Congratulations Brooke!

03/19/2012

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Hi guys, I’m happy to announce that our
very own Brookelyn Coe has qualified to attend the Assembly of God’s National
Fine Arts competition in August. Yayy! Brookelyn attended the district
  competition, held in Grand Rapids on Friday and Saturday, March 16th
and 17th, at Grand Rapids First Assembly of God. This year, there
  were over 1,000 youth competing. Brooke competed in the “Worship Dance Solo”
category. Each competitor is given a score sheet and critique, but they are not
  allowed to know who placed first, second, and third, in order to encourage
  camaraderie within the division. However, Brookelyn received a 37.3 average out
  of a possible total of 40 and placed within the top three. She was awarded a
“Superior- with invitation” rating. Brookelyn has attended Trinity Assembly of
  God Church in Mt. Morris her entire life and has danced at MGM Dance in
  Flushing for nine years. Although I am not a fan of competitions, because I
  believe in competing with yourself, I agreed to help Brooke with this because
  it is so inspiring to watch young people use their God-given skills to praise
  and worship the Lord. There were competitors in dance, voice, photography, art,
  every instrument- band and choir. It was absolutely overwhelming to see so many
  young people professing their faith by using their talents to praise God.
  Brooke chose the song, “Beautiful, Beautiful” and performed a liturgical, on
  pointe, classical ballet. I found it notable that one of the judges simply
  wrote in the comment section of her score sheet, “Beautiful!” 
Indeed, she did a beautiful job and I am very proud of her. When I asked
how he felt about his daughter’s achievement, Marty Coe replied, “Just watching
her grow and develop in her talent blesses my heart. Every time I watch her
perform, it brings tears to my eyes”.  All of your teammates are so very proud
of you! Go Brooke! Love, Gail and MGM Dance

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Harvest Festival 2011: Pumpkins, Balloons, and Dancers!

10/10/2011

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Hi Everyone!

What a great Harvest Festival for 2011! We had a wonderful time dancing with our friends and demonstrating some of our numbers from the past year. You know, when we start to plan what pieces we will be highlighting at the festival, each year we run into the same problem….what can we take out of our current collection of pieces and have it translate nicely into a street atmosphere. The simple answer is none. And it’s not because we don’t want to show off the hard work, dedication, talent and outstanding skills of our dancers, but the way our curriculum and performances are structured, the shows are written as continuous stories with characters and a plot. If you take a beautiful piece and perform out of context, that’s exactly what you will get – a piece out of context. While greatly entertaining and very pretty to watch, it doesn’t make much sense. So yet again this year, we were faced with the same concern. Having a concluded the 2010 dance season with a fantastic rendition of The Lion King, lots of students in the street in animal make-up just wouldn’t make sense. So we had another idea…..and I think….everyone liked it just as much!!!

While it is always great to watch something for entertainment value, it is even better to learn something. And learn something easy, quick, under no pressure and of course….for free! So our idea of total audience participation was developed! Has this happened before? Of course! We definitely did not create the wheel on this one….but what we did do was oil it that’s for sure!

We were able to do a couple of demonstrations highlighting the work of our jazz department and new hip hop curriculum as well. All the dancers did a fantastic job and the audience loved being exposed to the very different styles of dance. We also had a classic pointe and partnering piece on the agenda, but due to the very cold and windy temperatures, we pulled them from our line-up for the safety of our dancers. It’s not worth anyone getting sick in such unfavorable conditions. No way!

Now….the “Bring It!” Part!

For our first audience participation number, our Emcee, Laurie Anne (DJ LA, we like to call her) wore our 2010 company shirt, shorts, crazy knee highs and running shoes and encouraged all who were within hearing distance to join her in the street to do a dance warm-up. We were so excited with the turn out! We had so many people of all ages dancing in the streets to not only help LA warm up, but warm up themselves, and learn some easy moves to do when they are in need of some warming this upcoming winter! Not just coats and scarves keep you warm….a good dance move will do the trick to get the blood flowing!

Next, we set out dozens of folding chairs and encouraged anyone who drives with children to join us on the street. All drivers were to take a seat and all children to sit behind them. What we did was so much fun! LA taught all the parents how they can drive (safely of course) and dance to the music and encourage their kids in the backseats to dance along. All very simply moves, but a great way to bond with your kids while driving and make getting to point B even faster and much, much more memorable!!

For our final number, we invited all dads and their daughters to join us center street for a quick lesson in Daddy Daughter Dancing. See, every school has a daddy daughter dance and we know dads are always nervous about going since dancing is not always their forte. So we thought, lets teach our dads some easy moves. And wouldn’t you know? We actually have Daddy Daughter classes as part of our unique series of classes! HA! I would say that’s a pretty good match!

We were so happy to see so many faces! Dads with two and three little girls learning easy lifts and swings. LA was even “adopted” by our own Chris July to help with the demonstrations. Of course, he did do the much more complicated lifts with his own daughter Jessica. But LA was happy to have a temp-dad to help with the demo. WOW did everyone have fun!

It was such a great hour! From demonstrating the skill and awesome talent of a few of our dancers to teaching people in the street how to use dance in their everyday lives. It was a great day! We also gave away almost 500 orange balloons (it was like a sea of orange everywhere in Flushing) and tons of prizes from our spin-to-win wheel at our event site tent. The staff and dancers of MGM had a great time at Harvest Festival 2011. Looking forward to Candle Walk. And trust me, we have some great things planned for that community festival as well! Hope to see you at our place!

Remember always, it’s about more than dance….
Mary Gail
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