Well, the time is now upon us. Most of our classes have finished their dances and we will be putting on the final touches as we prepare for recital. In the next few weeks we will be sending out a finalized schedule for rehearsal and recital, complete costume lists, DVD order forms, registration forms for Fall 2011-2012, Performance Team Auditions, Summer Curriculum, and final billing statements, but in this newsletter we want to touch bases on some important items, and to inform you about some dates that we all need to be aware of.
1. We are attaching a master schedule for pictures with what each class needs to wear and when they need to be there. In the past we have done individual notes for each dancer, but we want to see if it is easier to keep track of everything if it is all on one sheet. Please note, dancers can wear their hair any way they want for pictures.
2. We will be holding all regularly scheduled classes through April 29th. It will be up to the individual teachers to decide if any of their classes need an “extra” class during recital week. Any extra classes or practices will be free classes to be better prepared for recital. It is imperative that all fees must be paid before recital in order for the dancer to participate. Please check your envelopes to make sure we are on the same page.
3. On Tuesday, May 3rd we will hold a practice for the classes that are dancing in the finale from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. in the big room of our studio. Creative Movement classes will not be dancing in the finale, and do not need to attend this practice. We need to have all of the rest of dancers at this practice to go over the timing for entrances and exits, as well as spacing. It will not be possible to do this during the dress rehearsal on April, so this will be the only time we can run the entire finale. (We will recognize our perfect attendance dancers this night but certificates will be handed out in classes instead of at this practice this year)
4. Rehearsal is on Wednesday May 4th at the Kirkham Auditorium in Rexburg beginning at 5:30 p.m. Each class will have their own rehearsal time for dress rehearsal, as well as a time to run their section of the finale. We will start with the youngest classes first and the older ones later. We have to start our rehearsal a half hour later then we normally have done, so we will be trying to only run each number one time. Our main goal is to help the dancers get acquainted with the stage and lighting set, not to “clean” the dances any further so please have your dancers practice at home.
5. Recital will be on Saturday May 7th at the Kirkham Auditorium. The dancers must be there absolutely no later than 4:30 p.m., and the 1st portion of the recital will start promptly at 5:00 p.m. We will start lining up the dancers @ 4:45 and it is imperative that the dressers have had time to become acquainted with their dancers and their costumes. We have dressers that will help in the dressing areas, and parents will drop off their dancers at their assigned areas, which will be posted at the entrances. We will have all of the Creative Movement classes perform and bow. Then we will take a brief intermission for parents to pick up these dancers. After this we will begin the 2nd portion of the recital
6. We will be handing out the rest of the costumes as soon as they are completely finished and paid for. We are still waiting on some final touches on costumes, and some accessories, but we hope to have them ready any day. If you have not brought in a costume bag, please turn them in immediately. Please try everything on and make sure that it all fits. We have made arrangements with Annette Young to make any alterations needed, and her number is 745-8248 or 351-1639. If you need anything taken care of this way, please make arrangements with her immediately. Please label every single item or piece of your costume in some way with your dancer’s name. Every year after rehearsal and recital we find costume pieces and shoes, and we have no idea who they belong to. We try to have costumes that can be worn to dance in class, as well as other things. However, this is not something we can always predict or guarantee. The most important thing is that they are able to wear them for recital. If there is any kind of a problem with your costumes please let us know immediately. We also have several dance shoes in our lost and found box, so check there if you are missing anything.
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7. We will begin pre-registration in the next couple of weeks with forms that we will be sending out, after pictures are over. We encourage early registration as it makes all the difference in where and when we can place students. We have had occasions where current students waited until the last moment to let us know they were planning on coming back, and we were not able to place them in the class they wanted. We will register current dancers first, until June 1st, at which time we will open it up to new student. As a thank you to current students and to encourage early preregistration, we will waive the registration fee entirely until June 1st! We will also be holding 2 drawings from all of those pre-registered, for students to receive a scholarship for one free year of lessons at the Rigby Studio, & two additional students to receive free dance shoes. The first Scholarship will be drawn for at the Recital from those who turn their registration in by Dress Rehearsal, and the 2nd will be drawn out on June 1st. Costumes, recital fees, shoes, etc. are your responsibility, but this will be a fun and helpful incentive to get registrations in early! We are also offering a policy of “by three get the fourth free”, for families that are registering more than three dancers, where they can waive the fees for their youngest dancer. Again, costumes, recital fees, etc. will be your responsibility, but we hope this will help.
8. We will be having the recital professionally video taped again this year and we are trying a new videographer who has some fun extras planned for his show. It will be available only on DVD. We will have order forms available on the next newsletter, at the studio before recital, at rehearsal, and at recital itself. All the information will be on this form.
9. Please make sure that your dancer has a copy of their music to practice with at home. We encourage you to come and video anytime as well. It is absolutely vital that all of the dancers are attend their classes. It is difficult for the individual dancer as well as the rest of the class, if someone is missing when we are trying to clean routines and finalize details. Please also be aware that spring fever begins to set in with the weather. It becomes somewhat difficult for the dancers, especially the younger ones, to focus on what we are doing in class when it is nice outside. We try to have new and interesting activities for them in order to keep their interest without taking away from recital preparation, but it is also important that all of the dancers are encouraged to practice at home and to keep a positive attitude. We can all tend to become somewhat tired at this point, and this time of year gets very hectic, but our main goals are to focus on their dance education while at the same time making Recital a fun and memorable experience for everyone, most especially our wonderful and talented dancers.
We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone ahead of time for making pictures a success. It can be a crazy day, but your support is incredible and we can’t thank those parents who helped with costume pieces, hair pieces, and props enough. We also want to acknowledge our amazing teachers and their efforts to make this a positive experience for everyone. Events like pictures, extra performances, dress rehearsal, and recital are all extra things that our teachers participate in without getting paid for, and we could never pull it off without them! We hope to have the pictures back in time to have them out during our last week of classes or by dress rehearsal at the latest.
There will be a lot of information coming out to you over the next few weeks, so please read everything, and feel free to call with any questions you have. We are so excited for recital and the opportunity for these dancers to share what they have been working on and learning with their friends and family. We are so proud of them all, and we think you will be also!
