The Dance Barn

Join Us!

2009-12-02T21:41:00.003-05:00

The Nutcracker Suite

Friday, December 11th and Saturday, December 12th, 2009

7pm

William Monroe Middle School
Stanardsville, VA

$7 adults/ $5 children

Join us for our annual production of The Nutcracker Suite! This holiday event features our shortened version of the traditional classical ballet, a post-performance reception with hot cocoa and refreshments, and a chance to have your picture taken with the Sugar Plum Fairy, danced by Heather Lively of Charlottesville Ballet!

We look forward to seeing you there!!!

Gearing up for The Nutcracker!

2009-11-30T14:09:00.003-05:00

This is a photo from the photo shoot we did for The Nutcracker. We used it for our poster this year. It's a picture of the girl who's playing Clara (for those who don't know the story). More posts will follow as we head into Nutcracker season. Stay tuned!!!

Introducing: Mr. Keaton!

2009-10-17T10:58:00.004-04:00

It's been a long time coming, but here is our last installment of Meet the Teacher, featuring our hip hop teacher Mr. Keaton Rodland!

Keaton is a Greene County native, and I originally heard about him through our old intern at the farm, who is a friend of his. I contacted him a year ago but he was headed off to Boston. After a year there he missed the idyllic beauty and serenity of Greene County and came back. And then, lo and behold, I ran into him at the Farmer's Market! I was so excited to hear he was back!!!

I immediately began plotting how to get him teaching for me...

Luckily for all of us, he agreed, and now we have hip hop at The Dance Barn!!! The kids' class (ages 8+) and the adult/teen class are both running, and there are spots open in each. Everyone loves the talent and enthusiasm he brings to his classes! Plus there are the cartwheels and backflips...can it get any better? So come join us!!

As always, here's the official bio as well!

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Keaton Rodland discovered choreographed dance at the age of 4 when he was signed up for tap class in Charlottesville. After taking a short hiatus to pursue a t-ball career he performed in Four County's The Nutcracker, and then started taking a hip-hop class at Orange School of Performing Arts. From there his love of breakdancing unfolded. His teachers and friends supported his interest and taught him what they knew about b-boys and the culture (B-boy = Break Boy = Breakdancer). Keaton has won regional title awards at dance competitions including Star Power and Star Systems. In addition to hip-hop, Keaton has studied jazz, ballet, modern and tap. He has danced with some b-boy legends as well as modern hip-hop choreographers. Keaton attended Boston University for a year studying acting/performing (Class of 2012), but soon thirsted for country air and the possibility of dancing out in nature. He knows we've all heard it, but wants everyone to remember that when dancing...Have Fun!

Please Vote for Us!!!

2009-09-26T14:10:00.002-04:00

Albemarle Family Magazine, a local print/online resource for all things family oriented in the Charlottesville area, is conducting a Favorites survey. One of the entries is Favorite Dance School, and I'd like to ask all my loyal readers (all 5 or ten of you!) to head over there and vote for us.

This is a pretty cool opportunity to get our name out there to more people than ever, and an easy way to support us in this amazing adventure! Here's the link: Albemarle Family Favorites Survey

Thanks for your help!

Nutcracker Auditions

2009-09-12T17:49:00.002-04:00

For those of you who may not have heard, I had a baby last week! We had a boy and everyone is doing very well. In any case, today was my first day back in the studio, for NUTCRACKER AUDITIONS!!! They went SO well. I am very excited about the group this year and am looking forward to a great show.

Casting was much easier this year, and we pretty much settled on the casting right after auditions. I will sit with it for a day or two before announcing the final cast, but it's exciting how easily it fell into place.

So come see the show in December!!!! It's going to be great!

Introducing: Mr. Tom!

2009-09-08T16:52:00.000-04:00

Okay, this one's kind of a cheater Meet the Teacher, since Tom is part owner of the studio and has already been teaching here since the beginning, and oh yeah, is also my husband, but he's teaching more this year, so I figured he was worth a blog post. plus it gives me time to plug our new classes that he's teaching!

I first met Tom in 1995, and on a random whim invited him to a ballroom class I had attended only once (with my parents). He was an engineering student at Northeastern University at the time, and agreed to go only because he liked me, and then he wound up actually enjoying himself. Over the years he has danced and competed with the Northeastern Ballroom Dance Team, studied at private ballroom studios, and taught at several studios as well. Until we opened The Dance Barn, this was sort of a side hobby, although one he loved, but when we opened the studio it was a no-brainer that he'd teach some ballroom here.

Thus our Social Dance Night was born! You can read more about it here!

Last year, in response to some requests, we offered a short term of Kids' Ballroom. Although we had a small turnout, the kids who took the class loved it and Tom enjoyed teaching them. He was amazed at what a different experience it was to teach kids versus adults, and we decided to offer the class for our full season this year.

In addition to Social Dance Night and Kids' Ballroom, Tom will be teaching Boys' Creative Dance this year. I am incredibly excited to be offering this class. I have noticed over the years that in general, there is a difference between the ways that boys and girls learn, particularly when they are younger. I have always wanted to build a boys' dance program, but have found that many parents don't even consider registering their sons for dance, and those that do sometimes worry about them being the only boy in class. I am hoping that by offering a class just for boys, that we can tailor the class to boys' learning styles while providing them with an environment that makes boys taking dance seem entirely normal. I think having a male teacher will help the boys relate to men dancing in a direct way.

Tom's bio is available on our website, and I will re-post it below. You know, just in case I haven't given you enough information above!

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Tom Silliman (Mr. Tom) began dancing when Kelly brought him to a ballroom dance lesson in 1995. He joined the ballroom dance team at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, from which he holds a BS in electrical engineering. During and after college, Tom (and eventually Kelly) participated in ballroom dance competitions around the New England area. Throughout his career as a Systems Administrator/IT Manager for various companies, Tom has continued to dance and teach ballroom and social dancing professionally, including working with couples to choreograph wedding dances. Tom and Kelly last performed at First Night in Charlottesville 2007. Having recently left the corporate world, Tom teaches social dancing at The Dance Barn and heads up the adventures in farming at Sweet Dog Farm.

Introducing: Miss Ariadne!

2009-09-07T19:30:00.001-04:00

Today's Meet the Teacher features The Dance Barn's very own Miss Ariadne. Ariadne is a returning teacher this year, having taught our Ballet III class last year, as well as assisting with our first annual production of The Nutcracker.

I first met Ariadne as the Artistic Director of Charlottesville Ballet, when they were looking for rehearsal space. As a new studio, I immediately recognized the advantage of having a local professional company rehearsing here four days a week. In addition, I have always thought the Charlottesville area could support a ballet company, and never understood why there wasn't one thriving here already. I was excited to do what I could to support this fledgling company, and we worked out a schedule and contract for the 2008-2009 season.

As I worked with Ariadne in this capacity, I was impressed with her beliefs and principles related to ballet training, and asked her to teach my intermediate/advanced ballet class for the year, and to help with The Nutcracker. I am so glad she has stayed with us this year, and am looking forward to her taking on our entire ballet program for the year! We will also be working on this year's production of The Nutcracker together (I do love me some Nutcracker!!!).

As Artistic Director of Charlottesville Ballet, Ariadne will be here at lot this year, and they have an exciting season coming up. We are thrilled they are still rehearsing here, and look forward to being able to watch their creative process as their repertory pieces develop. Oh, and in case I haven't babbled enough, Ariadne's official bio is below.

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A Chicago native, Ariadne Conner spent many years traipsing across the country to various pre-professional schools. Spending summers at the Houston Ballet Academy, School of American Ballet, and Miami City Ballet in addition to intensive training at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and Ballet Chicago during the year, Ariadne became steeped in the new tradition of George Balanchine. Ariadne relocated to Richmond, Virginia in 2003 to be a trainee with the Richmond Ballet. While a trainee, she had the opportunity to dance in Giselle, Swan Lake, Balanchine's Concerto Barocco, and original choreography by Richmond Ballet Faculty. In 2004 she became enamored with a new form of expression, choreography. She had the honor of choreographing two works on the Richmond Ballet Trainees before moving to Charlottesville. In 2007 she became the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Charlottesville Ballet. She is thrilled to be teaching at The Dance Barn and sharing her love of this art with all!

Introducing: Miss Emily!

2009-09-05T07:11:00.000-04:00

Our second installment of Meet Our Teachers introduces Miss Emily. I met Emily when Charlottesville Ballet started rehearsing here at The Dance Barn, and instantly liked her friendly manner and admired her beautiful dancing. When I took class with the company, I was always impressed with how hard Emily worked--it was truly inspiring! She is also an amazing performer onstage, and wonderful with kids.

Emily will be teaching creative dance and jazz for the studio this year. I am excited to have her creative and nurturing spirit as part of our Dance Barn family, and I know her students will love her as much as I do! Oh yeah, and her official bio is also below. It probably sounds way more professional than my totally biased gushing, but what can I say? I hired people I really, really like!

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Emily Mott fell in love with ballet at the age of five. She began dance classes at Roanoke Ballet Theatre in her hometown of Roanoke, VA and continued her training with Unurbat Gunaajav and Michele Goacher. While in the upper levels of her ballet school, Emily taught several creative movement classes and helped create an after school dance class for underprivileged children. She also performed in several collaborative shows with Opera Roanoke, the Mill Mountain Theatre, and with Radford University as the ‘Snow Queen’ in a joint production of The Nutcracker. She attended summer intensives at the Richmond Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and on scholarship with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Emily spent her senior year of high school at the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg, VA under the late Petrus Bosman. There she found diverse training and valuable performance opportunities in various dance festivals, in lecture demonstrations for children, and at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. Upon graduation she joined the Richmond Ballet as a Trainee, performing in Don Quixote, Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie and Who Cares?, and in many new works by Richmond Ballet faculty. She also enjoyed working with Richmond Ballet’s Minds In Motion, a pilot program for Richmond-area schools to incite a love of dance among youth. In 2008, Emily relocated to Charlottesville, VA to join the Charlottesville Ballet and to attend the University of Virginia, uniting both her artistic and academic interests. Emily is thankful to all who have made this journey possible and looks forward to sharing her ardor for dance with the students of The Dance Barn.

Introducing: Miss Heather!

2009-09-04T10:18:00.003-04:00

Welcome to our brand new "Let's Meet the Teachers" series!

Today we meet Miss Heather, a newcomer to the teaching scene. I first met Heather last spring, when I was looking for a tap and/or jazz teacher for this year. She had been taking classes with Charlottesville Ballet (our resident company), and I had noticed what a fine dancer she was. A little birdie informed me that she was very interested in pursuing a teaching career, so I asked her to come do a couple sample classes.

She was wonderful!!! She had an instant rapport with the students, her classes were well planned and executed, and best of all, she was excited about the prospect of teaching here. I am so glad to have Heather as a part of our Dance Barn family, and look forward to a wonderful year of tap, jazz, and creative dance classes with her. Below is her official bio, which is lovely but not as much fun as me telling you how much I like her! Be sure to say "Hi!" when you see her in the studio!

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Heather Lively began dancing at the age of four with a local dance studio in Florida before moving to receive most of her training at South Georgia Performing Arts and Wilson School of Dance. While at SGPA, Heather performed in productions of The Nutcracker, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Coppelia. Heather has studied jazz, tap, and ballet extensively, and spent the last two years as an assistant dance teacher. She is very excited to start her teaching career at The Dance Barn, and is also thrilled to be apprenticing with Charlottesville Ballet this year.

WE HAVE HIP HOP!!!

2009-08-31T22:17:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that after a year and a half long search, we have found a hip hop teacher! We are very excited to have Greene County native Keaton Rodland joining us on Tuesday evenings for Hip Hop I (ages 10+) at 7pm!!!

We will begin as early as next week depending on registration, so if you have any interest, call or e-mail the studio for details.

Also, if there is sufficient interest in an adult/teen class, we will offer that on Tuesdays at 8pm. I already have two people on the waiting list, so we only need three more to start the class.

Very exciting!!! More on Keaton and all our other teachers coming very soon!

Quick Picture Post

2009-08-25T18:47:00.003-04:00

These two photos are from our Creative Dance Recital in May. The first one shows the students frozen in "interesting shapes" during one of our improvisation exercises:

This second one is one of my favorites. Students love dancing with scarves, and I love how the camera captured the movement of the scarves as the students moved through the space:

More pictures and posts to come! Stay tuned!!!

PICTURES!!!

2009-08-20T18:14:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone!

I finally (FINALLY) got photos off my camera dating back to April, and I have a ton I want to share. For now, I will post two of my favorites from the Children's Dance Festival held every year in April. Five Dance Barn students participated in the event, which brings together studios from all over the area to perform together. It's run by Miki Lizst, who has a company in Charlottesville and has been producing this Festival for 24 years! It was a great experience for the students, and an event we hope to participate in again in years to come.

These students were Mint Patties in our production of The Magic Candy Shop, but we re-named the dance Echoes of the Sea for this show. The music, by local group Zephyrus, was a capella women's voices, and absolutely beautiful.

These students, who played Candy Canes in The Magic Candy Shop, danced to music by Stuart Gunter, another local musician (and friend!) who freelances all over the place and also works with Sandalwood Studios. The kids LOVED this piece, called 3rd Dimension, and we re-named the dance Triple Helix for this performance.

There are more pictures to come, so please check back!

The Dance Barn Newsletter: Fall Registration and an exciting offer!!!

2009-08-14T20:42:00.002-04:00

(This is the e-mail I just sent out to (almost) everyone on our e-mail list)

Hello Dance Barn Dancers and Parents (and those who made it onto this list for other reasons)!

I hope this e-mail finds you well and that all your summers have been fabulous. Mine was full of lots of farming, some dancing, and growing a baby (still inside me as of this e-mail!). I am very excited about the coming year, and want to share a few things with you as we head into registration time.

Classes begin Saturday, September 5th! Registration is ongoing, so if you miss the beginning of classes (or you know someone who hears about us after classes begin), please know that you can still sign up as long as there is room in the class. (But see the amazing offer below for those who register early!)

August Registration Hours: Although you can always register by mail, we are having office hours the last two weeks of August, beginning August 18th, as follows: Tuesday through Thursday, 3-7pm, Saturday 10-2 pm. Please feel free to register then, or just stop in to say Hi!

CRAZY AWESOME OFFER from Virginia Discovery Museum!!! The Virginia Discovery Museum is partnering with local schools and studios to offer all Fall 2009 students a FREE six week family membership to the museum! This is an amazing offer and for those of you who are not familiar with the museum (located on the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville), it is a great place to take kids, especially on rainy or cold days. Anyone who registers for classes by August 31st will be eligible, so please let me know when you register if you'd like a pass for your child.

Adult Classes: Although we focus primarily on children's dance, it is very important to us to have an adult program as well. We understand that adults' schedules often make it difficult to register for a year at a time, and take that into consideration when we structure our classes. We offer a social/ballroom class every Thursday evening from 7-10pm. Social Dance Night teaches beginning and intermediate ballroom in a fun and relaxed environment where we focus on leading and following and helping you feel comfortable on the dance floor. No partner or experience is necessary, and the class is drop-in, which means you can come as often as you want and pay per class. We are also offering Adult Dance for eight weeks in October and November, and this class will be some combination of ballet/jazz/conditioning, based on what those who register are looking for.

The Nutcracker Suite: We will be producing our second annual version of The Nutcracker this year, and auditions will be held Saturday, September 12th from 2:30-4:30pm. Auditions are open to any student who is or will be registering for ballet class at The Dance Barn, and all students who audition will be cast. Some of you have noticed on our schedule that we are having Friday rehearsals as well. These Friday rehearsals are optional, and may or may not last the entire semester. When students audition, they will be asked if they can attend any portion of the Friday rehearsal, or if they can only make the mandatory Saturday rehearsals. There is no extra charge for Fridays, but the ability to attend may affect casting. Participation in The Nutcracker is $125 and must be paid on the first day of rehearsals, Saturday, September 19th.

New Students should look for our ad in this week and next week's Greene County Record (also Madison and Orange papers) and bring in the ad for a free Social Dance Night class or to waive your registration fee! Please pass the word!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this e-mail. I am really looking forward to seeing all our returning students, as well as welcoming the new ones who will join us this year! I think this is going to be quite a year of growth for us, and we are so glad to be a part of this community. Thank you to everyone who supports us!!!

Falling in Love with Dance!

2009-08-11T19:00:00.002-04:00

My very first dance class was held in a gymnastics studio. My teacher, Miss Margot, was tall and elegant and very nice. I remember doing tick-tock clocks across the floor (although I can't remember quite HOW we did them). I think I was four. I do remember our recital, where we played Duck Duck Goose as part of the "show."

When I first saw the picture above, I thought it absolutely captured the simplicity and innocence of the first dance class. When students come in for their first class, they are excited and nervous and are usually there because they love to move their bodies. They are also so proud to show off their favorite moves. I love watching them that first day, and then as the year goes by, watching them develop a stronger sense of their bodies and what they can do.

Teaching little kids is not for everyone, and I have not always had good experiences with it. In one studio years ago, I had to teach up to 12 or 14 3-year-olds by myself, switching from ballet to jazz to tap in the span of an hour. It was disastrous! When I opened The Dance Barn, I decided to cap my 45-minute creative dance classes at 8 students to ensure that all students had the time and attention they deserved. I also re-examined how different kids' classes are taught, and consulted with an old mentor whose methods I respect, and structured my classes based on creative movement technique. I now LOVE teaching the youngest groups of students just as much as I love my other classes.

What I want for my students is for that first moment of falling in love with dance to return to them time and again over the years. It's the joy in moving that keeps me going, and I wish that for my students as well!

(The above photo is courtesy my dance friend Lisa Eller, who is a fabulous massage therapist in Charlottesville, VA.)

Social Dance Night at The Dance Barn

2009-08-06T20:14:00.002-04:00

Social Dance Night is our weekly ballroom class, which began in May 2008 and has been held every week since (except holidays). Tom began ballroom dancing on a whim when I dragged him to a class my parents were attending just after we met, and then he continued going to classes on his own. I will be totally honest with you--he was no natural! I say this only to encourage people who feel awkward on the dance floor, because you would never know it to see him dance now.

Anyway, ballroom proved to be a great outlet for him during college, and later he wound up teaching for a few months between jobs, and loved it. He later taught for about a year in Charlottesville before our third daughter was born, and so of course when we opened the studio we wanted to include regular ballroom classes as part of our offerings. The one thing that Tom never loved about the ballroom world was the competition. Oh, we're not knocking it--it can be so much fun to get all dressed up and work on a routine and show off on the floor. But what we like even better is just getting out on the dance floor and having fun, chatting and laughing with no pressure to be perfect.

A lot of people think they can't dance, and we believe this is because people aren't taught to dance socially anymore. It's not just about the steps, but about knowing how to lead and follow, and being comfortable enough with that to be able to talk with the person you're dancing with at the same time. You need a familiarity with a few dances, but you don't need to know every single step of every single dance to have a great time.

So what we focus on in our weekly lessons is just that: social dancing, leading and following, and cretaing a sense of ease on the dance floor, all while having a great time. We have had a lot of luck with this class (in fact, we've never had a night when no one showed up, which is exciting for an adult class in a new studio in such a small town), but recently we have had a small but extremely steady group who all expressed wanting a few more people in class.

So please tell everyone you know about Social Dance Night! The best part is, it's a drop-in class, so there's no committment. For $15 per person you can come whenever it works for you. We are here every Thursday night from 7-10pm (sometimes we end around 9pm if people are tired) and we rotate dances monthly. This month we are teaching samba (so fun!) and tango. We'd love to see you there!!!

Sunday Recycling

2009-08-02T15:00:00.004-04:00

For the past year, I've been getting up to 3 e-mails per month about our floor. People find the post I did on this blog in spring of 2008 about building our sprung dance floor and write to ask me questions about the building process, or where we got the foam blocks, etc. I always take the time to respond because I remember how helpful other people were when we were building.

Anyway, I've always been curious at the high number of inquiries related to such a relatively obscure blog, so today I did a little Googling, and it turns out that if you Google dance floor and foam blocks, we pop up on the first page. Pretty cool!

Re-reading the post brought back the many fun memories of that crazy day, and so I am recycling the post by linking to it here. There are lots of pictures, and it's actually a pretty interesting process. It was the biggest part of opening up the dance studio, but so important to me (saving my poor, aging joints, that is), and it was worth every penny and every drop of sweat shed!

Saturday Quick Post

2009-08-01T15:18:00.002-04:00

Check out the updated website at www.dancebarn.net! The fall schedule is up in a more easily navigable format, and there are pictures on the front page! Wooo hooo!!!

More information about registration, teachers, auditions, etc to come soon...please visit us frequently!

Dance Barn Poster 2009-2010

2009-07-31T11:11:00.001-04:00

Here is an image of the poster I will be hanging all over Greene County, etc and hoping not to swell up too badly in the process. Anyone want to help?

We're Back!!!

2009-07-30T19:34:00.003-04:00

Hello, whoever might still be checking in to this blog occasionally! It's been almost a year, but I am back and dedicated to keeping this blog current. It was recommended to me by a friend to disable this link, since it had been so long since I posted, but I actually get a surprising number of people asking me about our dance floor. Then today a friend (and mom of a student) made some suggestions that got me all inspired. So here we are!

So let me fill you in on our last year! We had an excellent turnout for registration before classes began, and students continued to join us throughout the year. We ended the year with just under 60 students, which feels like we're off to a GREAT start.

In December, we put on a shortened version of The Nutcracker Suite which was a huge success. We staged it in our studio theatre, which comfortably seats about 60 people, and we had almost 100 people each night. It was standing room only! And the dancers were amazing...they worked so hard over the fall months to put together a truly outstanding production. Here is a link to a wonderful article in our local paper about the show.

In the spring, we continued to add to our student body, and began working on dances for our Spring Showcase, The Magic Candy Shop. In addition, we were pleased to announce that I was (am) expecting a baby on or about September 3rd! Although I have danced throughout all of my three previous pregnancies, it was quite an adventure to be teaching so much, especially the bigger I got.

In May, at the end of our first "school year" of classes, we had two performances. The first was a creative dance recital, which was done class by class in our studio theatre. Each show was 15 minutes long, which gave the younger students a great performance opportunity without the pressure of a big stage experience.

The Magic Candy Shop, which featured our older students (all those taking ballet, tap, or jazz) was a very special production for me because it was the first dance recital I was ever in as a child. I was even able to use some of the costumes from the studio I grew up in, thanks to the generosity of my first ballet teacher. The students were again wonderful, and I was so proud of them. I even did a dance (at 6 months pregnant--yikes!), and we performed at the middle school across the street from the studio.

Since then, we have had two weeks of summer camps, which I taught, and now we are headed into registration time for the 2009-2010 dance year. Because of the baby who will join us soon, I will not be teaching classes this year, which will be bittersweet for me. However, I am very excited about the teachers I have hired and look forward to telling you more about them in future posts.

So stay tuned, folks, because there is lots more to come in the next few weeks, and then classes begin once again!!!

Random Thoughts During Office Hours

2008-08-27T17:34:00.002-04:00

REGISTRATION!!! It's been haunting me for weeks...I keep thinking about how to get the word out, how to encourage people to sign up, etc. I find myself alternately elated and on tenterhooks with anticipation for how this semester will go.

I had two people register today, and fielded several phone calls. It's very exciting to sign a new student up for class! As I see my class lists start to fill, I get more and more excited about the first full year of teaching and working for myself. It seems monumental.

It's very interesting to see which classes are filling and which are not (yet!). When I made my schedule, I had no framework for what would work, and so it was anyone's guess what classes would fill. We'll see how this fall pans out!

Mostly, though, I'm thinking about classes starting, and all the new students I'll be teaching, and I am just very excited about seeing everything I've been working towards coming together!

Publicity

2008-08-22T09:47:00.003-04:00

I am off to hang posters today advertising fall classes. This is the third round of poster hanging I've done for the studio: the first was for the open house, and was wildly successful, the second was for sumemr camps, and now the beginning of the school year. I have to admit I'm a little burned out on poster hanging.

One of the issues is that Greene County's business are all spread out, so it takes a lot of driving and in/out of the car to accomplish the task, where in another area I could park and walk in a few locations. Another is that it takes a big chunk of time that I would rather spend choreographing or putting the finishing touches on the studio or being at the farm. Also, if I take my kids they get over being in the car pretty quick, but if I don't take them then I miss out on hanging out with them.

From talking to other studio owners, they feel like visibilty and word-of-mouth are the number one things that build a student base. Most say posters and flyers are the way to go. And everyone says that newspaper advertising isn't worth the cost (which is pretty pricey) for the number of students who respond. But I would like another method besides hanging posters myself to get the word out.

As a consumer, what attracts you to a small business? Are there any advertising techniques that you've seen that have absolutely sucked you in? Do you think it's a matter of one really great method, or just constant visibility (like branding)? Tell me your thoughts!

Two Week Countdown! (and major update)

2008-08-19T16:12:00.003-04:00

Hi world! It's been way too long since I posted here, but summer has had me swamped! Although we didn't fill every single class, I taught summer camp classes every day in July, and man, was I tired by the end. It was a good warm-up for fall, though, since we have a 20-class schedule to offer! Classes start September 3rd, which is only TWO WEEKS AWAY!!! I can't believe it!

This is a photo from ballet camp, taken in mid-July. It's hard to get lots of photos and also teach!

Registration is going on now, and I will be in the studio this week and next, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 3-7pm. I will also be there Saturday the 30th from 9-3. Anyone who wants a registration packet mailed to them should either call or e-mail with their name and address and I will send it right away.

Last week, we had a booth at the Greene County Fair. I love the fair, and look forward to it every year (on a side note, my butter cake has won a blue ribbon two years in a row!). Having the booth was a lot of work though. We were there every night for 6 or 7 hours! I loved having the opportunity to talk to people about the studio. Lots of people had already heard of us, but some hadn't, and everyone was enthusiastic about us being here, and wishing us luck.

One of the projects I'm most excited about for fall is our December production of The Nutcracker. For those of you unfamiliar with this holiday classic, The Nutcracker is a ballet about a little girl who recieves a gift of a toy nutcracker doll at a party. After the party, she falls asleep with her doll and dreams a fantastic dream, including a fight between toy mice and toy soldiers and her nutcracker doll becoming a prince and taking her to the Land of Sweets where the Suagr Plum Fairy and all her friends perform for them. We will be producing a shortened version of the ballet this year. Auditions for placement (everyone will be cast) are being held September 13th!

And of course, our Social Dance Night is held every Thursday night from 7-10 pm! This month Tom is teaching waltz and cha cha, and next month we continue the waltz and starting salsa! This drop-in class requires no registration and costs $15 per person.

So as the dance school year approaches, I will try to be more regular about posting. If you live in the area, stop by and see the studio! We've worked hard on it and are so excited about the coming year!

Three Things!

2008-07-12T16:56:00.002-04:00

Hello world! Have you missed me? I have three fabulous things to share with you...sadly, no picture today, but I am running on less than three hours of sleep and have been up since 5 am, so you must forgive me for forgetting my camera.

Last week was our first week of Summer Dance Camps! We ran the Creative Dance Camp and the Exploring Dance Camp for ages 8 and up. Both went very well. I am always amazed at the creativity of the three and four year olds when they are given the chance to dance however they like. Next week we will run another Creative Dance Camp, and a Ballet Camp, which I am thinking of combining for all ages.

Today was the first day of our Hip Hop Workshop series. Both classes had five students, and Matt Steffanina taught a great class. Matt is a fantastic dancer and a dynamic teacher, and he really worked those students! The next workshop will be July 26th. I wasn't able to take his class today, but I am definitely taking it next time!

Lastly, I think I have finalized the fall schedule. It took so much finagling, and I may still have to make changes, but I have a schedule that I think will be really good for our first year! It's crazy, though, because even though I know I can make changes if I have to, it feels like once I tell everyone when classes are that I need to stick to it. And making a schedule with no idea of which classes will work best in which times is a tad nerve wracking! Ah, the excitement of the first year of being in business!

So those are my three things, and I'm sure I will have more as the summer progresses. Stay tuned! Pictures to follow as soon as I get my act together!

Choreography

2008-06-12T18:09:00.002-04:00

Last week was our second Homeschool Dance Camp, Creating Dances. The students had an opportunity to learn choreography techniques and then make up a dance of their own. Although I directed this camp, all the ideas that went into the dance, and all the choreographic decisions were theirs.

The name of the show was "All's Well That Ends Like a Fairy Tale." The Queen and her Princesses are having a ball with their fairy friends:

They all dance together:

Suddenly, the Queen and Princesses fall ill, and the fairies have to make a potion to try to make them better:

Luckily, the magic potion (made of a flower, a fern, and fairy magic) heals the royal family, and all join together in celebration:

This is a picture of the students after our little showcase on the last day:

We invited the homeschooling community and had a few other families besides those involved in the camp directly. The girls had a great time, and I loved watching the artistic decisions they made.

I am offering another choreography camp in August for all students ages 8 and up, and I have two signed up already, so I imagine it will run. I can't wait to see what the next group will create. Watching students choreograph for the first time is always inspiring to me, because everything is so fresh and exciting. It reminds me of when I would make up dances as a kid, and how much I loved it.

End of the Year

2008-05-21T09:46:00.002-04:00

This photo is of my oldest daughter (the short one without the pink face) backstage at her first dance recital. She was the littlest butterfly in a production of Little Red Riding Hood that a local ballet studio put on. I had signed her up for ballet knowing we were opening The Dance Barn because I wanted her to have a chance to take dance from someone else before she started taking from me. Ironically, I wound up teaching her class for the other studio the entire second semester.

Anyhow, the production was excellent, and it really got me thinking about how I want to structure the end of year performance next year. It will be our first one, of course, and so it will set the stage (so to speak) for future productions. Do I want to do a standard recital where each class does a different dance and they are unrelated in theme? Do I want to create some sort of story show (a well-known fairy tale, for instance) where the more advanced students have lead roles and the younger classes are, say, forest animals? Do I have the students pay for their own costumes that I order and then keep them, or front the cost of costuming myself, make them, and then keep them for future productions?

While I certainly have ideas about what I don't want to do, narrowing down what I DO want will be more challenging. I want to create a recital that gives the students plenty of performing time but isn't boring for the adults to sit through. I want to make dances that are interesting for people to watch.

I'm glad I have a year to plan this thing!

Social Dance Night (and an apology)

2008-05-13T11:36:00.003-04:00

Our Social Dance Night has been an outstanding success so far. We've had 15 or 16 people both nights and word is just beginning to spread. We are so thrilled with this turnout and are looking forward to building the event.

This picture is from our second class, and I have blurred faces (except for Mr T) because I haven't gotten everyone's permission yet. Anyone whose face appears here has given me the go ahead. I believe in this photo they are practicing an underarm turn in rhumba. Remember folks, it's never too late to join us on Thursday nights from 7-10 pm!

And finally, an apology for my slacker posting of late. I was so good for the first month, but we have been terribly busy (good stuff!) and it's easy to go to sleep at night instead of posting more photos of our amazing studio. But I will attempt to be more regular about posting again.

Stay tuned!

Dance Camp

2008-05-07T23:47:00.002-04:00

The theme of this week's dance camp is "Exploring Dance." While this one is a homeschooling camp, we will be running it again as a summer camp in July. Each day, the students get a brief history lesson in a particular style of dance, and then take a class in that style. So far we've done ballet, jazz, and modern. These photos are from the jazz class.

Tomorrow we do tap, and Friday is ballroom, which Mr T and I will teach together. It's been a blast planning this camp, and the kids seem to be having a good time. I will be interested to ask them at the end which styles they liked best and why. I am finding that music and speed make more of an impression than actual dance steps. So something upbeat to music they like is more fun even if the steps aren't exciting. But a fabulous combination to music they don't like doesn't hold their attention.

Just look at those faces! I couldn't ask for more enthusiastic students!

The First Week

2008-05-04T23:19:00.002-04:00

Totally unrelated photo again of my two older daughters, who begged me to take a series of them in dance poses "for the studio." This would be arabesque.

The first week of being open went really well, I think. Classes were fun, and we are still taking registrations so we may pick up a few new students this week. But the unexpectedly exciting day of the week was Thursday, when 16 people showed up to our Social Dance Night! (I promise to post photos soon, but they are on my sister's camera.) Mr T is such a great teacher (I hadn't watched him teach a group class in six years, and he's really come into his own as an instructor) and everyone who came said they enjoyed it and would come back. Several people said they had friends who were interested as well!

This week I am running a Homeschool Dance Camp. I didn't think I had enough students to run both age groups, so I combined them, but then I think I picked up a fe new students today, and so we may have eight in that class. I just went over the curriculum, and I am quite excited to teach this week. The students will get a class in a different style of dance each day, starting with a brief history and some photos to give them a fuller vision of the style. We're doing ballet, jazz, modern, tap, and ballroom, in that order. A dance sampler, if you will. I think it's going to be a blast.

First Day of Classes!

2008-04-30T08:00:00.002-04:00

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!

2008-04-28T11:16:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-25T11:04:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-23T16:32:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-22T00:15:00.001-04:00

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!!!

2008-04-20T11:09:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-18T09:25:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-04-17T00:39:00.002-04:00

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!!!

2008-04-15T23:01:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-14T14:07:00.003-04:00

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

2008-04-13T22:54:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-13T12:23:00.002-04:00

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)

2008-04-12T00:59:00.006-04:00

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

2008-04-10T13:28:00.005-04:00

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

2008-04-09T17:26:00.004-04:00

The lobby

More lobby

The studio

More studio

Back storage area

"Check..."

2008-04-08T17:46:00.003-04:00

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

2008-04-07T07:51:00.003-04:00

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

2008-04-05T15:19:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-03T21:17:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-02T18:53:00.004-04:00

(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

2008-04-01T10:38:00.004-04:00

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.

Where It All Began

2008-03-31T11:46:00.005-04:00

This is the original dance barn, a converted shed on my farm. (The Dance Barn sounded better than The Dance Shed, or the The Dance Shack, and the shed is right behind the real barn, so I figured it worked.)

I taught two sessions of classes this year which were open to our homeschool group and others we knew personally. We offered creative movement, jazz, and tap classes. The dance floor itself is only 400 square feet (think 12 sheets of plywood), there was no bathroom, and in the winter we heated the uninsulated building with a woodstove.

Needless to say, we are so happy to be moving into our 2,000 square foot space with a separate lobby and dance studio, two (!!!) bathrooms, and central air. More pictures and posts to come as I figure out how to use Blogger!

Welcome to The Dance Barn Blog!

2008-03-31T11:03:00.000-04:00

Hello world! Welcome to the official blog of The Dance Barn, LLC! This is a place where we can post events, information, and pictures from all our activities. I hope to update every day, especially right now as we are getting started. Please take a moment to check out the rest of our website at www.dancebarn.net to see what we have planned for the next few months.

If you are local to central Virginia, come to our Open House on Saturday, April 19th from 10 am to 3 pm. This is a chance to meet us, see our beautiful new studio space, take a sample class, see a short performance, and register for spring classes. There will be light refreshments and activities for kids.

Please check back soon for posts on how we got started, our dreams and goals, and of course, PICTURES!