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.

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!!!