"Easter" Event

I just wanted to quickly blog about my first dance show with Rossett Dance which took place on Friday.

The Easter Event was originally planned for March but unfortunately it had to be cancelled as it was that day that it decided to snow constantly and lasted for about a week! I was really disappointed and it was a very hectic day calling all the parents to let them know of the cancellation, but everyone completely agreed with my decision as it was too dangerous to drive in such weather. I was also able to arrange a later date for the show which all the parents were happy with.

Unfortunately, we then had two weeks break for Easter and so we just had one rehearsal before the show.

I was really worried that due to the long break all the children would have forgotten everything. I decided though that it couldn't be helped, there was nothing I could do, so there was no point worrying too much.

Surprisingly the long break must have helped, for in rehearsal everyone seemed to remember it and were actually performing much better than they had before!

I arrived a few hours early on the day of the show, to get set up, organising costumes, chairs, hair accessories and other bits and bobs. I remained relatively calm even though I knew that I only had about forty five minutes to get everyone ready into costumes. Three of the Mums from my ballet class had kindly offered to help so I also had to let them know of the running order and any quick changes.

I was worried that we wouldn't run on time and that it would be impossible to get all the children into costume looking tidy with hair neatly back. But thanks to all the parents help we did manage to start at 4:30pm. I think staying calm also helped!

I was a little shocked when somebody informed me that we needed more seats putting out. I wasn't expecting that big an audience! As it was my first show and I hadn't planned on it being a big event I was pleasantly surprised to discover that around seventy people had turned up!

The children were brilliant. I couldn't have asked any more from them. Especially my baby class - I have struggled for weeks trying to get them to make a nice circle when skipping! But on Friday they did it beautifully. I think the fact Mummies and Daddies were watching helped.

Everyone seemed really happy and kept coming up to me at the end saying how much they enjoyed it. It was a great success and it has made me confident about putting another, perhaps bigger performance on in the future.

With Olivia, one of the little ones from baby ballet, a shot taken by her father during the performance.

What I have learnt from this experience and what I will consider for future shows.

• The parents were brilliant in helping getting the children ready and the majority of hair was neat and tidy. Next time though, I will allow more time to get ready and insist on all hair being much neater with a lot of hairspray to keep back wispy bits! Also, looking back I wish I would have done a quick costume check before we started the show as there were little things that could have looked better such as all bows tucked into ballet shoes, all hats the right way, etc.

• I think next time I will need more assistance with children getting on and off stage, getting ready for quick changes and so on just to keep the show running smoothly.

• I did film the show with the parents consent and the video is very good but as the camera was set up in the corner there were a few things that wasn't caught on film so next time I think I need to organise this a little better.

• As this was my first show and we did the performance in the hall I didn't charge the parents to watch. Hopefully in the future when my school is a little bigger I will be able to hire a theatre and sell tickets for the performance.

I think all of the above will be improved with time as my school grows and I have more assistance from parents or perhaps other dance teachers I employ. 

Apart from being a great experience that all the children could be involved in it has also been a great advert for my school. As all the parents took pictures and have posted them onto Facebook along with spreading the success of the show this has got a lot of other people interested in Rossett Dance. I have had several phone calls and emails this week from Mums wanting to bring their child to dance class after seeing the pictures from the show. 

So hopefully it won't be too long before Rossett Dance can put on a bigger show!