Dear Parents/Pupils,

I have included the information that was sent out regarding the show, so that you can check the website at any time.

As always, please contact Miss Louise if you have any questions.

I am pleased to announce that the Box Office is now open, so you may now purchase your tickets for the forthcoming show “Dance into Spring” at The Brook Theatre, Chatham on the 29th and 30th of April.  Please use the following link to buy your tickets.

http://medwayticketslive.co.uk/

Tickets are purchased through The Brook Theatre Box Office and I have no control over who purchases these tickets, it is also on sale to the general public.  Last years show was a sell out on both nights and I had some families who thought that they could purchase tickets on the night.  You can do so if there are still tickets available, but once they are gone, they are gone and there is nothing I can do to magic more seats, so please book early to avoid disappointment.  Whilst we are discussing tickets, all of the younger pupils in the school are only performing in Act 1 of the show, so that it is not too much of a late night for them.  However, if you wanted them to watch the 2^nd Act of the show, you would need to purchase a ticket for them.  This is a theatre rule for health and safety reasons, so please bare this is mind when purchasing your tickets.  To clarify, if your child is only performing in Act 1 and you would like them to watch the older pupils perform in Act 2, you will need to purchase a ticket for them for the second act.  Of course you are welcome to leave them backstage.  I just wanted to inform you before you purchase your tickets.

There will however not be a professional and successful show unless we all pay careful attention to all of the information listed below:

•      Date of show – I am still having parents and pupils ask me when the show is!!!!! Please write this in your diaries with the timings.  The dress rehearsal is 6:30pm on Monday 28th April at The Brook Theatre Chatham.  Please arrive for 5:00pm. (Secondary school pupils please arrive as quick as you can.) The show dates are the 29th and 30th of April at 7:30pm.   Please arrive at The Brook Theatre for 6:00pm.

• Hair will be in two French plaits throughout the performance as it was the last show, so please start practicing those or making arrangements for someone to do them if you can’t do them yourselves.
• Please make sure you know the times of the Tuesday nights rehearsals as they change from week to week now (the rehearsals now take place at Snodland Community Centre, as per the email sent out in October last year.

All rehearsals below take place on Tuesdays at Snodland Community Centre.

Tuesday 25^th February 5:45-6:45pm                         All in Finale

Tuesday 4^th March 5:45-6:45pm                                All in Finale     (including adult tappers)

Tuesday 11^th March   5:45-7:15pm                       Act 1 Run Through

Tuesday 18^th March   5:45-7:15pm                           Act 2 Run Through

Tuesday 25^th March    5:45-7:15pm                Act 1 Dress Rehearsal

Tuesday 1^st April          5:45-7:15pm                Act 2 Dress Rehearsal

• The running order for the show can also be found below, I have included the lesson time on the right hand side incase you are unsure of your child’s dance title.  Please make sure that your children know their own running orders so that they know their own costume changes.

Dance into Spring Running Order

Act 1

Copacabana                                                                                                   Advanced Jazz (Friday 7:45)

Busy Doing Nothing                                                                         Pre-Primary Ballet (Saturday 10:30)

April Showers                                                                                 Primary  & Grade 1 Tap (Monday 5:00)

Breaking News                                                                                           Senior Street (Thursday 6:00)

How much is that Doggy?                                                                   Baby Ballet (All classes)

When I Grow Up                                                                                        Primary & Grade 1 Ballet

Good Time                                                                                                     Modern Funk (Saturday 11:00)

φυλής χορός                                                                                         Grade 5 Modern (Thursday 6:30)

Game Over                                                                                                     Grade 3 Tap (Friday 5:45)

Can You Feel It?                                                                                          Primary Modern (Monday 5:30)

Home                                                                                                                Emily Wells

Land of Hope and Glory                                                                        Grade 3 Ballet (Friday 5:15)

Act 2

Stomp                                                                                                               Grade 5 Tap (Friday 7:15)

The Sound of Music                                                                                 Musical Theatre (Thursday 5:00)

El Tango De Roxanne                                                                                                Pointe (Thursday 7:00)

Car Wash                                                                                                        Grade 1 Modern (Thursday 4:00)

Feeling Good                                                                                                Lyrical (Friday 6:15)

Best Song Ever                                                             Junior Street(Thursday 4:30 & Saturday 10:00)

Sparkling Diamonds                                                                                Adult Jazz (Monday 7:30)

Swan Lake                                                                                                      Grade 5 Ballet (Friday 6:45)

Ease on Down the Road                                                                        Grade 4 Modern (Friday 4:45)

Steam Heat                                                                                                    Adult Tap (Monday 7:00)

Living Dolls                                                                                                   Advanced Street (Thursday 7:30)

Finale     Full Cast (Except Baby Ballet, Pre Primary               Ballet, Primary Ballet, Primary Tap,                                          Primary Modern and Modern Funk)

• As you are aware, I try my very hardest to get the costumes as cheap as possible and have worked tirelessly to ensure that this is the case, I have spent time sourcing fabrics and replicating costumes from some of the expensive suppliers who are sometimes £100 per costume to try and keep the costs as low as possible. To help with keeping the cost of costumes low, some dances you may be able to use clothes that you already have, or be able to source the items cheaply from inexpensive shops such as Primark.  The last show that we performed we did a Blues Brothers finale, so I purposely picked a Michael Jackson finale for this show, so that all pupils can use their black trousers from the last show and they will hopefully be ankle swingers by now.  You can also use the black hats from the last show.  To clarify for everyone and for pupils that have joined the school since the last show, the costume for all pupils that have been rehearsing on a Wednesday night, for the finale will be required to wear the following costume:

Finale Costume

Black Trilby Hat, Plain White T-Shirt (No Logos or anything on it), Black School Trousers (to be short in the leg, to show off socks underneath), black braces, plain white socks and black JAZZ SHOES (NOT JAZZ TRAINERS).  For pupils that wore the braces in last years show, you may wear these braces.  For those who DO NOT have a hat and braces, you must purchase these through me so that they all match.  If you require any of these items (hat, braces or jazz shoes) please let me know immediately, so that I can add your name to the order.  If I don’t hear from you, it will be assumed that your costume is ready.

All senior pupils that have been rehearsing on Thursday nights have already been informed of their costume.

Breaking News Costume

Again to try and keep costume prices down for parents, all pupils that are performing in the dance Breaking News (Thursday Street class at 6:00pm) can also wear the finale costume for their street dance class, as there is a Michael Jackson song in their routine.  Pupils can wear black trainers for this dance rather than black jazz shoes (jazz shoes must still be worn for the finale)

Best Song Ever Costume

Pupils in the street dance routine Best Song Ever (pupils who attend the street dance class on Thursdays at 4:30pm and Saturdays at 10am) have the colour scheme GREEN and PURPLE for their dance.  This way it keeps the cost down, as you may have items of clothing at home in these colours.  It can be anything in these colours including shorts, combats, tracksuit bottoms, jumpers, hoodies, T-Shirts etc.  Can I please ask that you discuss what your child is wearing with other parents, so that there is a real mixture (For example, if everyone wore green tracksuit bottoms and one person wore purple, it would look as if that one person had worn the wrong colour, so there needs to be a real mixture.  The colours should be bright green and purple, not a dull khaki green.

Stomp Costume

All pupils in Stomp (Grade 5 Tap) will be required to wear scruffy clothes as if they are a builder (jeans, dungarees, scruffy shirts etc).   I have purchased a galvanished metal bin for all of the pupils, you now need to provide your own WOODEN broom (B & Q sell them), NOT plastic and your other prop is your pan or salt and pepper mill (each pupil knows what they require), these props must be brought in as soon as we return after the half term break so that pupils can start practicing with them.

Game Over Costume

All pupils in the Game Over Dance (Fridays 5:45pm) have tried on their costumes and are working with their props in class.  The only other part of the costumes that you are required to supply yourself are dark denim jeans, not jeggings, but JEANS.  If you need to purchase these, please bring them into me so that I can check them, before you cut off any labels.

The Sound of Music Costumes

All Musical Theatre pupils will be performing songs from ‘The Sound of Music’, so they need to be wearing old fashioned style costumes.  Here is an image, to give you an idea, so you may be able to adapt previous costumes they have worn.  As you can see there is to be no bright colours, only subtle colours.

Most costumes have already been tried on in class, if they haven’t been tried on, they will be tried on next week.  As soon as I have made sure that all of the costumes fit and can confirm the costume for each dance, I will send out a costume price list.  The costumes will need to be paid for promptly, so please make sure that you pay when you receive this email.  For those of you who have been doing costume savings schemes, I shall speak to you all individually incase there is a shortfall or you are in credit.

• The souvenir show hoodie is now ready and can be purchased from me for £26 for children hoodies and £30 for adult sizes.  The dance school tracksuit bottoms are also on sale for £17 for children’s sizes and £21 for adult sizes.  Sizes are available from age 3-4 and go up to an Extra Large Adult.
• There will be lots of information that I need to get to you from now and until the show.  Please visit the website and on the home page you’ll see an orange symbol next to the Facebook logo.  If you click on this RSS Feed symbol, you will be notified whenever I add to the News & Events Page which is where I will add show information. Please check your emails and the website regularly.  I will also update the Facebook page often as this is a really quick and easy way for me to get information to you, so please ensure that you have ‘liked’ the page and visit it regularly so that you stay up to date with all of the information.  Please click on the link on my signature of the email to make sure you’re kept up to date.
• Once costumes have been paid for and they are handed out, can I please ask that you make sure that all of your costumes are named (in a place not visible to the audience).   This includes dance school tracksuits, I was a failure to my own words last show and didn’t name my dance school hoodie, unfortuanetly, someone took it home with them and it was never returned, so it really is very important that everything is named.
• If anyone has ANY questions no matter how small regarding the show, please ask me immediately.
• Show notice board. 

I shall be taking a show notice board to dancing with me.  Please make sure you read it.  It will have every pupils name on the board, please make sure that the spelling is correct, as this will be the spelling for the show programme and show DVD credits.  Please tick next to it if the spelling is correct.  I urge that you do this asap as the programmes will be printed soon.  If the spelling is incorrect and isn’t changed then in will be wrong in the programme.

• Helpers – The show will be unable to go ahead without helpers backstage, please write your name down on the board if you can help backstage.  Thank you in advance for offering to help!

All pupils in the Finale

Can I please ask that all pupils in the finale learn the words for ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ (found below) as they will all be required to come on for a ‘mini finale’ at the end of Act 1.  So to clarify, everyone who has been learning a Michael Jackson finale dance, will be required to learn the words below.  The costume for this dance is the dance school T-Shirt with the dance school tracksuit bottoms, or black jazz pants on the bottom, with black socks and black jazz shoes.  Please let me know if you need to order any of these items.

Land of Hope and Glory Lyrics

Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet,
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.

As always, please let me know if there is anything that you are unsure of, but please make sure that you know where and when your children need to be and if there are any costumes that I have listed above that you need me to order, please let me know straight away, so that I can order them.

If your costume hasn’t been mentioned, it has been ordered and you will be informed of the price ASAP.

Thank you for your support, it means a lot at this rather stressful time for me.  It will all be worth it!!

From

Miss Louise