Our "Frozen-Inspired" Dance Camp: Crafts

"Do You Wanna Dye a T-Shirt?" (sung in the melody of "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman")

This is part of our "Frozen" (inspired) Dance Camp Series.

We spend about 30-40 minutes on crafts, but always have a back-up plan for those who lose interest fast (some of the 4 year olds are more interested in the process, than the final product) or who are very detailed (need to place every piece of grass just so).

Good ideas of back-up plans are coloring pages (link to free printable Frozen coloring pages) / activity sheets or clips from the movie, if you have a TV or screen.  I actually made a YouTube playlist of Frozen clips on our computer just in case, but we never had to use it.

Now... onto the crafts!

My Camp Director and I pulled a lot of the craft and activity ideas off of Pinterest, so I will try to credit our original inspiration when possible.

Western Week Day #4: Making Our Costumes

It's Day #4 at Western Week Dance Camp!  Today we are working on practicing our "show" and making costumes.

Day #4 Agenda

8:50-9:00am - Parent Drop-off / Student Sign-in
9:00-9:30am - Warm-up
9:30-10:00am - Jazz Dance class - practicing our dances in sequence
10:00-10:45am - Craft - Cowgirl Vests & Foot Print Horses
10:45-11:00am - Snack Time
11:00-11:45am - Tap Class - practicing our dances in sequence
11:45-12:00pm - Games / Cool-down - Relay Race!

Day #4 Crafts: Cowgirl Vests & Foot Print Horses

For the Vests, you will need:

- Large paper bags

- Ribbons

- Scissors

- Crayons, paint, markers - whatever you want to decorate with (we used crayons)

- Tin foil & large-eyed needle

Prep Work for today's craft: Cutting out the arm and neck holes for each vest, laying out all the "decorations".

We followed these instructions from Crayola's website.  Everyone got to decorate their own vest with as much ribbon and coloring as they chose.  Some girls made "fringe" at the bottom with scissors (you could also tear it if you have little ones).

Picking out just the right colors for her vest!

Having fun coloring on the vests

The hardest part was the tin foil "badges" or "rosettes" - to get them to stay on, a teacher needed to help  poke the ribbon through the vest with a large needle.  The kids were able to thread the needle, but it was too hard to push through without an adult's help.

Our vests waiting for the show tomorrow...

January Blog Challenge: Personal Dance Firsts

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Attention all dance bloggers, here is your January Blog Challenge - we're starting off with a fun, personal one.

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to share a picture and story of one of your "dance firsts".  First class, first show, first shoes... whatever inspires you!

The Details

1. Choose one picture that represents your dance first
2. Share your story
3. Include a link back to this post (Permalink: )

If you participate, leave a comment below with the link to your post so we can share in the fun!

UPDATED JAN. 29, 2012 - Here are all the participants so far:

• Maria's Movers: The Class That Started It All
• Married To The Dance: My First Flamenco
• Nichelle (from Dance Advantage)
• Kim at Velocity Dance and Fitness
• Moira from On My Toes
• Sara from Rince Go Bragh

And with that, here's my dance first.... 

My first dance performance!

New Blog Mascot?

"Hello, I am The Dance Buzz, here to entertain you!"

(By the way, if you have been searching for a full-body-covering bumblebee costume instead of the mini-dress with wings, you can find this on for $30 on Amazon.com. I had to sift through hundreds of college girls dressed as "bees" to find this awesome costume. You're welcome.)

Studio Owner Buzz: AWCT Value Catalog

We are debuting a new type of post we're calling "Studio Owner Buzz" (or SOB for short... wait a second... just kidding ;))

We will feature information that might be useful to all of you studio owners out there - costume catalog reviews, tuition ideas, recital hints and more! All of these posts are all on my own - I am not being paid to write about any of the catalogs, companies or products.
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Today's SOBuzz is about the A Wish Come True's Dance Values costume catalog. Just got it fresh from my cranky postman's hands. They also sent the Latin Rhythm Collection and Holiday Wishes, but that's for another post.

Now I won't post prices in here because just like any other retail place, SOs have to mark-up costumes to make a living, but I will tell you that the "values" is truly value. But don't let the term "value" turn you off. Sometimes when you get the discount catalogs it clear why they are marked down. They either have no normal sizes left or the costume is so hideous, no one wants it. Sure, there are a few like that in AWCT....

Which looks like a pattern my grandma would make curtains out of, but for the most part, the costumes are just plain cute! They range from simple silhouettes:

To more glitzy designs:

Love, love, LOVE this one.

And just like all their other costumes, AWCT doesn't skimp on quality when it comes to making costumes. We ordered multiple costumes from their regular line last year and everyone loved the fit and the costumes were very well made.

They also have a whole section for in stock value costumes for last minute needs!