Wii -ner

Thanks to all of you who contributed to the 08-09 Dance Fund for the wii giveaway.
In order for those that do not get chosen to have time to procure Christmas gifts – we gave it away today. There were 11 different contributors, all with numbers from 24-50.
I went to a trusty online random number generator to select the winner


With 5 of the 11 contributors as witnesses, the ‘Get Numbers’ button was pushed…

And the winner is…..

Tim Laird!!

Thanks again to all who participated.

Wii!!!!

OK ladies and gentlemen.

In an effort to generate some much needed revenue for the upcoming dance season I am giving away a Wii!

That's right, I said GIVING AWAY.

How do you become the lucky recipient of this technological wonder? It's easy. Just look over to your right a bit and you'll see the CHIP IN button on my sidebar. For every $10 donation you make you will get a number assigned by me. (I'll email you with your number). Once I've got 50 numbers, I'll use a random number generator online to choose the lucky number that will receive the wii. Easy, eh? So, donate!! My girls will thank you, and I will thank you, and you'll have a 1 in 50 chance to get a wii! If you want better odds, just donate more!

Dance placements

You may have seen the waiting mailbox post a few days ago. The days before and after dance placements for the coming year are recieved are very stressful. We love our studio and all the teachers and know that they do their best with placements and have the best interests of all the dancers in mind. The follow-up 'what teams are your girls on?' and 'can we carpool?' phone calls are at a frenzy for a couple days.

This is going to be a great year for the Berridge girls, although it might be a bit hard on Emily. Emily has been dancing for longer than Maggie has been alive. She takes it very seriously and has worked hard to improve herself in all disciplines over the years. She got great placements on 3 small groups - tap, jazz and ballet, and then large groups and lines also in tap, jazz, hip-hop and lyrical and will also be in the production number.
It was a bit difficult for her to see the dances her little sister was offered. Small groups again in tap and jazz, with a ballet added. The large groups to go with those as well, along with hip-hop and production. And here's the hard part...Maggie was offered a tap trio and solo. We are very excited for her, but it did take a couple days for Emily to come to terms with the hard facts, summed up beautifully by Aunt Stacey "Cute always trumps hard work."

Cue Tom Petty

Emily thought dance team placements for next year were supposed to be here by last weekend. I thought they were supposed to be mailed by the weekend. Either way, she'll probably be out there every half hour this afternoon.

The waiting is the hardest part...

Where have we been?

At the lake, of course!

We had a fabulous 4th of July weekend with our friends, despite some plumbing issues.
Jay was incredible and probably saved us a couple hundred dollars in potential holiday weekend plumbing fees.
I've reserved a copy of The Complete Guide to Mobile Home Repair at our library so we'll be prepared for the next crisis.

This week is dance auditions. A gruelling two weeks will follow, with the girls running to the mailbox each day to see if their team placements have arrived. At least Emily has camp for the first week, so her mind will be otherwise occupied.

Hair Hair!!

School is out.

Dance performances are done for the year.

Time for a fresh haircut!

Maggie went first.

This is before, of course

She complained the whole time that I told them to take too much off.

Here's the results. Healthy and shiny.

Mom was next. Here's before - frumpy dumpy

And after.

Let's use the summer humidity as a styling too.

Also note the V-neck Cedar Point suntan.

And here's the most drastic.

This chickie's hair was getting so long.

It was also very damaged due to all the dance ponytails and buns.
So...
How stinkin' cute is this?
Look how shiny and healthy it is.

And what a kid.

She made sure that they took 10 inches off

so we could send the hair in to Locks of Love.

Of course by the time we were done Maggie wanted to get

back in the chair and get hers chopped off, too.

Keeping the balls in the air

Here's my weekend -
Friday night
4-8 Dance end of year picnic/carnival
6-7:30 Maggie goes to birthday party of a friend (on Maggie's birthday. I warned the mother)
6-10 Em has school Bible study end of year hoo-hah

Saturday
8 am - Maggie soccer game - bring snack
10 am - Emily soccer game - team picnic after at assistant coaches house

Sometime Saturday I have to bake and decorate two cakes for the Family Partnership fundraiser for the Girl Scout end of year bridging/celebration at 6:00. And not forget to bring 2 crock pots, 2 coolers, rolls of tickets and the 'bridge' that's stored in my attic, plus all the cakes.

Between now and then I have to order two cakes from Costco (do I need 2 for 100 people?), come up with a 'carb' side dish for the dance picnic. Buy a birthday gift for Lindsey. Make a dozen leader thank you gifts. And somehow make Maggie feel special on her birthday - Friday.
We'll probably drive up to the lake on Saturday night right after the GS thing so I can decompress all day Sunday.

Stay tuned to see if I actually pull all this off!

Results!

The girls before the glam.


We made it through our first competition without a hitch. The new packing system was fantastic. The girls were great. We got there early enough to stake out a corner spot in the dressing room. And the girls were very pleased to find out that Uncle Chip was in the area and got to see all but a couple of their numbers.



Magpie back stage. Yes, the hair is fake.

We had a great day, then stopped for dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise with some friends. The girls were quite a hit when the live music started and they made their own dance floor.


Results follow for those that are interested. If you're not, you can stop reading here.


Each number is scored by the three judges and receives an award based on the combined total.


300-270 Platinum
269.9-260 High Gold
259.9-250 Gold
249.9-240 High Silver
239.9-230 Silver
229.9-220 High Bronze
219.9-210 Bronze
209.9 & Below Honorable Mention

For the record, we didn't see any High Silver or below awarded.


Also, if there is more than one entry for each dance style per age group, a First Place for that group is awarded.

Maggie's results:


A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes - Gold, 1st place
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Gold
Who Let the Frogs Out- Gold, 1st place
Bibbity Bobbity Boo- High Gold, 1st place

Emily's results:
Wild, Wild West - Platinum
I Saw Him Standing There - High Gold, 1st place
Sister Act - High Gold
The Green Room - Gold
Seasons of Love -Gold, 1st place
Hamster Dance - Gold, 1st place
Dance to the Music - Gold

Then all the different groups scores are compared, regardless of dance style, for the overall winners for 8 & Under and 9-11. None of my girl's dances made the over-alls, but our studio did pretty well. We were quite pleased that the studio was also given the Back Stage Performance Award for being good sports, making quick costume changes, and generally being nice to work with. That's why we love it there!

One other thing I wanted to mention. Our friend Katie L. is in a small ballet group. They made their entrance. Then the announcer told them there was a problem with the music and asked them to leave the stage for a moment. He re-announced them. They took the stage and the music began. After about 20 seconds the music cut out. But the girls kept dancing! They performed their entire piece, beautifully together, without music. It was very cool to see just how well trained and professional these young girls can be. We were all quite proud of them.

Almost ready

In the past two weeks I have spent most of my spare time at the dance studio.
I have:
rhinestoned
tacked
painted
rhinestoned some more
hemmed
trimmed off some awful hot pink tulle and silver ric rac and sequins which were replace with white lace and pearls, and rhinestones
made chokers
helped velcro a table skirt
rhinestoned some more
did I mention the rhinestones?

Em brought her last costume home tonight (see 'hot pink tulle', 'ric rac', 'tacked' and 'rhinestoned' above).
I've got checklists printed, garment bags packed, make-up and hair stuff ready.

I'm exhausted. And very glad I don't have to dance.
The nice thing was, because I wasn't home after work and my hands were busy, I wasn't snacking. I think I've lost a couple pounds.

Check back for results and some pictures on Sunday. (No not of my weigh in, of the dance competition, silly!)

Organization

The girls' first competition is next weekend. Last year with just Em, we had to transport 4 costumes with accessories (gloves, bows, yadda yadda), 2 pairs of shoes, make-up kit, hair stuff, jewelry, etc...


This year with two dancers we have 11 costumes with accessories, 7 pairs of shoes, 2 make-up kits, double the hair stuff, double the jewelry, etc., etc...


I actually bought a sturdy, double bar garment rack and a set of plastic drawers with the intention of mounting the drawers onto one side of the rack, putting all the costumes in separate garment bags, and all the shoes, make-up and hair stuff in the drawers. I spent about $50 on it.


But then I saw this...














It's at racnroll.com
Reviews I've read are very positive and say that the large holds up to 15 costumes. It costs about $125 and arrives within 1-2 days of ordering. Is the convenience of packing everything up and pulling it along with a handle worth the extra expense? I'm sure I could find someone that would want the rack I already bought.

Comments? Suggestions? Offers to come be my dance sherpa/make-up artist/hair dresser/costumer?

Preview

It was stage rehearsal day. All the larger groups practice on the big stage so they can get their spacing, entrances and exits down.


Maggie's two large groups are hip-hop and tap.

Check out this sick freeze!

That's her above, looking off to your left.

She was very exited that she got to try out her stage make-up, complete with false eyelashes. She said to write "Maggie likes it!"

Emily's large groups are hip-hop, tap, jazz, ballet and lyrical.

Maybe I'm just a proud mom, but I think she has really improved since last year.

Check out her arabesque in the center below. Great form, eh?

Here's a closer look.

And it begins...

Emily and Maggie attended the New York City Dance Alliance convention in Lansing this weekend. It was a very long weekend of workshops taught by some interesting people. Among them was Sabra Johnson, winner of So You Think You Can Dance.

The weekends from now until early June are pretty much booked with extra rehearsals, competitions, recital and Festival.

The shirt I found for Emily pretty much sums up our lives for the next 5 months:

She did it!

BODY LANGUAGE DANCE COMPANY IS THE BEST!!






Miss Casie got noisemakers for the kids and brought in markers, posterboard and all kinds of decorations for the studio.



















J.P. forgot that he needed to be there early, but showed up after a reminder phone call and loaned his shoes to Carter.

Thanks J.P.!

Miss Katy taught Carter a few basic steps, then taught them both a short routine to a Christmas song by Run D.M.C.


The audience voted....

And


My Kid Beat Carter!!

Thanks to 105.3 HOT FM and the Todd Chance morning show for coming out!!

Click this link to hear the contest:

http://www.toddchanceradioshow.com/TCRS%20My%20Kid%20Beat%20Carter.htm

My Kid Beat Carter

Well, not yet, but Monday at 6:00 Emily will be tap dancing against 105.3 Hot FM morning show guy Carter.
Miss Katy at Body Language Dance Company has graciously offered to teach the combo for the DANCE DOWN. J.P. has also agreed to let a stranger borrow his tap shoes. Stay tuned!