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.