Amazin Grace Competition Team

Amazin Grace Competition Team 2014-2015 Excellent training, shining the Light, opening doors of opportunity.

About the Amazin Grace Competition Team The Amazin Grace Competition Team began in 2011 and while the team is still young, it has come a long way in just over three years. The Competition Team is a group of talented dancers who are dedicated and hard working team players. The Amazin Grace Competition Team strives for a positive learning and working environment for all team members and coaches at all times. Overall attitude and dance technique are weighed equally in our book and team members are able to create bonds with their coaches and fellow teammates that are positive, fun, and rewarding. The 2014-2015 year will be Miss Emily Cala s second year as a Competition Team coach and her first year as head coach. Miss Angelina Anzalone will be joining the team as a coach this year after teaching the Competition Team s Acro class and traveling with the team to competitions this past season. Miss Angelina and Miss Emily are both hard working choreographers and teachers and love the art of dance. Both coaches have many years of dance and competition experience and truly enjoy sharing their love of dance with students. The Competition Team is split into two groups: Sparkle and Shine. Sparkle works at an intermediate technique level and Shine works at an advanced technique level. Each team member must audition for the team and once they have made the team, they are placed into either the Sparkle or Shine (at the coaches discretion). The Competition Team at Amazin Grace focuses on dance technique in ballet, tap, jazz and most recently, modern. The team travels to two to three competitions per year and competes routines for each style of dance. Team members take one technique class and one choreography class per week for each style of dance. The team also has one stretching and acrobatic-based class weekly, as well as one conditioning class per week. These classes allow team members to increase flexibility and overall fitness in order to meet the physical demands of their weekly classes. The team will also have workshops based on different styles of dance throughout the year (ex: African dance, Musical Theatre Dance, etc.) in order to keep the team fresh and inspired. The 2013-2014 Competition Team competed in the Step Up 2 Dance Tour, at which they achieved five Platinum awards and two High Gold Awards. Shake Your Tailfeather, the Sparkle tap routine, was awarded 1 st Runner Up in the overall duo/trio category and will compete at the Step Up 2 Dance Tour National Competition in July. The team also competed at Showstoppers, at which they were awarded two Platinum awards and four Gold awards. Shake Your Tailfeather placed 1 st overall in the duo/trio category. The team s modern dance and the Sparkle ballet dance both placed 4 th overall in their categories, the Shine tap dance placed 3 rd overall in its category, and the Shine jazz routine placed 1 st overall in its category.

Competition Team Audition Information Where: Amazin Grace Dance Studio (6103 Robinson Road Lockport, NY) When: Saturday, July 12 th 9:00am to 1:30pm. Why should I audition? If you love dance and thrive on hard work and accomplishment, you should audition for the Amazin Grace Competition Team! Becoming a member of the competition team allows students to strive to meet many goals throughout the dance year while enhancing and expanding dance technique, as well as the aesthetic and performance qualities of dance. Members of the Amazin Grace Competition Team will experience achievement both individually and as a team, which helps to build character and allows students to make relationships with the coaches and other team members that are positive and rewarding. Amazin Grace Competition Team members will work closely with their coaches and teammates in order to enhance their dance experiences and their passion for the art of dance. Students must participate on July 12 th for the full duration of the audition in order to be considered for the 2014 Competition Team. Nobody will be allowed to view the auditions (parents, other family members, friends, other dancers, etc.) The studio will open at 8:30am. Please arrive early to stretch, warm-up your body, and fill out paperwork. There will be a lunch break at 12:00pm. During this time, we will be calling students in for individual interviews. Closing and pick-up is scheduled for 1:30pm. Results will be posted on the door of the studio by 2:30pm. (If a make-up audition date is scheduled, results will be posted after the make-up audition.) Who can audition? Any mature 7 18 years olds (may not turn 19 before the date of our last competition in May 2015). We encourage students to audition regardless of what they feel their abilities and strengths are; let us be the judges! No prior experience is necessary (This does not mean that all students who audition will make the team, but you won t know unless you try. )

What should I wear? Girls must wear a black leotard with tan tights. Ballet skirts or plain black dance shorts are optional. Hair should be worn completely off the face in a tight bun. This is to ensure that all dance steps will be executed without the distraction of hair getting in the way. We will not allot time for students to fix their hair, headbands, etc. since we will have a lot of material to get through so please come well prepared. Boys must wear a white t-shirt and black athletic shorts or sweatpants. **Please come prepared to dance in tap, jazz, and ballet shoes. Students should also be prepared to dance barefoot. (If you do not own any of the shoes you may bring whatever shoes you have or go barefoot.) ** What styles will be auditioned? All students will audition ballet, tap, and jazz. Placement: Accepted team members will be placed in classes and dances according to their ability overall. There will be 2 levels: Sparkle for intermediate and Shine for advanced. (The placement of the dancer is based upon the student s abilities overall. If the coaches see weakness in technical abilities in one style of dance, private or additional lessons may be required. This is based on the coaches discretion.)

Amazin Grace Competition Team Rehearsal Schedule for 2014-2015 WEDNESDAY CLASS 1 4:30 5:30 5:30 6:30 Acro & Stretch Angelina 6:30 7:30 Ballet Technique Angelina 7:30 8:30 Ballet Technique Angelina 8:30 9:30 KEY Teal Purple Green Sparkle (Intermediate level) Shine (Advanced level) Combined THURSDAY CLASS 1 CLASS 2 4:30 5:30 Tap Emily 5:30 6:30 Jazz Angelina Jazz Emily 6:30 7:30 Modern Emily & Angelina 7:30 8:30 Tap Emily 8:30 9:30 SATURDAY CLASS 1 CLASS 2 9:00-10:00 Modern Emily & Angelina 10:00-11:00 Tap Emily Ballet Angelina 11:00-12:00 Ballet Angelina Jazz Emily 12:00-12:30 Lunch 12:30-1:30 Tap Emily Jazz Angelina 1:30-2:00 Conditioning **NOTE** *Students will be placed into either a Sparkle or Shine level group based on technique level overall. If a student needs extra technique in a specific style of dance, private or alternative lessons may be required. ** The first Saturday of each month, classes will be extended until 2:30 for workshops in different styles of dance and related topics. (Every other month will be a classical ballet workshop, alternating with a FUN based workshop.)

Absences and Tardiness All students must attend all Competition Team classes, workshops, and dress rehearsals. Team members are allowed two absences throughout the 2014-2015 season in which they may be excused from without recourse. Any additional unexcused absences may affect placement and call for possible termination from the competition team. Team members are required to call the studio or inform a teacher in writing prior to the classes that will be missed. *Please note that all activities, competitions, and trips must be attended. If activities cannot be attended for a family-related reason, coaches will need to be notified. *Team members may be excused for injury/illness with a doctor s note, school activities that affect a students GPA with a note from school, or a family urgency. Being tardy or leaving class early is counted as an absence. Please call the office (when possible) if there is an urgent reason for coming in late. Weekday classes will be technique days and Saturday classes will be choreography days. If a student misses a Saturday class for either an excused or unexcused absence, it is the student s responsibility to catch up on the choreography she has missed prior to the next Saturday. Please know that as coaches who have many routines and a lot of material to get through, we take this very seriously. Please note that if you re early, you re on time and if you re on time, you re late! If class starts at 5:30pm, please arrive in PLENTY of time to be fully dressed with shoes on and ready for class to begin right at 5:30. Recurring tardiness will result in penalty such as sitting out of class or a note home to parents. If there is an issue regarding parents work schedules and/or carpool situations that results in frequent tardiness, please notify the coaches as soon as possible and we will work with you to the best of our ability.

Teamwear Each team member will be required to purchase the basic uniform (team jacket, purple leotard, black pants, black shorts). Any additional team-wear is available and optional based on the needs and wants of the students and parents. Order forms for all gear will be available in September. Team members must wear tan tights, black or purple team leotard, and plain black dance shorts to each class. Teammates must also have black Bloch, lace-up tap shoes, tan Capezio slip-on jazz shoes, pink canvas ballet slippers, and a pair of skin tone FootUndeez. The tap shoes and the FootUndeez are new shoe requirements (for the Competition Team only) this year. The FootUndeez can be purchased through discountdance.com (for the most reasonable price). Please look for Shoe Code for more information about where to purchase all required shoes on amazingracedance.com or ask the coaches for more information. Bloch Adult "TapFlex" Lace Up Tap Shoe Bloch Child "TapFlex" Lace Up Tap Shoe Capezio Kids Unisex "FootUndeez" Capezio Unisex "FootUndeez"

Other Expenses and Supplies Team members will be getting a make-up and supplies kit through Amazin Grace to use at all performances. Information on the cost of the kit will be given after auditions. Coaches will train all team members on how to apply their make-up and do their hair correctly, as well as how to help each other get ready for all performances. Team members (not parents) will be held responsible for getting themselves ready for all performances. We will also be ordering professional wiglets (hair pieces). Team members will go to performances with their hair in a bun and may attach or detach the wiglet as needed for each dance. Costs will be given out in September. Team members will be required to purchase (through Amazin Grace) a pair of pink seamed tights, and pink ribbons for their ballet shoes in addition to the set costume cost. *These specific tights will only be required for the actual performances.*

Fundraising and Volunteer Work Parents and students are responsible for all fees in relation to costumes and gear, classes, competitions, travel, and any other additional supplies. Students and parents are strongly encouraged to play an active role in fundraising to help lower out-of-pocket costs. It is VERY possible to fundraise a large portion of financial needs for the Competition Team; please don t let slight financial uncertainty hold you back! We appreciate and encourage parent and family involvement in all and any fundraising opportunities since the coaches are not responsible for planning all fundraisers. The coaches and Mrs. Kraft are willing to participate in parent-run fundraisers and we strongly encourage parents and students to take advantage of the many opportunities for fundraisers to be held at the studio as well as in the community. Team members will have personal accounts in which their fundraiser money will be kept for individual-based fundraisers (example: Easter candy sale). If it is a team fundraiser (example: a car wash) the money will be evenly split between the students who participated. The Amazin Grace Competition Team is about much, much more than just dance. In order to display the mission of the Amazin Grace Competition Team to the community, we will be participating in volunteer work throughout the 2014-2015 dance season. Please know that all volunteer work participation and attendance is just as important as all other team events.

Extra (and EXTREMELY EXCITING) Opportunities for This Year! WALT DISNEY WORLD!!!! This would be a showcase, workshop, and vacation opportunity for all Competition Team members and their families! Please keep your calendars flexible for the months of April-June of 2015 as we are still ironing out the details. We already have a lot of the activities, competitions, and trips planned for the year! We do a lot of hard work but we know how to have a ton of fun, too! (Work hard, play hard!) We place a strong emphasis on team-building and fun and there are many things we have planned for the 2014-2015 dance year that will help accomplish just that! The Competition Team 2014-2015 Outline will be posted on amazingracedance.com this summer and will also be available at studio registration. Feel free to print it out once it is posted to see all of the exciting things the Amazin Grace Competition Team has planned! Be prepared for a fun filled year with your teammates and coaches! Solo and Duet Opportunities This year, we would like to recognize our senior team members (students who have been members of the Amazin Grace Competition Team for 3 or more years) by making them eligible to be selected for a solo or duet to be competed at one or more competitions. There will be more information about these solos/duets in September. Please note that this will be optional for senior team members as they are selected since there will be an additional competition fee in order to enter the solo/duet. There may also be an additional costume cost if necessary.

Other Things to Consider Please know that any information we give out about competitions, performances, and other competition related events is subject to change at all times. This is because the information we relay to the students and parents is directly from the source (ex: Information about an upcoming competition comes directly from the competition s main website). If the information from the original sources changes, which it sometimes does, we will notify students and parents as soon as possible. Dance doesn t have to be only a hobby. For some, dance is a lifelong investment. Being part of a dance team opens not only windows, but countless doors of opportunity. Many dancers go on to dance in college and beyond, even if they have other career goals in mind. There is a huge amount of career paths that dance can be combined with that are very fulfilling and rewarding. There is so much more to the dance world than just being a professional dancer! We encourage all perspective Competition Team members and their parents to look into the many long-term benefits that the art of dance has to offer. Even if dance is more of a hobby for you, we would love for you to consider all of the wonderful skills and assets kids and teenagers can gain as a result of participating on a team such as this. The ability to accept failure in oneself and others and be able move past failure in a positive manner in order to reach achievement is a skill that translates into many different facets of life. We do not expect out dancers to be perfect (because who is?!). But we do expect that our dancers obtain the skills and discipline that will allow them to reach their full potential both individually, and as a team. Dance technique and personal character are held to the same standard in our book because it is very important for each team member to thrive and work in a positive, nurturing environment. There is a time to cry and a time to laugh; a time to grieve and a time to dance. ~Ecclesiastes 3:4 Sing unto the Lord a new song Praise his Name with dancing! ~Psalm 149:1,3

Amazin Grace Competition Team 2014-2015 Copyright 2014 (Written by Emily Cala)