First Day of Classes!

Yesterday was it! Our first official day of classes at The Dance Barn! It was bustling and busy the whole night, and all the classes went well, I think, although it's been a while since I taught five classes in a row. This is the 3-4 year old creative dance class:

And this is the 5-7 year old creative dance class doing "bear walks:"

I didn't get a picture of the ballet class, which is sad because I wanted to show the barres I made, but here are the jazz dancers:

Every time I cross a new milestone in the process, I think, This is really going to happen! It's very exciting and I just hope things continue to grow. Wish us luck!

One down, 498 to go!

Projects, that is....the month of April has been full of things to do, but after the show this weekend, I only have the studio and farm to manage! Haha, "only."


This photo was taken backstage at my performance this weekend. Don't you love my Dance Barn advertising? I wear Dance Barn gear every day now. On Saturday, I took my kids to the Dogwood Parade in Charlottesville, and I almost didn't wear a studio shirt, but changed my mind at the last minute. When we arrived at the parade and settled into our spot, the woman next to me looked at my shirt and said, "Is that The Dance Barn in Stanardsville?"

"Why, yes it is," I replied. Good thing I wore the shirt!

But I digress. The performances this weekend went very well. We had a good turnout, and it was wonderful to dance on a big stage. I love the direction the dance scene in Charlottesville is taking these days. And I have loved being in rehearsal and working on these projects, but I am also really looking forward to having a little more time to spend on the studio and the farm and my family.

And speaking of the studio, classes start tomorrow!!! All classes except adult tap will go, which is great, especially for how relatively little advertising I did. Word of mouth has been fabulous. I've been so focused on the open house, but the start of classes is getting me really excited about where the studio is headed!

And remember, it's not too late to register for spring classes!

Quick Update

We just finished a demonstration class for Music Together classes that we want to hold here at the studio. It was a very small turnout, but a great class, and I hope we can generate a lot more interest for the fall (if not summer). It's a fabulous program and also something for parents to do with their kids when they are too young for our other classes.

Tonight and tomorrow night I am performing in Charlottesville. The piece I'm in is called 1101001LOSTINSTATIC101101110 and we are wearibng white unitards with binary code printed on them. It's going to be a great show! Come see UpRooted Dance Theatre this weekend!

Other than that, time flies, registrations keep trickling in, and we are off and running!

Flying Solo

These (not great) photos are from the solo I performed at our open house. The dance is set to the Frank Sinatra song "That's Life" and is intended to be danced to a live female singer.


I have an idea for a larger piece of solo dances by women set to women singing songs by iconic male performers. I haven't decided if I want all Sinatra songs, or a Rat Pack Suite, or if I want to take an icon from several different decades.



This feels like a dance piece that will undergo many transformations before I am done with it. I would love to actually set it on students first, and workshop it a bit, and then set it on professionals.


I see a dark stage with a spotlight on the singer (perhaps lounging on a piano?) and a larger circle of light on the dancer. Both singer and dancer would be wearing black satin evening gowns in full glam getup. That's about as far as I've gotten, well, except for the already choreographed solo.

So if you were going to pick a song by a male icon to re-interpret from a woman's point of view, what would you choose?

Plie

These are my daughters. The littlest one has just started doing plies on command. She learned from her big sisters. Sometimes I wonder what their lives will be like growing up in the studio. I want them to love dancing, but I never want them to feel pressured to take dance classes. Of course right now they are excited and thrilled about taking classes, and I plan to let them. I just want them to know they they can always change their minds, and that we will never be upset or disappointed if they decide to not to take class anymore.

Yesterday was our first day of "office hours" (this week: Mon-Thurs 1-5 pm) and we fielded a few phone calls and walk-ins. It's funny, though, how after all the work we've been doing that being in the studio without building a barre or floor or painting something feels lazy.

I hope we get some more registrations for tap classes. I'm surprised they haven't filled more, but the jazz class and the creative dance classes seem to be the most popular right now. It's difficult to anticipate what people will want, and when, for the first time. I guess it will be a matter of guessing, and then readjusting for a few years (or more!) to create a schedule that works for the most people.

Success!!!

We had a fabulous opening. There were lots of people in the space the entire day, lots of good energy and encouragement, enough registrations to guarantee that the kids' classes for spring will run, and many more people who say they're planning to register this week.

Here are a few photos, with faces smudged to protect the innocent. ;) The person sitting at the desk in the first photo is my sister. The man with his back to the camera on the left is the genius who built the barn doors.



This next photo shows some of the students I taught this winter performing a jazz dance. They performed this dance in February, and we had one rehearsal on Thursday, and they did a wonderful job of remembering the dance and really performed well. They did two "shows" yesterday morning. After the second one, I performed a solo I've been working on that's part of a larger piece I want to set next year (you know, in all my spare time).

After each mini-performance, we taught a sample class. We did a swing class the first time, and a creative dance class the second time. This is me teaching the creative dance class.




We are so incredibly pleased with how the day went. The response was amazing, and I think as long as we keep working hard and promoting ourselves we really have a chance to make this place fly. It's been so strange in the past two months to not have any gauge on who was going to actually come pay for classes with us, and now I am glad to be feeling confident about the future and also just plain excited to be creating this place.

Hooray for the future of The Dance Barn!!!!

P.S. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people who helped make yesterday happen: Greg Prior (barn door genius!) and his family, the Boatwrights, the Hickman-Browns, the Caruanas, my sister Jordan Brown, Jenny Shafer (curtain lady!), Mary Catherine Gunter, Ernie Reed, my father David Brown (marley savior), Mr T's parents John and Debby Silliman (and the rest of the family, too!), Owen (I just realized I don't know his last name which is sad since I've known the family for a year, so I'll just tell you he cleaned our windows and scraped off all the stickers from the last business just to be nice), Sally and Gary Hart of Albemarle Ballet Theatre, Performance Signs, Chameleon Silk Screen Company, Sal's Pizza, Stanardsville Hardware, The Hip Joint, and of course, my mother, who I thank for everything. If I forgot anyone, I apologize profusely and beg forgiveness based on lack of sleep and the caffeine and adrenaline coursing through my system.

One More Day

Today is the last day before the open house (TOMORROW!! WOO HOO!! Also, AAAAAGH!) and we are doing pretty well. I went on a mad shopping trip yesterday and got all the last minute stuff I've been adding to my lists over the past few weeks. Today we are getting everything set up, decorating a bit, printing out registration forms, etc. We've had a lot of people say they're coming, but it's so crazy to have NO idea how many people might show up.

We got our t-shirts yesterday. I love them! For adults we bought red ringer t-shirts and we printed them with the text part of the logo on the front left and the whole logo on the back, but just in one color. The kids have light blue t-shirts with the same design. The shirts are made by American Apparel and they are SO soft.

Anyway, we're trying to get out of the house and actually get started on the bajillion things we have left to do, but I know you all were waiting with baited breath to read my words of wisdom today, and I couldn't let the loyal fan base down.

Wish us good weather and lots of visitors for tomorrow!

I may be busy the next few days...

The next few days may be insane. I have so much to do to get ready for the open house, but it is coming along! I think I wouldn't feel crazy at all if I didn't also have a performance this weekend. After the open house, I have a three hour rehearsal and then a friend's birthday party, then Sunday I am in the theater all day and performing at night.

However, things are going quite smoothly now. The marley is all laid except one strip that we have to cut. The place looks good, and just needs some decorations. It's great having my dad here, because he's helping out a lot, whether assembling cubbies or reading to my kids.

I am really looking forward to Saturday. I feel like it will give me a better idea of what the next few months will look like.

More pictures to come as everything pulls together!

T-minus AAAAAAAAAGH!!!

This is an unrelated (yet adorable!) photo of Mr T (I cannot stop giggling at that) and our youngest daughter during our photo shoot for the Dance Barn logo. That's right, if you glance up at our logo, those silhouettes belong to me (the center one and the right hand one) and Mr T (the left hand one). I really wanted to post all the ones we had to take to get the one of me jumping, because they're hilarious, but I'm just a bit too vain. I am making ridiculous faces in all of them.

Anyway, I have five bajillion things to do and I can't believe we are really doing this--opening the studio!! I asked Mr T today if there was any possible way to feel ready for this weekend, and we agreed that there wasn't. We will be as prepared as possible, but we have no idea what to expect.

I have sent out several registration forms to people and am getting more and more feedback about people hearing about us, and I am so excited and also a teensy tiny bit terrified. Shhh, that'll be our little secret, though!

Severe Damage

So this is the worst of the damage to the flooring. I called the company this morning, and they will probably replace it, and my father is going to pick it up in Philadelphia tomorrow on his way down for a visit, so all's well that ends well, right?

Marley's Law

I just made this up. Marley's Law is just like Murphy's Law, except dance related.

Yep, so we unrolled the marley flooring and one of the rolls is SEVERELY damaged, definitely came that way from the factory, and have I mentioned that our open house is in six days???

I have to call the company tomorrow, and depending on what they say, my dad may pick up a new roll on his way down to visit this week. Good grief!!!

All in all, this whole build out has been very smooth. I am grateful the rough patches have not been worse. I just have to keep reminding myself of that when I feel like freaking out about a damaged marley.

The Last of the Big Projects

Sorry there's no photo today. I am blogging from the studio and there are no pictures on this computer. We are finishing the very last of the painting, and preparing to lay down the marley (dance flooring that rolls out over the sprung subfloor) and the rug in the lobby. Very exciting.

Last night was the closing performance of the UVA spring dance show, for which I choreographed a piece. It was a great show, and I was so proud of my dancers' performances this weekend. The whole process has been good for me as an artist, but I am also glad it's over. My focus has been split over the past few months, and as April winds down, and all the projects I am involved in come to a close, I am looking forward to just having the studio and the farm to manage.

We are seven days from the open house (APRIL 19TH...it just keeps getting closer!!) and I am feeling pretty good about everything. Although there will still be more work to do before summer, when people come in the door on Saturday, the place will look good. Pictures to follow!

And now, my youngest daughter has fallen asleep on me (the only reason I had time to sit down and blog at all) so I must lay her down and get back to work.

During (Minus the Floor)

Now that you've seen the floor, let me show you a couple pictures of the "lobby." I call it a lobby because "reception area" is too long (and clinical) to say all the time, and also, it's really quite large. This first picture is taken from the front entrance. It's the same shot I showed in the Before post, but with two colored walls and some half finished barn doors. I have realized that my favorite colors for decorating are purple, red and yellow, and I keep using different versions of them in every place I live. Apparently I need them in my workplace as well.

Next we have the lobby from the back door. What you are looking at is a half-finished mural that is more than half painted by my children. I wanted to create a kid-friendly space, and also have things for my kids to help with during this build-out, and so they have been diligently painting sky and tree trunk and butterfly whilst whistling merrily to themselves, nary a complaint crossing their lips, nothing but sunshine and roses. At least, that's what they're doing in my fantasy world. There are also no dirty diapers in my fantasy world. And money grows on trees. But I digress.












Now the wall with the barn doors will be painted red (the doors themselves are red and white, natch) and the door we hung is sort of between the barn door and the tree in the picture above. I think we're going to bring one of our couches in to the studio, because I want it to have a real homey feel. I mean, I hope that people will sign their kids up for tons of classes, and if they're going to be sitting in my lobby for hours on end, it should be comfy and inviting, don't you agree?

Our Floor

The floor of any dance studio is really the most important element, and also the part that parents of young students will think about the least. When I first started thinking about opening The Dance Barn, the floor was one of the first things I researched. When we leased the space we're in, which is built on a concrete slab, I knew I was going to have to install a "sprung" floor.

Dancing on a sprung floor is heaven. Although you wouldn't notice the difference just walking on it (unless you were looking for it), when you jump on a non-sprung floor you can feel the impact of the jump in ALL your joints (more so the older I get). On a sprung floor the floor itself takes some of that impact, and it not only feels better on your body, it actually makes a huge difference physically, especially over a long period of time.

One year in college, I was performing in the Nutcracker, two shows a day for about a week on a non-sprung floor. Every day I had to come home and ice my knees and ankles because they hurt so bad. My body just ached for the entire run of the show, and I was only 19 years old.

Anyway, I digress. So the first big project we undertook for the studio was installing our sprung floor. In an effort to save money, we did all the work ourselves (with the generous help of friends). The first step of this involved gluing 2,500 2" foam cubes to the back of sheets of plywood. Here I am putting Liquid Nails on the wood:

Just look at that technique, I think I'm a natural. Although the backseat gluer standing next to me seems to think I need some guidance. Ahem. Moving on. The gluing took about half the day. Next we lay all the sheets of plywood out in the studio with the foam blocks underneath. We used 1/2" plywood, and it was hard to believe it was going to make a solid floor because it was warped and creaking (this was perfectly normal). This photo is a low-profile angle of the resilient squishy goodness that is underneath our floor:


After we got all of the foam blocked plywood laid out, we put down another layer of plywood. We overlapped all the seams, and used Liquid Nails and a divergent stapler to tack the two layers together. This is an action shot of our friend and his mad stapling skillz:


Of course, this being a family friendly dance studio, all our kids were with us for the entire day. They ran around and played a lot, naturally, but we also believe that children should contribute to the effort. I mean, what's the point of having kids if we can't put them to work, right? So they brought us piles of foam blocks, and looked out for the younger kids, oh, and took over using the power tools when the adults got tired:


And at the end of that long (12 hour) day, we had ourselves a 28'x28' sprung dance floor. Ta da!


Now, the 28'x28' is the sprung part, but the studio room is a bit bigger than that. So the next week I spent building up the rest of the floor to meet the sprung part (which is 3" off the ground). I also had to build up the floor of the bathroom that's in the studio. All in all, the room is 29'x34' minus the bathroom, which feels wonderfully huge and decadent, especially after the 16'x24' dance floor in the original dance barn.

Doesn't that make you want to dance? Or is it just me?

Before

The lobby

More lobby

The studio

More studio

Back storage area

"Check..."

This is what I say in my head each time I get something accomplished. It seems like I say it a lot, so why do I feel like my list is still endless?

We got the door in, and my barn door genius (a friend who built beautiful barn doors for the space) has offered to repair the drywall, so if all goes as planned we can finish painting on Friday, lay the marley (dance floor) and maybe the rug on Saturday, and then it's a matter of decorating and preparing for the open house (APRIL 19th!!!!). I can't believe this is actually happening.

I spent today hanging more flyers, and I think I am done. I sent out press releases and am waiting to hear from newspapers (please call me!!!). And now we'll just see who shows up. Eleven days left...

The Door

Another unrelated photo: also from The Firebird, this is a picture of my oldest daughter chasing me around the stage before a dress rehearsal. On a side note, isn't that tree in the back the coolest?

So the carpenter will be okay, seven stitches later, and offered to come out next week or the week after to finish the job. We are T minus 12 days and counting, however, so Mr. T (my husband and co-owner of The Dance Barn (and para-parenthetically, it makes me giggle every time I think of him as Mr. T), for those who don't know him) and I are going to attempt to put in the door ourselves. We wanted to avoid this because even though we are pretty handy, we've never installed a door (it is pre-hung, but still) and it will just take us a lot longer than a professional.

It should be an adventure...I'll let you know how it goes (hopefully not too long from now!)

Also, coming soon...Before and After pictures of our space (well, Before and During...you have to come to the Open House on April 19th to see the After!).

Stitches

No picture today...but you'll thank me for it later!

We needed door put in between the lobby and the studio, and asked a carpenter friend to do it, trading labor for eggs. He was cutting into a metal stud today, and somehow cut himself badly enough to need stitches. Blood everywhere kind of thing. I was teaching (at another studio) at the time, and called him as soon as I heard. He said he was okay but was about to be called in to see the doctor, so he couldn't talk.

Please keep your fingers crossed that it will be a quick healing time for him.

So Many Projects, So Little Time

Another random photo, this one from a modern dance production of The Firebird with NEW ARTiculations. That's me lifting. I also had to carry the other woman on my shoulder as I ran across the stage. It was a burly dance!

Anyway, in addition to opening a dance studio, running a farm, homeschooling our children, and performing with two companies currently, I also spent the semester choreographing a piece on the students in the new (minor) dance program at the University of Virginia. Today was our last rehearsal before tech week and the spring show, where new work by several choreographers will be shown. It's been such a pleasure to work with the students in this program. They are excited about dancing and work hard.

All the projects I've worked on in the past few months have been SO different from each other. I have kiddie creative movement classes, choreography with college students, and rehearsals for professional shows. It really keeps me on my toes. And in between it all, dreaming about all the things I want to do with my own studio.

On that note, I received my first e-mail inquiry at my Dance Barn e-mail account! Looks like the flyers are working! I only have about 200 left to hang! Can you feel my excitement from here?!?

Bone Tired

(This photo is completely unrelated to the subject of today's post, but I'm trying to keep the photos coming. This is my and my oldest daughter when she was a baby. We are performing in a piece set on us and one other dancer which I performed with NEW ARTiculations in Tucson.)

Today (and yesterday) I hung flyers about our open house in various businesses in the area. I still have many more places to go, and it is SO tiring! In and out of the car, or walking long stretches in a plaza really wears a body out.

The response, however, has been uplifting. Several people have said they've already heard of us, and almost everyone is happy to have something posted (except big chain stores that have company regulations--another reason to go local!). For every moment I feel tired or overwhelmed, I have two moments of feeling great because someone's already heard about the Dance Barn, or is really excited we're coming to the area. I knew that word-of-mouth would be our best advertisement, but it's still really gratifying how quickly word spreads!

The Confidence of Youth

This is me in my very first ever dance recital. I took from a woman named Miss Margot who taught at the local gymnastics place. I'm not sure what I was supposed to be, and all I remember from the show is playing Duck, Duck, Goose.

The next year I started taking ballet with the woman I studied with until I left for college. During my first year of ballet I would leap dramatically around my house wondering why my teacher didn't cast me as the lead in the recital. I told myself she probably didn't want to make the older girls feel bad by giving me a bigger role.