The Director s Corner Ho Ho Ho and Happy December to All, 11750 B Metro Parkway Fort Myers, FL 33966 (239) 275-678 tdw.thefrontdesk@gmail.com What a wonderfully busy time of the year it is. Excitement fills the air as we begin to see the fruits of the labor of hard work pay off in our dance, families are getting together to share holidays, CP is readying themselves to compete, the studio is filled with laughter and excitement as our students prepare for Observer Week. The dancers are super pumped to share what they have learned and how much they have improved! Well, guess what? SO AM I! Make sure you have marked your calendars for your dancers classes and come enjoy seeing the fruits of their labors. Also, our end of year recital costumes have been chosen for each class and set. We hope you have chosen to be a part of our End of Year Spectacular, Love is All That Matters. If you have not, please make sure to see Ms. Margaret in the front office or Ms. Cheryl as soon as possible. As many of you may know, Ms. Nikki will be heading to FSU in January. I know we will miss her so much. I want to personally thank her for her hard work and dedication to TDW and our dance families. She fit right in and while it is very bittersweet to see her off, she will continue to be a part of our TDW family and a special part of my heart. Ms. Cheryl and Ms. Maria will be taking over the classes Ms. Nikki was teaching beginning January 9th. In other faculty news, I also want to welcome Abigail Cruz to our faculty as our new Hip Hop teacher! Abbie comes to our studio with a wealth of training and competition background and is just as excited to share her talents with us! She will begin teaching all of our Hip Hop classes as of January 9th, when our Ms. Taylor begins her full-time internship for the final stages of her college career. However, we are not losing Ms. Taylor completely. You will still see her on Saturday s teaching her ACRO classes! Speaking of Hip Hop, I hope you have had a chance to check out the fun our Adult Hip Hop class has been having! Such great exercise, fun, and no pressure! They have had a great time and we are looking forward to our next 6 week session which will begin January 9th, 2017! So as we bring our 2016 to a close, I want to thank each and every dancer and family for being a part of our dance family, and even more importantly, a part of mine. Words cannot express what this means. Your choice to be a part of TDW is a great one and you have my word that we will continue to strive to bring only the best and strongest training and support to your dancer and family! Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa and any other special tradition or celebration you may honor! We will see you back in the studio on January 9th, 2017. Merde Cheryl 1
December Upcoming Events December 12-17th: Class Observation Week December 12: 4:30 pm Thirty minutes of Having a Child in the Industry with Shaun Moe. This information session is for parents interested in learning about their children working in the entertainment industry. December 12: 5 pm FREE Musical Theater Class with Shaun Moe, ages 9 and up. December 18 th 31 st Winter Break STUDIO CLOSED January 2017 January 1 st 8 th : STUDIO CLOSED January 9th Studio Reopens January 9 th Adult Hip Hop 6 Week Session Begins. January 10: Adult Zumba with Q Begins Inside the Warehouse Monday December 12 th - Free Parent Informational Session: Having a Child in the Industry with Shaun Moe at 4:30pm Shaun Moe has been teaching dance since the age of 14, and has had the honor of teaching at studios from coast to coast. He was full time faculty at studios in Arizona and New York, having some students appear on SYTYCD. He has taught master classes in over 20 states and was a Power Pak guest instructor for 4 years as well. He studied tap with Gregory Hines, Jimmy Tate, and Ray Hesselink to name a few. Shaun was a summer apprentice for the NYC Ballet, a soloist with the Mohawk Valley ballet, and a principal dancer with the Flower City Ballet. Shaun also appeared on the National Broadway Tours of Crazy for You, Oklahoma and Monty Python's Spamalot. He was a public school music educator for the past 8 years. He is currently the new national director of Imagine National Dance Challenge. Free Master Class: Monday December 12 th - Musical Theater open to ages 9 and up Observation Week- December 12 th -17 th. The Dance Warehouse will ask parents to step inside the studio and learn see what their students learn in class! Maybe you will get excited about dance class and add on one of our adult classes? Who know?! 2
STUDIO CLOSED The Dance Warehouse will be closed from December 18 th until January 8 th for the holiday season! We look forward to seeing you again on Monday January 9 th for the brand new year (semester) of dance classes! We are excited to announce that we will be adding ZUMBA to our schedule when we re-open after the holidays in January! For those of you looking to spend time getting in shape after the holidays, now you can dance to the music and get your sweat on! So no need to just sit in the lobby, car or go back home while your dancer is in class! You can kill two birds with one stop, at TDW! Watch for further info on times for classes! PARENTS: Please remember our walls in the back are not soundproof. When you are observing in our hallways, we ask that your keep your volume to a whisper so as not to distract our students. We also ask that you please keep your children quiet in that area as well. Thank you! Teacher Spotlight Abigail Cruz was born in New Jersey, moved to Maryland, and started dancing for a production in Aberdeen Middle School, which started her love for dance. She began dancing and cheerleading at Aberdeen High School, learning different styles including Jazz, Contemporary, Pom, and Hip-hop. When she moved to Florida, she joined a competitive cheerleading team the Broward Elite All Stars where she learned to tumble and perform pom dancing at different competitions throughout South Florida. After graduating high school, she coached the Boca Jets for their football season. Here, she worked on coaching and taking beginners and experienced cheerleaders to competition at the University of Miami, even getting some of the girls their first award. As she grew, she continued on her own dance and cheer career with the Palm Beach Mako Cheerleaders, performing across West Palm Beach as well as an opening act for Vanilla Ice at a Toys for Tots charity event. She continued dancing with this semiprofessional cheerleading team for two years as well as keeping up with training in different styles such as ballet, hip-hop, jazz, contemporary, and flamenco. She performed these styles at Bailey Hall. She continued to improve her skills in Broward College s dance program, where she also taught children from ages 6-9 years old hip hop. During her most recent summer break, she spent training her dance skills at multiple studios even in Puerto Rico and performed at Broward College as well as performed at Premios Jueventud for the Daddy Yankee song "Shakey Shakey." She is currently transferring to FGCU for a major in Community Health as well as pursuing a minor in Dance Therapy. She hopes to grow more as a dancer and hopefully open her own dance studio in the future. Please welcome Ms. Abbie to our studio!! 3
Student Spotlight Congratulations to Kaylan Bunnell for being accepted to The Joffrey Ballet s Summer Intensive Program. By audition only, Kaylan was invited to attend their program and train with some of the top teachers in the world! Her first audition and she nailed it! We could not be more proud! Way to go Kaylan. Left: Kaylan with adjudicator Curtis Trix Pearson. Lexie Dorofeev and Savannah Duff received the "Best Group Musical" award at the District 6 Junior Thespians competition for their duet Some Things Are Meant to Be from the musical Little Women. Lexie and Savannah will perform in PLDMS s play A Mid-School Night s Dream, Dec. 14, 15, 16. Lexie and Savannah also both won seats in this year s Middle School All-County Band. Lexie won first chair, French horn, and Savannah won second chair, flute. Savannah will represent PLDMS in this year s All-State Honor Band. REFER A FRIEND If you refer a friend, and that friend signs up and pays for the month of classes, you can receive 50% off for one of your classes that you take for the month! CONNECT WITH US @TDW_FortMyers Tag us with #TDWFortMyers! 4
Inside the Classroom MS. CHERYL Lyrical II: We continue to work on technique and push ourselves to expand our flexibility so that our ability to increase our height in leaps and jumps improves. Combo I: These girls are making big strides with their skills and steps! I am super proud of them and all that they are accomplishing in both, ballet and tap! Combo II: These dancers are on fire! They are doing Buffalo s, Flap s with double heels, Change ment, Pas debouree, and so much more! I could not be more pleased with their grasp of the technique or the master of the steps! Adult Fitness: This group is still working hard and picking up new exercises, stretches, and flexibility skills every week! One of our participants is down 30 lbs in this year! Slow and steady, while increasing tone and muscle mass, strengthening core and increasing overall agility and balance is all a part of the class. Jazz II: This class is working hard on improving their skills and they are starting to see the fruits of their labor come to fruition. I cannot wait to see where they will go from here! Pre Combo: These classes are growing in numbers and doing so well in their class. They are mastering listening and following directions and learning how to jump, plie, releve, tendu', as well as forward roll, and bear walk! MS. NIKKI Tap II: We are emphasizing correct stature and technique for all our steps and specifically working on steps such as drawbacks, waltz clogs, cramp rolls, riffs, maxifords, buffalos, and paradiddle combinations. Pre Ballet: We are strengthening our knowledge of fundamental ballet terminology such as: plie', relevé, passe', arabesque, turnout, parallel, tendu glissade, sote s, and pas de chats. We are also memorizing correctly all of our positions 1-5, feet and arms and doing various steps in those positions. Pre Tap: We are focusing on learning different articulation techniques with our feet to ensure we have strong heel and toe sounds and separation as well as gaining strength in our paradiddles, cramp roles, shuffles and flaps. We are incorporating different rhythms as well. Advanced Leaps and Turns: We are focusing on cultivating technique in pirouettes on both sides (passe', coupe, pencil) with different arms, second turns, several leaps, leap and turn combinations, turning discs, combo turns, and extension/flexibility. Tap III/IV: We are focusing on clean, crisp sounds with quicker taps; combining multiple steps into a pattern and combination. Also, we are perfecting more advanced steps such as different pullbacks, wings, shigadeebops, riff combinations, turning buffaloes/maxifords, and different time steps. 5
Pre Jazz: This class is focusing on gaining more flexibility in all aspects, especially in our splits and extensions against the wall. We are also working on core jazz steps like chasse s on one side, switch chasse s, pivots, leaps, battements, chaine s, kick ball change, pique turns and pas de bourree'. Jazz III/IV: In class, we are emphasizing on gaining more flexibility and strength in every aspect. We are also working on perfecting different types of pirouettes and second turns with various arms and leg positions, combo turns, second leaps, reverse leaps, grande jete, turning discs, battements, tilts, leg turns and ponches. We are also working on incorporating our steps into combinations across the floor and in center with STYLE. Tap II: We are emphasizing correct stature and technique for all our steps and specifically working on steps such as drawbacks, pullbacks, time steps, cramproles, riffs, maxiford turns, buffalos turns, and paradiddle combinations. MISS MARIA Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced Acro: This past month in all of my acro classes, the girls have been able to work on more challenge and higher levels skills. They are continuing to master more and more skills and tricks each week. We also have been working on improving our flexibility with so stretching exercises each week. Beginning/Intermediate Leaps and Turns: For the past month these students in both levels have been continuing to work on the technique and skills needed to achieve different types of turns and leaps. We switch on and off every other week with doing either leaps or turns. This allows the students to work on just one aspect for the whole hour, soaking in all information. Pre Hip-Hop: The girls have so much fun coming to their hip-hop class. They have continued to work on all their skills and hip-hop moves that we are preparing for observation week. They can wait to show their parents what they've learned so far this year! Lyrical/Contemporary II and III/IV: In my lyrical classes for this month we, of course, focused a lot on technique across the floor. The girls were able to learn a combo that they got to work on and perfect. We also did A LOT of improve at the end of class. This allows the girls to dance in their own way listening to the music. MISS CORINNE Pre Ballet: These girls have such strong little legs! We have been working on the arms to match, learning how to hold the arms strong but not stiff. They are working on building strength in their core and back muscles. Their strength in flexibility is also improving. The students are finding that staying focused in this class has its rewards! Ballet I: There are some very nice arabesque lines from this class, which is what we have been we have been working on for this month. Our chainees are improving, so we were able to start pique turns. We are also building on ballet vocabulary, which is essential to any dance training. Overall flexibility is improving, which we will use for grand jete next month. Get excited! Ballet II: Nice clean pirouettes! We are seeing some double pirouettes and some double pique turns. Very often in this class, I hear a student say, I did it! All those promenades in passé are starting to pay off. We are still perfecting the "in between" steps, glissade and pas de bouree', so that they look clean when we incorporate them into faster and bigger combinations. 6
Ballet III/IV: This class has been working on the goals of promenade in passé, arabesque, and a la second. This difficult step builds strength for pirouettes in these positions. Their work has paid off in cleaner lines being held in their turns. We are making sure to always do fast degage s for nice footwork in small jumps, and fast footwork. We have started incorporating "epaulment" which is the use of the head arms, for that polished look in final performance. I have introduced the directional classic ballet terminology, Croisse' Eface' and Ecarte', which can be a bit confusing but these girls are getting it. MISS TAYLOR Hip Hop I: In this class we learned semi-slow combinations and later tested our comprehension by continuing with the combination in following weeks. Recently, we began working on simple hip hop tricks such as kip ups. Hip Hop II: Recently in this class we have begun working on tricks that could be applied to hip hop routines. We ve learned tricks such as kip ups and head springs. We also move through slightly faster combinations and test our ability to remember the combination the following week. Teen/Tween Hip Hop: In this class, we move at a quick pace with more advanced combinations that are fast and intricate. We learn choreography quickly and show peers soon after learning. Students work on tricks such as kip ups, head springs, partner stunts, and other advanced tricks. Adult Hip Hop: Similar to Teen/Tween Hip Hop, students in this class learn more advanced choreography and move at a fairly fast pace. We learn choreography at the desired pace of the class and review as much as necessary. We then perform the combinations in front of other classmates in small groups, soon after learning. Pre Acro: Students are currently working on basic skills such as cartwheels, handstands, headstands, and back bends. We are also focusing on improving our flexibility, primarily in our legs and back. Beginning Acro: Students in this class are working on tricks such as standing up from backbends, round offs, limbers, walkovers, and much more. We are working on slightly more intense flexibility training as well as strength to prepare ourselves for harder tricks. Advanced Acro: In this class, we are currently working on similar tumbling skills such as round offs, walkovers, and limbers. We are now working on incorporating a sense of control and cleanliness to each trick. Strength training is also an aspect of this class, as it is necessary for the more advanced tumbling skills. 7
Command Performance News On November 19th, Command Performance had the pleasure of performing twice at Jet Blue Park for the Fair at Fenway South! These girls have been hard at work on their competition routines and solo numbers and it was so nice for their family and friends to see it all! GREAT JOB TEAM! FACEBOOK PAGE With competition season in full swing it is very important that the CP page be a vital form of communication. Please check it frequently as we add information constantly. BALLET: A reminder to ALL CP team members: You are REQUIRED to be in 2 Ballet Classes per week! GPA Our dancers submit their grades to the front office and we are proud to announce the following dancers have FACEBOOK PAGE the highest GPA s on team. Elementary School Leila Frey Middle School Kiana Valett High School Jessica Zarza Keep up the hard work girls! With competition season in full swing it is very important that the CP page be a vital form of communication. Check that page, along with your emails, please. 8
IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS December December 1st: Shellpoint Tree Lighting. Ballet 3/4 Dances December 3rd: Rehearsal for Adrenaline December 9-11: Adrenaline, Orlando December 12: Free Parent Informational: Having a Child in the Industry December 12: Free Master Class Musical Theatre December 17: 2 PM CP Team Christmas Party and Reveal of Secret Santa January 2017 January 7/8: Rehearsal (Schedule coming) January 9: Studio Re-opens January 14: St. Andrews 1:30-3:00 pm January 21: Dress Rehearsal (Schedule coming) Happy Holidays and Blessed New Year From all of us at The Dance Warehouse! 9
If you are always looking side to side, you will never move forward! Dance Strong! 10