Day 11

More pictures can be found on the "Photo Gallery" page

Today was a fun day! We started off with our usual warm up, continued by our quote of the day, and then we ran through all of our dances for the end performance. Today we focused on cleaning our dances and making sure we all know the choreography. Around 11:30 we ran through all of dances on stage with costumes! We finished the day off by working on our collaboration piece with all the other students.

Tomorrow is the big day and we couldn't be more excited! Everyone please get a good night of sleep, eat a yummy lunch, and be ready to rock and roll tomorrow! 

Details for the final show can be found on the "Final Performance" page!

Reminders:

-ArtSummer begins at 1:30PM tomorrow

-If you are a bus rider, you should report to your pick-up location at 12:45PM. 

-The buses will NOT return to the pick-up location after the show. 

List of items you will need tomorrow:

-Black flare yoga/jazz/dance pants

-Black tank top

-Yellow ArtSummer shirt

-Jazz shoes

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns contact me at ArtSummerDance@gmail.com

Day 10

More pictures can be found on the "Photo Gallery" page

As week 3 of ArtSummer progresses on, we're getting more and more excited about our dances and the end performance! Today we started with our warm up and quote of the day, and then learned our Carolina shag dance for the performance.  The Carolina Shag is the state dance of South Carolina, and a famous tradition in the south. The girls caught on quickly to the choreography and are masters at the famous "pretzel" partner step!

We're so proud of everything the girls have learned, and are super excited to show it all off in just 2 short days! Continue working hard and practicing at home, girls!

Reminder:

-Please wear/bring your black flare yoga/jazz/dance pants to class every day this week along with a black tank top. You will need both of these pieces of clothing for the end performance. 

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns contact me at ArtSummerDance@gmail.com

Day 9

More pictures can be found on the "Photo Gallery" page

Today we began week 3 of ArtSummer 2015! We're excited to take on this last week head first and to finish with a strong end performance!

We started our day off by trying on our costumes for the end show!  The girls looked great, and we can't wait to see how it all comes together with the costumes, choreography, and lighting!

We continued cleaning our jazz dance and even had the opportunity to run through it once on stage with an audience full of band and string students!  We also finished our contemporary dance and began cleaning it. We're excited to learn our Carolina Shag dance tomorrow which will be our third and final dance in the end performance. 

We are so proud of all the hard work everyone has put in to making ArtSummer 2015 a success, and we can't wait to showcase everything we've learned!

Reminders:

-Please wear/bring your black flare yoga/jazz/dance pants to class every day this week along with a black tank top. You will need both of these pieces of clothing for the end performance. 

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns contact me at ArtSummerDance@gmail.com

Day 8

More pictures can be found on the "Photo Gallery" page

Today brought a close to our ArtSummer 2015 week 2.  This week has been filled with rehearsals, improvements, and incredible growth. We started our day off with a warm up, our quote of the day, and our choreographer of the day.

Mr. Alvin Ailey was today's choreographer of the day. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th-century concert dance. He founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York City in the late 1950's and began creating his famous works. Ailey's signature work is "Revelations" which is based around blues, spirituals, and gospels. Ailey passed away in 1989 but his company, famous works, and legacy live on. 

After our choreographer of the day, we rehearsed our jazz dance, continued learning our contemporary dance, and starting piecing together parts of the collaboration piece. 

We ended our ArtSummer week 2 on an awesome note and are excited to wrap up our lessons and put the finishing touches on our dances next week. We hope everyone has a great weekend and we can't wait to see everyone Monday!

Remember to practice, practice, practice this weekend!

Reminder:

-Please bring a white or black tank top and a pair of long black flare yoga/dance/jazz pants with you Monday so you will be able to try on your costume. If you do not have black flare yoga pants please email me at the address below!

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns contact me at ArtSummerDance@gmail.com!

Day 7

More pictures can be found on the "Photo Gallery" page

Today was Day 7 and it was a great day for our ArtSummer students! We started the day off with our usual warm up, quote of the day, and dancer of the day.

Today's dancer of the day was the American Ballet Theatre's soloist, Misty Copeland. Misty is the fourth African-American soloist with ABT in two decades, and one of ballet's biggest names. She began dancing at the age of 13 and was denied by several dance schools because of her late start. But Copeland, being the determined fighter she is, never took no for an answer and followed her dreams to become a professional ballerina. In addition to being a star ballerina and an inspiration to young girls everywhere, she is also a sponsored athlete for Under Armour and the face of the "I will what I want" campaign.

We continued working on our lyrical dance, and made huge strides in finishing our collaboration piece with the other ArtSummer students. We are very pleased with all the improvements everyone has been making, and are excited that our hard work is starting to show through! We look forward to ending week 2 on a strong note tomorrow!

Day 6

More pictures can be found on the "Photo Gallery" page

Day 6 was such a success! We began cleaning our jazz dance, learned a verse of our lyrical dance, and learned 2 new sections of our finale collaboration piece!

Today we began our contemporary/ballet unit of study, and our first choreographer of the day for this unit was the legendary Mr. George Balanchine.  Mr. Balanchine is known as the father of American ballet and the co-founder of the New York City Ballet. His stylized ballets are adored around the world for their genius choreography, fun musical elements, and famous themes. Mr. B is one of the most influential men in ballet, and a brilliant choreographer!

We began working on our lyrical dance and it already looks so beautiful! The girls look amazing dancing the flowing, graceful movements, and we're excited to see how smoothly the rest of the dance goes!

We're very excited with all the progress we have made so far, and if we keep our focus we will finish all our dances on time for the final show!

Day 5

More pictures can be found on the "Photo Gallery" page

Today was an awesome start to our second week of ArtSummer 2015!  We finished our jazz dance and worked on our finale collaboration piece with the other students.

Our choreographer of the day today was Stephen "tWitch" Boss, a famous freestyle hip-hop dancer from the hit tv show "So You Think You Can Dance". tWitch placed 2nd in season 4 of SYTYCD, but has returned for several years to perform as an all star and choreograph dances for the contestants. tWitch has created several legendary dances including, "My Chick Bad" and "Outta Your Mind", and is known for his hard-hitting sharp hip-hop movements. 

Today was the last day of our jazz and hip-hop focused lessons, and tomorrow we begin our contemporary and ballet lessons. We were able to finish our jazz dance on time today, and we're super excited to begin working on our lyrical dance tomorrow!

We had a great start to our second week, and we can't wait to see how the rest of the week goes!