End of the Year

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!