Saturday, February 5, 2011

A new semester

Blogging hasn't happened as 2011 got off to a busy start! After spending nearly 2 weeks visiting family up north, I launched into the spring semester of ballet classes, with all the work that goes into planning classes, scheduling and monthly newsletters, choreographing, ordering costumes and the 8 1/2 hours of actual class time teaching.

54 students are enrolled this semester, and they've been a joy to teach. From 4 year olds just starting out to 15-year-olds that I've been teaching for 4 years now, it's fun to see them learn and grow.

The theme for the May 13th recital is "Let the Nations Be Glad!" and it's been challenging and enjoyable to find costumes and songs to match with various countries in the world. We'll have about 18 countries represented through dance, and although the songs still primarily use ballet, it's been fun to try to give each dance some kind of flair from the country it's supposed to be "for." The dances for Africa, India, and Israel were particularly fun to choreograph, and YouTube has been a nice resource, to look up videos of dances from different countries, and try to carry over some movements into my choreography. 13 1/2 songs have been choreographed, which leaves me 6 1/2 to go, so during January and early February I've made good progress!


Tonight is the cast party for "The Manger Way." It's about time! :) We had originally set it for 2 weeks ago, but I had to postpone it when I came down with the flu. It will be good to see most of the cast (though not everyone can make it), share supper, and watch the footage of the presentation together.

Summer musical/plays are already in the works as well. Lord willing, I'll be directing two productions: one musical, called "Esther-Ordinary Faith" by Kathy Hill, and one play that I'm writing, called "Found at the Well." I just wrote the first 3 scenes of it this morning, and am excited about this look at the women changed by ordinary trips to the well: Rebekah, Rachel, Zipporah, and the Samaritan woman who met Jesus there.

Time flies by quickly, but it is exciting to see what God continues to do in and through The King's Courts!

2 comments:

  1. That is such a neat theme you picked. Israeli and African dancing is so much fun! I can't wait to see what costumes you use for them :)

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  2. Keep up the awesome work, Anna! Can't wait for the Plays :)

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