November/December 2007
Volume 2, Issue 6
News and Activities at the Studio
The Dance Studio is two years old this month! Starting our third year, we haff efury day filled wiff fun dance classes, and lots of exciting things going on in them. Now we're approaching the holiday season again, and this is the time of year when we look furward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. We hope all of mew will be haffing a great time!
Furst the big news. We just had the most spectacular big Fall Dance Night! The studio was jumpin, the kitties were dancin, and we all had so much fun! We had a great attendance, wiff some new memfurs an guests, and took lotsa pictures! The Fall Dance picture pages are linked below under "Spotlight". We know mew haff all been eager to see them.
We are continuing all our classes during the fall and winter, because they all stay filled, tho we will close fur the Christmas holiday week. The folk dancing classes continue, the Latin Dance classes are heating up again, and uh,... the Polka class will continue as soon as we get the floor repaired in there. We also need a new CD of The Nipzbeer Barrel Polka fur ..um, some reason. Does anykitty haff one?
Meanwhile, we did some furry innovative things in modern dance, and now that the girls can float around like Isadora and the boys can do specatular leaps in there, we will put away the scarfs (what we can find of them) and do some more modern choreography. Mew know what that is? It's a fancy name fur show dancing.
Here is some special news about tap class. We are starting some new tap routines to purrpare our talented dancers fur a show purrformance early next year! We will be learning the routines now and going into rehearsals in class purrty soon, so be sure to get in at the start this month. See more details under "Spotlight" below.
Don't furget to check the schedule fur any classes mew want to take. Fur mew girls in ballet, we haff regular ballet classes or Advanced Ballet, where we will be starting rehearsals for a ballet show sometime next year. This training takes a while, so we're not sure when.
We haff a purrfect class fur what efury one of mew likes best, so let's dance!
Our Basic Infurmation:
Any kitty can apply fur membership in the dance studio, it's easy! Just send us an email here to apply, and we will enroll mew and send mew a memfurship card.
Check our schedule here fur the classes and regular dance nights. Our memfurs take as many or as few classes as they want to, and can use the studio fur practice any time. They can also attend any dance nights and bring a guest. Tell your furriends about the studio, too. We luff to see new memfurs!
And here they are:
Fall Dance Pictures!
We had a really spectacular Fall dance night, it was so much fun! Lots of our memfurs brought guests, efurykitty looked wonderpurr, danced all night, and we didn't haff a single broken punch cup! Come and see yourselfs, mew are inspiring!
NEXT SPOTLIGHT:
We are planning a special Tap Dancing Review, to be presented early next year, after we learn the routines, get thru rehearsals, and rent a theater fur our purrformance. It's gonna be so exciting! There will be ensemble routines, a chorus line, and whatefur develops during rehearsals. We will need all of mew tap dancers purrticipating and nokitty missing rehearsals. Mew are all so good now, it's time to show mew off!
Be watching fur a notice by email when we haff the costumes ready fur fitting. We will post them on a page then, and they will be the only costumes used in the show.
Be sure to check out our Studio Shoppe fur your dancing outfits and workout clothes, dance shoes, dance bags, and all the other things mew need. We can mewsually order anything that mew would like fur dancing if mew don't see it in there. And we will be getting our order of show costumes in furry soon. We'll send mew an announcement when dey are ready fur mew to come and try on.
Now fur our regular dance article by Phelicity.
Practice Makes Purrfect
All of us kitties like to practice our moves until we haff dem down purrfectly. Or up, such as jumping to the tops of doors, refrigerators, and bookcases. Tho some of us need more practice getting down. That's why it's easy to practice our dancing and new dance steps at home. It comes naturally and leads right into a good nap.
The best time fur our dance practice at home is during those wakeful hours between 2 and 4 AM, when the humans are all sleeping and there is nothing in the house to stalk. No mouse, no cricket, no feather toy .... we need something to do! Some humans get sorta grumpy if we stand on their chests during these hours to get dem to wake up and play wiff us. But as dancers, we haff a constructive and fun way to spend dis time.
Fur those of us practicing our ballet, it's close to purrfect. We haff chair bottoms or shelfs to be our bars, plenny open space in our liffing rooms fur twirling (if our meowmies pick stuff up a liddle, hint, hint), and sometimes a carpeted floor to fall down on instead of a hard studio floor. Also ballet is nice an quiet, and doesn't wake up anybody. I would hope.
Most of us haff brofurs and sisfurs in the house, so dis is helpful fur practicing our ballroom dancing. If, of course, mew are speaking to dem dat night. I hope we do our best to get along wiff other kitties in the house during the day, in case we need a practice partner during the night. The easiest way might be to take lotsa daytime naps. Den be sure to play the mewsic real soft so it won't wake up the humans.
But it gets more challenging to practice some of our dancing in the night. Mew all know the best example of dat is tap dancing. The main thing is we need our tap shoes on so we can hear our rhythmic tapping. Dis is something none of our humans will efur understand at 2 AM. The offur thing is we need a room wiff a bare floor. I'm sure most of us haff at least one, but keep in mind our main number one rule about practice at home, just in case: Nefur tap dance in the bathtub!!
My best advice in case mew almost get caught (and no experienced kitty is efur gonna really GET caught) is to tuck yer tap shoes under mew an purrtend to be fast asleep. We all know dat works. If mew was practicing jazz steppin, tho, an had the jazzy mewsic too loud ..... in the room the humans is now IN .....welllllll, ......... I'm juss a dance teacher, I'm not Dear Tabby. But maybe gif dem a look dat says "How COULD mew haff left dat loud mewsic on, it's been hurtin my ears!"
It's mewsually safe to practice folk dancing at home, and country line dancing (if one of mew in the house can count) and efen most of the Latin dances. But now dat we haff learned the polka, we better make a number two rule: Nefur, nefur, nefur practice the polka at home!
When all is said and done, if your humans come stumbling out to the coffee pot in the morning lookin like shipwrecks and complaining dat dey was haffing bad dreams full of noise all night, mew didn't do it right. We doesn't want our humans unhappy, when our main job is to keep dem happy. So if dis happens, it's time to practice what mew does best. Mew know, the innocent look, the head bumpies of sympathy, the purring of luff fur dem. After all, we are dancers, yes, but we are kitties first.
Movie Review: The Gay Divorcee
by Phelicity
The Gay Divorcee is the oldest movie we efur reviewed, over 70 years old, can mew imagine! But this old-fashioned, black and white movie stars Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, purrforming one of the most breath-taking dance numbers mew will efur see. The dance is "The Continental", and there is just nothing else like it on film! It's a classic dat all dancers should see at least once.
Fred Astaire is one of the best tap dancers who efur lived. He could do things no other dancer did, like tap dance on the wall and ceiling. But his dancing of all kinds was always elegant and purrfect. He and Ginger Rogers made sefurral movies togeffur as a dance team, but the last one was in 1940. After dat, he had many other talented dance partners, but Fred and Ginger as a team are still remembered and admired the most today.
Ginger was an ideal dance partner, and when they danced together, her talent was a match to Fred's. In real life, she pointed out something dat we should know. Ginger said that the girl in a dance team had to be efen better, because she had to dance all the same steps backwards and in high heels. Watch her to see how good at it she was.
In dis movie, Fred plays a professional dancer and Ginger plays a rich lady who's getting a divorce. After dey meet accidently, Fred looks fur Ginger all over London, and efen pursues her in a funny old car, but she isn't infurested in him until dey dance togeffur. Den it's magic. Story lines in mewsicals were simple, predictable, and had happy endings way back den. So mew doesn't miss much by just gettin lost in the dancing, like I did.
The big production number of The Continental is 17 minutes long, wiff Fred and Ginger dancing by demselfs or leading dozens of dancers! Dey dance all over a huge ballroom, up and down steps, into a splashy finish....and dey didn't look a bit tired! Mew will be entranced! I think mew will luff dis special old movie.
If you haff any dance related news you would like us to announce, please email us at cat_mountain2003@yahoo.com.
We will also post any parties or performances we hear about.
Our good furriend and studio memfur Annie has recently opened:
Be sure to visit; she has some great dance outfits, costumes and warmup clothes!
Mew can see all your dance class and dance night pictures from the furry beginning on our Links page now. We hope mew enjoy revisiting your class pictures, purrformances and dances as much as we do!
See them all here!
See our previous monff's newsletters here:
September/October 2007
July/August 2007
May/June 2007
March/April 2007
January/February 2007
November/December 2006
September/October 2006
July/August 2006
May/June 2006
March/April 2006
February 2006
January 2006.
Nov-Dec. 2005.
Here is our business card, please link back to www.oocities.org/cat_mountain2003/studio Thank mew!
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