I am very excited to welcome all of our dancers ... new and old ... to Dance Place. Our eighth season of dance is off to a great start. We have many new teachers on our staff this year ( read on for more info on our new teachers) and many exciting events planned for this fall. I hope that you all had a wonderful summer and that your fall season, back to school, soccer, dance, cheerleading, and everything else is off to a great start. Read on for more information about upcoming events and turn the page for all the exciting information on our 1st annual Nutcracker performance!

DANCE SHOES:

This fall Dance Place starting carrying dance shoes to sell to our students. We hope you are happy with this new feature. We have done this for your convenience and to provide our dancers with quality dance shoes. As with many new ventures, ours has had a few glitches! The company we are working with, Revolution Dance had a very busy fall season and many of the dance shoes are on backorder. I apologize for this on my part and on their behalf. They have been working very hard to get all of the shoes out to us. The rest of the shoes shouldbe in by the end of this month (I'm keeping my fingers crossed!) Again, I am very sorry for the delay, but we're all learning from our mistakes and the shoe orders should go much smoother in the future.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN:

Dance Place will be hosting a Halloween Party featuring games, crafts, snacks, music, face painting and more. Join us for the fun on Saturday October 30, from 6 - 8 p.m.

BRING A FRIEND WEEK:

This year from October 16 - 22 Dance Place students may bring a friend to dance class with them. We hope that any friends that come will join the fun and dance during class. If your friend would like to sign up, and they stay for the year, you receive a free month of classes at the end of the year. The only thing we ask is that if your child's class is very large, you let the instructor know that a friend will be attending. Thanks.

DANCE PLACE T-SHIRTS

We have some great Dance Place Dancer T-shirts available. They are $10.00 each. Check out the one hanging in the waiting room. Show off your Dancer Spirit and get yours today. We will also have sweatshirts available soon!

WINTER EVENTS:

Last December we offered a Sunday afternoon Drop and Shop for parents. For $10.00, you can leave your child at Dance Place for 4 hours of fun, crafts, movies and tumbling while you shop, wrap, or simply catch up on the holiday season. Due to our Nutcracker performance, our Drop and Shop schedule will be a little different. We will have an evening Drop & Shop on Saturday December 18 from 5:30 -9:00 and an afternoon Drop and Shop on Sunday December 19 from 12 noon until 4:00 p.m. Sign ups will be out in November.

NUTCRACKER OUTING:

Each December, during Christmas vacation we take a trip to Boston Ballet's Nutcracker. Even though we are doing a Nutcracker, if enough people are interested, we will plan this trip as well. It has been great fun in the past. We get a bus to take us into Boston - no T or parking hassles!- we usually get excellent seats in the orchestra section of the Wang Center and then have a Pizza Party upon our return to Dance Place. The tickets for the entire outing are usually about $45.00 per person. Please let me know if you are interested because we need 25 people to get the group rate tickets.

MISCELLANEOUS

If you did not receive a handbook when your child started classes, please let me know. It has important class info in it. Thanks

Well, this is where our Hat's Off column usually goes!!!

Since I don't have much for our new column, I'll take this time to explain our special column.

Hat's Off is our way of congratulating our dancers on their special achievements. Whether these are achievements in dance, academics, sports, or girl scouts , we want to know. We would like to help you share your accomplishments with the other members of our large dance family. So, this is your special place to brag & show off & we want you to!!!

We also want to know about important events, new siblings, new moves, etc. etc. The only thing that we don't put in our column is birthdays. These have a special place on our Birthday Board in our waiting room!

So, let us know what you've been up to, or you can drop a note in the tuition box, or send us an e-mail at dncr182@aol.com!

Next month check out this spot for lots of cool things...that you have done!

What would the holiday season be without the Nutcracker? The lovely story of Clara and her Nutcracker Prince who set off on a magical journey to the Palace of Sweets where they are greeted by the Sugar Plum Fairy and entertained by all the sweets, Chocolate, Coffee, Tea, and many more.

The Nutcracker is also the most famous and most performed ballet around. However, at Dance Place we have lots of very talented dancers in all styles of dance, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Funk, AND Ballet. So, when I found an opportunity to perform a Nutcracker that included all styles of dance...The Nutcracker All Jazz'd Up, I simply couldn't resist. I am so excited about this new venture and I hope you will all join us.

We need dancers for the show, parents who would like to help with costuming or backstage help, and audience members to come, watch the show and cheer the dancers on. This is not a show to be missed. It is filled with exciting music, beautiful costumes and fun dancing and choreography. I hope you will all join us in some way.

Any dancers that are interested, please sign up so we can assign you a part or parts in the show. Rehearsals begin this Friday, October 15. Students will need to attend one rehearsal per weekend, either on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. If you have prior commitments on any of those days, but are still interested, please indicate that when you sign up. Most dancers, at least for the first few weeks of rehearsal will only be rehearsing from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the roles you are cast in. Also, there is a $20.00 costume fee. Please join in the fun!!!!