to learn how to worship the Lord with your whole body. Afterward, a woman (who loves dancing with her grand daughter around her house) shared with us that at her church she dances/worships with her arms, but tonight, God had freed her feet . She also shared with us that she had a hard past and that the worship that night was healing for her.
Those are just a few snippets of the amazing stories we heard and fun times we had. For more pictures, make sure you look at our facebook page!
