Summer Stories Part 1

Welcome to part 1 of our summer stories!  We thought it'd be fun to give everyone an idea of how each dancer spends their time during BE's off-season.  We hope you're all staying cool and enjoying some time with family and friends!

Also, we want to thank everyone for your prayers during the recent Waldo Canyon Fire.  We are all so thankful that our families and homes are safe and that none of us had to evacuate.  The fire was an incredible reminder of how not-in-control we really are; we're continuing to pray for the many families who lost their homes and for continued strength for the firefighters who will be fighting fires all summer long.  


Dancer #1: Melanie Dexter

Travel plans? I'll be in Colorado Springs for the summer, but I'm excited to be visiting Oregon with my husband Tyler in less than a week!  We're looking forward to spending time with his family and camping on the beautiful Oregon coast.

Colorado homebodies!

Summer job? Yes, I'm actually working part-time for Ballet Emmanuel booking events for the fall!  We're going to have a very busy season....and I'm already looking forward to it.  Tyler and I have also kept busy with our photography business (www.tmdexterphotography.com) shooting weddings and engagement sessions.  We love photography!

One of the weddings Melanie & Tyler photographed - www.tmdexterphotography.com

How did you spend your 4th of July? Well, it was a little sad to be without fireworks this year due to the fire, but I still had a great time BBQing with friends!  I also made my mom's awesome 4th of July cake to share (it was delish!).

Happy 4th of July!

Favorite summer activity? Probably having friends over for dinner and games, Tyler and I love doing that!  Also, having iced coffee or iced tea everyday multiple times a day.

At the beautiful Dushanbe Teahouse in Boulder, CO

Summer highlight? This isn't really a highlight, but experiencing the Waldo Canyon Fire was something I will never forget.  It was horrible...but also amazing to see how Colorado Springs responded with compassion for those who were directly affected.  This city has had some major praying going on here this summer!

Waldo Canyon Fire

What are you most excited about regarding BE's upcoming season?  Our new dancer Mia!  And our new concert for the season, I'm really excited about the story we're telling. 

Say hi to our newest company member, Mia! (she's in the middle)

A Season of Change

We are sad to say good-bye to one of our wonderful company members, Amy Schaefer. Amy has been with Ballet Emmanuel for three years. Over that time she constantly contributed to the company through her dancing, creativity and hard work. Thank you Amy for three wonderful years. We are going to miss you but we are excited about the new direction that the Lord is leading you and Jared!

Ballet Emmanuel is thrilled to welcome Mia Calabrese as a company dancer for the 2012/2013 season! Mia is a beautiful dancer from Hudsonville, MI. Watch our website for her bio and photo on the company page. We can’t wait to have Mia on board!

Out With a Bang!

There's less than 2 full weeks until Ballet Emmanuel's 2011/2012 season comes to an end!  April and May have flown by with a tour to Nebraska (our first time there!), a tour to Wyoming, auditions for a new company member, 3 church service performances, and a tour to Grand Junction, CO - we guess you could say we're going out with a bang :-)

Even with all the dancing and planning for next season we've managed to make time for some fun.  We had our annual "BE Fun Day" this past week and enjoyed going to Denver to see the ballet documentary, First Position, and stopping by the Cheesecake Factory on 16th St Mall!  Good thing we have to drive to Denver in order to find amazing cheesecake, otherwise we might visit the Cheesecake Factory a little too often ;-)

Stay tuned, we have some very exciting news that we'll be sharing with you the last week of the season!

Dancing at St. Luke's in Kearney, NE

Amy teaching during our workshop at The Kearney eFree Church

Our workshop students in Saratoga, WY

A backstage view of our concert in Saratoga!

Laci and her biggest fan in WY

First Position!

We couldn't resist....

Mmmmm...cheesecake!

Break Dancing!

SBDW 2012 - create a slideshow with music

We had such a great time with all the students during our Spring-Break Dance Workshop. No, it wasn't actually a break-dancing workshop but we did dance a lot during break! This year our workshop  focused on the story of the Flood.  Everyone's bible studies and choreography were all connected to the story.

Our Purple group (ages 4-6) had craft time each day.  They made rainbows, hand print animals and animal masks to wear in the concert. Within our Rain performance they represented all of the animals that came to the ark. They were all adorable dancing to "All God's Creatures Have a Place in the Choir."

Our Red group (ages 7-9)  talked about how Noah was obedient to God even though God's requests were difficult and a little crazy.  Their piece was to Rich Mullins' "Screen Door" and showed how we need to reflect our faith through our works, just like Noah did.

Our Yellow group (ages 10 and Up) discussed how we can rely on God even when we're scared or unsure of what's happening.  Noah was a great example of continuing to trust the Lord in the middle of the storm.  Their piece for the concert was to Toby Mac's "Hold On" and followed the same subject.  Best of all they got to dance with fun ribbons!

Our Green group (the most advanced dancers) talked about the importance of standing up for our faith in the midst of peer pressure. Their dance, to NeedtoBreathe's "Washed by the Water," told the story of a preacher who spoke the Truth but was criticized by the people around him.  This story echoes what Noah might have gone through as he was preparing for the Flood.

Both the Yellow and Green groups also got to perform jazz dances.  These dances are always so fun to watch. The Yellow students danced to Mercyme's "Move" and had the chance to show off their best dance moves.  The Green students portrayed secret agents during their dance to NewWorldSon's "Working Man."

Here are some more pictures from the performance:

SBDW 2012 Concert - slideshow maker with music

Hope you all had as much fun as we did. See you next year!

February Fun

Every time we tell people we are touring to Michigan and Minnesota in February they look at us like we're nuts. But this just proves that God has very different plans from our own - this was our 3rd year going in February and we can't imagine going any other time. We had a great turn-out at all of our concerts and workshops. We got to see many (now) old friends and meet a bunch of new ones. Here are a few highlights of the tour...

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!

Happy New Year!!

Hopefully you all had time to spend with your friends and family over Christmas.  We definitely enjoyed a little break after our hectic Christmas season. On Saturday December 18th we finished the holiday rush with our own Christmas production of "The Gift"  It was so nice to see so many of you there. The house was packed for almost every show!

Here's a slideshow of some of the pictures from the performance taken by Tyler Dexter:

On Tuesday December 21st the company had our annual Christmas party. This year we had the wonderful opportunity to attend "The Nutcracker" production by Ballet Society of Colorado Springs. It was exciting for us to see so many of our students from workshops up on stage. Afterward we headed over to the Broadmoor to see the beautiful ginger bread houses and to open presents! We think Erin got the best present of all, 2 little handmade rice warmers for her pointe shoes. Such a good idea!

Now that 2012 is here we are back in the studio rehearsing for our tour to Cheyenne, Wyoming later this month. We're also preparing for our Little Ballerina and Choreography Workshops on January 28th.  The Little Ballerina workshop is perfect for anyone ages 4-10 who just loves to dance but may or may not get to be involved in any regular classes. Our choreography workshop is perfect for older dancers ages 11 and up who are interested in learning skills to help them create dances that truly engage and impact their audiences. Registration forms for the workshop can be found on our website www.balletemmanuel.org

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.