Jazz on Tap

 Eliza and I attended the Jazz on Tap Dance Convention in Marietta, Georgia.  This was our first time and we both really loved it.  The first night was a performance night, so Eliza performed 4 numbers, and I had 2 of my dances that I choreographed perform as well.  We started out with a rehearsal on stage about an hour and a half before the show.  Ms. Christine got this great shot of Eliza's group rehearsing their first dance for the show.

Pretty quickly after, the girls got ready to perform.  They were scattered about in a 43 number show.  It was pretty long but hopefully the audience was well entertained.  To get each group onstage it was a good little walk down the hall, down the stairs, through the commons area, down another hall to finally a hall that lead to backstage.  We did this all night, each teacher taking a group down, waiting, watching, performing and then back up.  I made the mistake of wearing boots with a heel.  Had I known!!!  

Here are my two classes that performed:
 "Wings" Teen Elite Jazz
 "When Can I See you Again"  Junior Force Jazz
Both groups did an awesome job!  I was especially proud of Force because they had shown the most improvement since the beginning of the year.  I was so happy.

Teen Elite

Junior Force

Tammy left Christine and I to handle the production number.  It was totally fine and we were glad to do it.  So this is how it went.  A production number by the way is a dance that involves all the company kids and a big prop and smaller props.  It's usually to several cuts of many songs and is longer than a typical dance.  Our prop was a boat, perfect for the theme and title, "Sea of Life."  Christine and I had to make sure all the kids were with us and with their group as we walked down, make sure they waited quietly in the hall and get them to their places on either side of the stage in the dark backstage.  Then in the complete dark, Christine and I dragged the huge boat and put the pieces together onstage.  Not quite sure why they didn't give us an ounce of light to do this in.  Good thing when the lights came on it was perfect.  We wouldn't know until then!  The girls did great and the audience loved it.  Here's a picture of the costume.  It was more than adorable.  All the girls loved it!

The red lipstick made the whole costume!  The production was the closing of the show, so after we got the girls back upstairs to their dressing room to meet their moms, got the dressing room cleaned up, raced to take a picture with the family and then down to the stage again to load the boat in the truck off the loading dock.  So glad Randy was there to help.  To make the evening even more exciting, everyone in the theater was pretty much gone and we couldn't find Randy's keys to the car.  Luckily after some searching and prayers, we found them.  Thank heavens!  We got home after 11:00 pm.  We were happy to go to bed. 

Day 2 for Master classes coming up next. :)