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.

Spring has Sprung!

It is so exciting to see buds on the trees and the grass turning green!

We kicked off the start of spring with our annual Spring-Break Dance Workshop. Over 40 kids and youth joined us as we explored our journey to Deliverance with Bible studies, dance classes and choreography.

On Tuesday we read about Peter’s miraculous escape from jail and how God answered the people as they prayed for his freedom. This day was especially applicable for our “Red” group as their choreography was to the song Loose My Chains and the “Yellow” group as their jazz choreography was to the song Shackles. After the prayer time that morning one of the girls asked if we would pray for her because she felt like there were still chains in her life that were holding her down. We were so impressed by her maturity at such a young age and gladly prayed with her.

Wednesday we continued on our journey and discussed how we must surrender our plans to God so He can do a great work in our lives. Our youngest “Blue” group was able to hear the story of how a little boy surrendered his small lunch to Jesus and He was able to feed the 5,000. For their craft that day they made little lunch boxes and put inside of it goldfish crackers as well as a drawing depicting something they would give to Jesus so He can make it into more. At the end of the day one of them exclaimed “This is the most beautiful dance workshop ever!”

Thursday brought the culmination of the journey as we saw how God delivers us into freedom in Christ. We also finished out that day with a quick lesson on choreography. Each day of the workshop the dancers spent some time learning and practicing improvisation. Choreographing a piece uses all of the creativity needed for improv and then brings it together to have the most impact on an audience. We loved watching the dancers grow from being timid about making up movements to having confidence in creating a dance.

Friday evening was the performance of Ballet Emmanuel’s full concert Deliverance. We have performed this concert all over the Midwest but this was our first chance to perform it at home. It was even more special as each of the workshop participants joined us and performed the pieces they had learned throughout the week. After the show we had the chance to mingle and talk with some of the audience members. One woman in particular told us how she had been struggling with some burdens a lot recently and through our concert was able to surrender those and find peace in Christ. We love hearing stories like hers of how God communicates with His people through our dancing.

Here is a slideshow of pictures from our time together:

Red and Blue Groups

SBDW 2011 Slideshow - how to make a free slideshow

Green and Yellow Groups

SBDW 2011 Green and Yellow Group - how to make a free slideshow

Since the workshop we have kept very busy, be sure to check back soon for other stories from our recent performances.

In the meantime, have a Happy Easter!

Christ is Risen!

"Deliverance: Out of Brokenness, into Freedom"

We want to invite you and your friends and family to come see our performance of "Deliverance" next Friday, March 25th at 7:00pm!

We have been on tour with this performance throughout the season and we are excited to finally perform it in Colorado Springs! The performance is at Sunnyside Christian Church located at 2025 N Murray Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO.

As always, admission is FREE :-) We hope to see you there!

Memories...

We've made it home safely! Ballet Emmanuel had a great time in Michigan and Minnesota, we feel very blessed to have met and worked with so many churches, dance studios, senior centers, and schools while out there. We also want to say thank you to the many host families that gave up their time, food, and beds so we would have a place to call home.

Dancing during chapel at St Lorenz School in Frankenmuth, MI

Visiting Zehnder's Bakery in Frankenmuth was one highlight of the trip!

While on tour we had the opportunity to dance at some churches we haven't been to in the past, here are a couple memories from those churches...
After dancing during the worship service at Lapeer Community Church in Lapeer, MI, we headed to the youth room to dance a piece called "Surrender" and talk to them about what it means to surrender our dreams to God. Before dancing at Hope Lutheran Church in Farmington Hills, MI, we got to see 2 dances performed by the church's liturgical dance group - it's always a treat to have people dance for us since we're usually the ones doing all the dancing! In Swartz Creek, MI, we had the privilege to introduce dance as worship to the people of Calvary Christian Church and the response was amazing! We also enjoyed dancing for Coon Rapids Evangelical Free Church in Coon Rapids, MN, and teaching them a short worship dance to do with us after our performance. We hope we can visit all these churches again next time we're in the area!

Some pictures from our performance at Hope Lutheran Church

We also had a wonderful time holding a workshop again at Cornerstone Christian Church in Jackson, MI! Here are a couple pictures of what we did there.

Ballet class with the 4-6 year olds!

Pretending to be animals on Noah's Ark
Bible story time!
At the conclusion of the workshop we held a performance
including dances we taught to the workshop participants

We also enjoyed making new connections with different dance studios in Michigan. We held a lot of master classes and met a lot of sweet girls. We were also happy to see the girls at Fountain Dance Ministry in Brighton, MI again and hold a choreography master class for them.

Master Classes at Integrity School of Dance Arts, Byron Center, MIBallet Class

Modern Class

Improv & Worship Class

Sharing prayer requests

Fountain Dance Ministry, Brighton, MI

Dancers learning choreography to our dance "Love"

In His Steps in Battle Creek, MI

JubalArts Dance Studio in Grand Ledge, MI

One last memory to share...
Ballet Emmanuel got to perform during a senior Bible study group held at a senior apartment center in Burton, MI. Afterward the pastor of the Bible study told us that a woman had pulled him aside right after we finished dancing and told him that she had realized how much she needed the Lord! Through our dancing she had seen that there was more to being a Christian than she was experiencing and she wanted all of it! Praise the Lord for what He did in her heart that night!

After a couple much-needed days off Ballet Emmanuel is back in the studio this week preparing for our Spring-Break Dance Workshop coming up this month!

On the Road in Michigan

We left on tour two weeks ago, it was a long 22 hour drive in the below-zero weather but thanks to the Lord’s blessing we had a safe drive. This is our third year touring to Michigan and we were excited to see old friends again and meet new ones! Below are some pictures from the workshops and performances we’ve had so far. We appreciate your prayers for us as we continue to teach and perform in the Michigan area, we’ll keep you updated!

We had a wonderful workshop with Girls of Grace In Frankenmuth!

Country Christian Church Workshop

The 4-6 year olds were so cute! We even had a little boy, he was a great dancer!

Picture from our performance with the participants of the Country Christian Church Workshop

We've been busy the last two weeks so keep checking back as we post more about our trip!

Spring-Break Dance Workshop!

It's that time of the season again, we want to invite you to our 2011 Spring-Break Dance Workshop! Instruction in: Ballet, Jazz, and Contemporary. Students will also have Bible study time and learn choreography to perform at Ballet Emmanuel's concert on March 25th.

Ages 4-9
Tuition: $40 per participant (registration due by March 15th)
Early Bird Tuition: $35 (due March 1st);
Late/Walk-In Tuition: $45 (after March 15th)

Ages 10 & Up
Tuition: $75 per participant (registration due by March 15th)
Early Bird Tuition: $65 (due March 1st);
Late/Walk-In Tuition: $80 (after March 15th)


Registration forms and fliers are available on our website (www.BalletEmmanuel.org)

Help us get the word out, if you know of anyone who might be interested in attending please send them to our website or contact Erin at (719)433-8820 for information.

We're excited about what God will do during this year's workshop!

Back from Break

Hope you all had as relaxing and wonderful of a break as we did. Now we are back in the studio training and rehearsing in order to get ready for our 2 week tour to Michigan this February. We are very excited to be returning for a third year!

Check out some pictures of us working hard!

BALLET CLASS

Barre

More Barre

Center Combinations

More Center Combinations

REHEARSAL

Resurrection

Song for the Broken

Hard Times

Surrender