Dance Festivals- Behind the Scenes

My last post was on what goes on "officially" at Dance Festivals.

This post is about what goes on behind the scenes among the participants and parents.

There is talk, talk, and more talk.

Dance Festivals are great for networking,
for making friends,
seeing friends not seen in a while,
spending time with your own studio dance friends,
and, let's face it,
gossiping.

And, as hard as I try not to gossip, it's just so tempting at Dance Festivals.

Let's just say that gossiping helps to explain and learn about people and why they do things.

Through Dance Festivals and Summer Intensives, one learns just how small a world the dance community really is.

And, because of this, dance gossipers try very hard not to be vicious and try very hard to be kind.

I just love my dance parent network!

Dance Festivals

What goes on at Dance Festivals?

First, it is NOT a Dance Competition.

Dance Festivals are put on by a group of dance studios in an area or region that come together once a year.

There are about four different events that happen at Dance Festivals:

1) Auditions for Ballet Summer Intensives
(More on this subject at a later date.)

2) During the festival, professional dance companies come as entertainment and to enlarge our horizons on the definition of "dance."
(There may be more on this subject at a later date.)

3) Professional dancers and dance teachers from around the country are invited to teach dance classes.

This year my children got to take some of their classes from Leslie Browne.

Note: The intention of this blog is not to name "names," nor is it to "name drop."

However, one of the reasons I fell in love with the art of ballet as a child was Mikhail Baryshnikov.

And, I loved the movie, Turning Point, with Baryshnikov and the young, up-and-coming ballerina, Leslie Browne.

So, back to the Dance Festival:

In order to defer my cost of attending as an observer, I volunteered to help.

My job was to take roll and make sure that the instructors had everything they needed.
(And, I got to help in Leslie Browne's class- twice.)

Volunteers were also so supposed to ask the instructors if observers were allowed to take pictures during class.
(Which Leslie Browne was so very nice about.)

Students took one and a half hour long classes in a variety of dance genres (ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, Hip Hop, etc.) -
on Saturday, they took three classes
and
on Sunday they took two classes.

4) Dance Showcase
of the participating dance studios'
Festival participants
(In other words, in order for a dance studio to have a dance number in the Showcase, the dancers in the number had to attend at least one class in the Festival.)

Oh, and least I forget, there definitely will be photos added to this post, as soon as my son helps me (which will be in the next few days!)