It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

On December 17th at 7:00pm and the 18th at 11:00am we will be presenting our own Christmas Concert, The Gift. Come join us as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We have been very busy so far this Christmas season. Just this past weekend we performed for the Christmas programs at the Sunrise Church, Calvary United Methodist and the First Lutheran Church. There were a total of 6 performances between Saturday and Sunday! The Sunrise Church had a children's choir who wore star costumes with blinking rings on each hand. Every time we would pass them several of the little girls would shout "the ballerinas, the ballerinas!!" oblivious to the fact that we were still in the middle of the show and the whole audience could hear!

During the Lessons and Carols performance at the First Lutheran Church they unfortunately filled up so quickly that they had to turn some people away. One family decided to stay anyway and wait for the Pie Fest after the show. Despite not having seats the little girls in the family made sure that they were there peering through the back windows of the sanctuary each time we went in to perform.

We wish you all a merry Christmas season! Hope to see you at The Gift on the 17th and 18th!

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play...and Dancers too!

The weekend just before Thanksgiving we braved the cold and toured to Saratoga and Cheyenne Wyoming. This was our first trip to Wyoming as a company and we were all impressed by its quiet beauty. Everywhere we looked there were deer, antelope, even bison!

Friday evening we performed at their new community center. It was a beautiful building and we were privileged to perform in their theatre. There are no dance studios or schools in or near this community so it was such a wonderful experience to be able to bring dance to them.

After the show we were able to sit in the natural hot springs and relax. The warm water felt so nice on our sore muscles, though after only a few minutes it was too hot. The thermometer said it was 106 degrees! While we were soaking three deer came within 25 feet of the pool, a mom, dad and baby. They were beautiful, though it was slightly nerve-racking to be so close to such large animals!

The next morning we held a class for the youth in the community. We played with scarves, worked on some basic ballet and learned a piece of choreography. Many of the little girls came dressed up for the occasion in tutus and dance dresses. We were jealous of their pretty costumes.

We drove to Cheyenne that same day and had some free time to explore the city. All around the downtown area there were ginormous 8 foot tall cowboy boots so we decided to go on a boot scavenger hunt to get a picture with each one. According to their website there are 19 boot but we only found 8...

Wyoming Boots - slideshow dvd

On Sunday morning we performed at the Frontier United Methodist Church in Cheyenne. We met their Pastor several years ago when he lived down in Fountain, Colorado and had performed at his church regularly. When he moved to Cheyenne we were sad to see him go but hoped we would meet again. Not only did we get to see him and perform for his new church but they invited us to join them for their church-wide Thanksgiving meal. We had so much fun sitting and talking with the people of the congregation not to mention eating the yummy food. However, tummies full of turkey made for a long, sleepy drive back to the Springs.

Last weekend in Kansas

We took a much needed day off on the Tuesday of our Kansas tour to make jewelry and eat Chinese food. Yes, as dancers we try to take care of ourselves and eat well but everyone has to splurge once in a while! Making jewelry is also one of our favorite things to do since we often wear earrings to class and rehearsal. This year we were brave and tried making necklaces as well but those are much harder to wear while dancing.

On Wednesday we returned to the Benton Church (We danced for them in February) to perform for their youth as well as the community. There was a delicious potluck before the performance where we had to try very hard not to eat too much! After we performed Laci spoke about her experience with a boyfriend in high school and early college and how dangerous it can be to build a connection with someone when God isn't at the center of the relationship. The talk really impacted some of the youth attending who are currently struggling with that issue and she was able to speak with them after the event. We also had an adorable group of young girls who came to the show all dressed up in tutus and costumes.

Throughout the rest of the week we taught several masterclasses at the Bethel Academy of Performing Arts, the Kingman Dance Center, Cammi Hostetler Productions and the Dance Camp Studio. We love meeting new girls and working with them on technique and choreography. As usual we met a lot of hard workers who love to dance.

Sunday morning we returned to the Winfield Evangelical Free Church to perform three pieces. Recently the roof of their Sanctuary was torn off by severe winds so they were having services in their gym area. Fortunately no one was hurt during the storm despite it occurring on a busy AWANA night with lots of kids and volunteers on the campus. We continue to pray for them as they try to save funds for rebuilding and seek God's will for their church.

What a great tour we had! Check back soon for updates about our most recent tour to Wyoming.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dancing with Cub Scouts

We had many wonderful experiences while on tour to Kansas and will highlight some of them in our next couple of blogs.

The sign outside of the Church

Sister Kathy invited us to perform on Monday October 18th for the St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. She worked very hard to promote the event and lots of people were in attendance from all ages and walks of life. Possibly the most surprising of all though was a troop of 7 to 11 year old cub scouts. The leaders may have been a little nervous about how their boys would react to a dance performance, but they were so intrigued! There was no fidgeting or bickering and many of them were moving to the music by the time we finished. Afterward we held a short discussion and answered any questions people might have. While there were several thought provoking questions our favorites always came from the cub scout section. One young boy bravely raised his hand and asked how we were able to change costumes so quickly! In our performances we may have nine pieces with up to 5 different costumes or costume variations and sometimes we have less than 2 minutes to change and return to the stage. Changing quickly is definitely a pre-requisite to joining the company. A bit later someone else was curious about the financial aspect of running our company and after we explained how we rely on support from individuals one of the cub scouts quickly asked how much money we had saved so far. Of course we explained that it often disappears as quickly as it comes in. Then a young girl asked our favorite question, how long have we been dancing? We love this one because it always brings a gasp of shock from the audience. People often believe we are between 14 and 18 years old so when they learn that some of us have dance for more than 20 years they can't believe it!

Setting up for the show in their beautiful worship space

After answering everyone's questions we invited them to join us in learning a simple combination of steps. The evening's focus was on how dance can be a method of prayer, praise, or worship and we wanted the audience to be able to experience the closeness to God that we feel when we dance. Sometimes when we open the floor to the audience people get nervous and don't participate but not at St. Vincent! We had little girls, teenagers, moms, dads, grand fathers, and cub scouts all on their feet. The cub scouts took their dancing very seriously and were so adorable. We could really feel God's presence in the room as everyone made themselves vulnerable before Him. What an amazing evening!

Dancing with the cub scouts!

Check back soon for even more stories from our tour.

Special Announcement :- )

We are very excited to announce that we are now able to accept donations online thanks to our new PayPal account! If you're interested in becoming a BE support partner visit our website at www.balletemmanuel.org to join us in sharing the love of Jesus through dance.

As a full-time ministry we value your prayers and financial support! Thank you!

Say Cheese...

Here is a bunch of pictures from some workshops and other events we held on our tour in Kansas. We worked with so many wonderful people and organizations that we can hardly wait to go back.

Stay tuned for more stories from our trip! Enjoy...

Kansas Tour 2010 - slideshow maker with music

On the Road Again!

It's the morning of the third day on tour in Kansas and we are resting after a weekend packed with performances and workshops. This evening we will be performing at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church.

This year we decided to take on the challenge of planning a tour to Kansas early in the season, and it's been a wonderful adventure so far! Several weeks ago we weren't sure this tour wasn't going to happen, but after much work and lots of prayer, our week is filled to the brim with performances, workshops and master classes in Wichita and the surrounding areas.

We started the weekend early Saturday morning with a performance at Park City's Women Aglow meeting, where we had the privilege of meeting a great group of women including one of Erin's long-time family friends Ruth Bailey.

We enjoyed lunch with Ruth and Women Aglow director Kay Tweet before heading off to West Evangelical Free Church in Wichita to teach an afternoon workshop. After Bible study and technique class, the 12 workshop students, ranging from age 4 to adult learned a dance that they later performed at our Saturday night concert. The performance was wonderful and it was so fun to see our students up on stage!

Sunday morning we left not-so-bright but very early to make our way to Salina, where we danced at University United Methodist Church for their two services. It was definitely worth the early start! The pastor and congregation were so happy to have us and we're excited to visit and worship with them again next year (and eat more of the chocolate cookies they gave us!).

Next we headed down the street to teach master classes at Dance Elite where the girls were very eager to learn and did a great job applying the corrections we gave them. They also learned the choreography we taught them in only an hour!

Sunday night we headed to Sterling College where we performed for a chapel service. We were so excited to get to dance on an actual theatre stage complete with wings, dressing rooms, stage lights and a sound system! Even though we were pretty exhausted from the long day the college students helped energize us with their enthusiastic response to our performance. We even talked to one student who was interested in costume-making and backstage directing…we'd love to have someone like this travel with this some day! After the concert we spoke with Anne, the chapel director at Sterling College. She shared with us that through our performance she felt the Lord moving in the hearts of the students (both Christian and non-Christians) in a powerful way.

We're looking forward to our day off tomorrow – there will be rest for our tired bodies, lots of Chinese food and earring making!