Rory's First Dance Class

Today was a big day. Today was Rory's first "dance class."

Let me explain.

I give private lessons through out the summer to kids who request them in certain areas. Today I did two, one in acro and one in tap to a brother and sister. Their younger brother, Eric, will be two next month and his mom wanted him to get a little tap time in as well. Rory joined the "class." I thought it would be less intimidating for both of them to do it together.

Eric was hilarious in his tap shoes, running back and forth. He did about 2 shuffles and that was enough for him. That's what we expected, of course. His mom gets it. :) Rory on the other hand...stood patiently at the wall, did her shuffles, her marches and her toe taps. She was SO SAD when it was time to be done. She wanted to "keep going, Mama! Keep doing my shuffles!"

To say I'm proud is an understatement. My girl wants to tap. And that's a blessing!

Recital Pictures

Pictures copyright Hemdal Photography, unless noted. :)

Our theme was BOOKS. Every song was named after a book. I'll let the pictures do the talking...


Advanced Pointe: Harry Potter (Hedwig's Theme)


Advanced Hip Hop: Lady Gaga Little Monster Mix (Disco Stick, Alejandro, Bad Romance)


Advanced Ballet: The Diary of Anne Frank (Theme from Schindler's List)


Lyrical 3: Around the World in 80 Days (Married Life from Up)


Rory doing here "solo" onstage before the recital started :)


Kick: Biography of Will Rogers (Our Favorite Son from The Will Rogers Follies)


Myself and the "staff" :)


Tap 3: The Great Gatsby (The Hot Honey Rag from Chicago) Taken from the light booth by my dad. Our set was 36 feet wide and 12 feet tall! A labor of love...ahem.

Just a few moments from a year of hard work...

The Recital

My recital is done. Wrapped up and done. The sets are torn apart, the stage is clean, the costumes are put away. I've washed off my makeup and taken out my bun. For this year, I am done.

This was the hardest recital weekend I've had thus far. Last year was extremely trying emotionally, I had to say goodbye to five amazing seniors and lost a dear friend in the process. This year...this year was it's own set of challenges.

Saturday is always dress rehearsal and then an evening performance for my studio. We hold our recital at a Pitt campus about half an hour away from our hometown. It's a WONDERFUL facility, staffed by great people. This year's dress rehearsal was the WORST. Injuries, messed up music, the slide show was all wrong...it was just awful. I am not exaggerating, one of my alumni actually told me she was nervous for us! At one point, I was dissolved in tears backstage, sobbing to my mom about music problems. It was bad. Just. plain. bad.

BUT.

I run a Christian studio. It's no secret. I cover the studio in prayer all the time and have many prayer warriors who stand with me in prayer. I called upon my prayer warriors, near and far, and they lifted me up when I couldn't do it myself. I cried in the bathroom to a dance mom and she looked me in the eyes and told me "Kate Rebecca. YOU are doing what God wants you to do. You do the best you can and that's all that matters. Let. it. go."

She was right. I needed to trust that it would work out.

It did.

Our sound guy (a 19 year old college kid who's sister and brother dance) "happened" to have his laptop in his car and it just "happened" to have the same CD program on it. I used it on the break to make brand new CDs with the music on it correctly. Problem solved. HUGE problem solved.

Missing costumes? Found. Shoes? Located. Dancers? Present. Through some hard work and intense team work, we straightened the whole thing out. It was a testament to the good people I am BEYOND blessed to work with. They stood with me when I couldn't stand up on my own. It worked out, because I learned that it was important to ask for help. I can't do it alone. And I don't have to.

Being a mom of two is TOUGH. Being a mom of a baby and a toddler? SUPER TOUGH. Being a mom of a baby and a toddler and owning a business? YIKES. I don't need to try to be super woman though. I need to ask for help because they are more than enough people who want to help! My lesson has been learned. I'm asking for help from now on.

The weekend wasn't all sunshine and flowers from there on out. There was a (rather nasty) run in with a parent, some misunderstanding in how I discipline/reprimand my students and some small things here or there. But I took it all in stride and I'm not letting the negative get me down. It's time to focus on SUMMER DANCE! :)

Picture posts through out the week. If you are on Facebook, search Hemdal Photography. That's my Aunt Barb's (awesome) Photography business. She has tons of action shots up on there! :)

I Love Dance

I'm not going to be around this weekend. Why you ask?

Well, I'm taking 29 of my favorite students (and 6 adults dancers!) to our big competition of the season! I LOVE DANCE in Pittsburgh. I'm so excited I can't stand it! We started preparing in July for this year's competition season and it has really paid off. My kids look great! They aren't perfect, but they are perfectly right where they need to be. 99% of them have logged hours and hours of hard work, long days and nights in the studio, putting up with me and my two assistants constantly stopping and correcting them.

Hard work pays off. They look great!

I'm sure I will be tweeting updates through out the day on Sunday. (@567k8) The entire competition takes place on Sunday. Usually it's at least 2 days, sometimes even three. This time though it's all on one day. Convenient, but hectic! I have to be in the ballroom at 6:45 am and final awards start at 9:15 pm. I have 28 dances performing. Solos, duets, groups, every size imaginable! Even my adult tap class is competing this year. :)

All this is to say...things will be quiet around 567Kate this weekend and Monday. I'm praying everyone on my team stays healthy and well, energetic and excited. It's a big deal to these kids and they deserve a great weekend!

Hope this weekend brings you all sun, warm weather and relaxation. :)

Pour Your Heart Out: Balance

Today, I'm linking up with Shell over at Things I Can't Say, again. I've done this one quite a few times in the past and today happens to be the one year anniversary of PYHO. Check it out, it's like group therapy. :)


I am self employed. I am the only employee of my studio. I have 2 adults (hi mom!) that voluntarily teach a couple hours each week, because they love kids and dance. I have 3 high school girls who teach a class each week for community service hours. My parents clean on Saturday mornings for me because I don't have time to do it anymore. But I do everything else. EVERYTHING else. All the bookwork, budgeting, computer work, papers, handouts, website management, music finding and editing, recital planning, costume ordering, taxes, everything else. It's actually really enjoyable.

When I have time to get it done.

Right now, there is a HUGE pile of tuition waiting to be entered into the computer, competition entries ready to submit, warm ups to be ordered and jewelry sets to be tallied and filled. My taxes need finished and submitted. The April newsletter needs done, the website needs updated for the recital, recital handbooks need typed, printed and assembled, recital shirts need designed and a price quote, the set needs designed, cardboard needs ordered, a projector needs to be found. I need to call a real estate agent and I need to spend a whole lot of time in prayer about a big, huge, awesomely exciting opportunity I have for next year.

Let's not forget the competition team's trip to Disney next year.

Right now, as all this work is piling up, my son is crying, Rory is telling me she needs to pee-pee on potty and I have a sinus infection.

Running a business is never easy. Not for one second is it easy. It also doesn't make me a ton of money, contrary to popular belief. (ahem) It comes with lots of self defense, because people loooove to talk smack about me. It comes with more stress than you can imagine. It comes with times of absolutely NO income because the studio needed all the money that month. I haven't raised my prices since 2007, because of this craptastic economy. I mean, if people have to cut back, dance class is high on the list to cut. It's definitely a want, not a need.

I am struggling to find balance in this new life of business owning mom of 2. With Rory, I fell in to a rhythm pretty easily. It wasn't all that much different, I just worked during her naps and stayed up a little later. This time around, I feel like I am running on ice. I'm moving my feet as fast as I can and I'm not getting anywhere.

I want to balance my business and my family so that each gets the time they deserve. Obviously, family comes before business. That would be why my work is so backed up. I'd much rather play with Rory and rock Trace to sleep than work on my Schedule-C. I mean, who wouldn't?! But there comes a time where I have to say STOP. Daddy needs to help me out, I have to be a business owner now.

And you know what? It's not going to get any easier. My kids will always need me in different ways that will "interfere" with my studio. I will miss Trace's soccer or basketball or whatever games at times because I just have to work. I won't be there for homework time most nights. (Scary thought!) My kids will just have to adjust and that's okay. It has to be okay.

It is what it is. And it will be fine.

Teaching respect and modesty.

Yesterday, I found out that some former students of mine who now go to a different dance studio are talking really badly about me and my studio. As in, typical middle school nasty talking about things they don't know anything about type of talking. Honestly, I don't let it get to me because I'm 26, they are all around 13. I own a business, they are in middle school. I make my decisions based on the philosophy of my studio. They can pick whatever studio they like to dance at, it's their choice. I'm glad they are happy and that's fine. I've NEVER opened my mouth about other studios to my own students because that's just poor taste. Other teachers in my area do not seem to adhere to that same rule, but again that's their own decision. I choose to keep my mouth shut and save my drama for my mama! :)

What gets to me though is that no one is teaching these girls respect. I try to teach my students that they are to be respectful of other studios in the area, complimenting them on things, being polite and supportive if they go to a recital, that kind of stuff. I'm not crazy, I know my girls probably gossip and bad mouth other studios at school but it doesn't happen in my studio. It just doesn't. We haven't even talked about the fact that these students left for another studio one time this year, because frankly it doesn't matter. I tell my students picking a studio is like picking a hair dresser, gotta find your best match. Of course I hope it's Studio K, but it might not be. That's OKAY.

Respect is a big part of my dance studio. I try to teach them to respect each other and respect themselves. I've gotten on my dancers cases before for being rude to their parents (you would not believe how I've heard some kids talk to their moms!), rude to each other, rude to me. They need to speak with respect and learn to communicate their problems. I know that teaching 140 girls and 2 boys is, of course, going to lend itself to drama and gossip, but I'm trying each day to teach them to, if nothing else, think before they speak.

Respect for themselves...that's such an interesting point. One of the HARDEST parts of being a dance teacher is choosing modesty in costumes and dance moves. Most Some dance teachers don't care.

I'm sure you've seen the video this screen cap above came from. 5 little girls (ages 7 to 9!) dancing to Single Ladies. Great song, lots of potential for a great dance. These girls are AWESOME dancers, super talented and extremely technically correct. The problem though...the costumes! What?! "Burlesque" is a very lenient description of what they are wearing. The moves are totally inappropriate for elementary kids. Little girls should be dressed like little girls. End of story.

Modesty is a dying trend. I'm not asking my students to be "prudes," I'm just asking them to cover up the important parts. (ha!) They all wear body liners under their costumes. That's a flesh colored leotard that covers them so no matter where they have to change or what costume malfunctions might occur, they are safe. :) We don't do bikini style costumes for lots of reasons. The biggest one is I'd have angry dads chasing me down if I put my girls in that type of costume. Bra tops are NOT dance costumes, people. I also am very conscious of my dancers' body types. Not everyone is able to wear bra tops and look good. I never would have been able to in high school because of my large chest. I would have been so embarrassed if my teacher had picked an outfit in that style. ALL my dancers who are in middle and high school have body image issues. Putting them in a skimpy bra top and tiny shorts or a skirt is only going to enhance those issues. They will spend more time worrying about how they look and if they are "jiggling" then thinking about their dance.

It's not okay to put kids on stage in less than a bathing suit. It's not. A dance teacher has a responsibility to her students to choose appropriate costumes. It's is my job to demonstrate that they can look pretty and dance beautifully in modest, appropriate costumes. It is unprofessional and irresponsible for me to choose anything less. I owe it to my students and to myself.