From Melissa...   Happy New Year!  Your costume packets were mailed in December and your dancers costume orders are due on Monday, January 5, 2009.  We will be contacting those parents who have not placed an order nor indicated that their dancer will not be participating in our recital.  Orders will be placed on Monday, January 12th.  Any orders placed after that date will be responcible for paying the shipping and handling charged to us by the costume company for individual orders.  Costumes usually take three to four months to receive.  Please note that our next break is our Spring Breaks, we follow your public schools Spring breaks.  You can find those dates in the back inside cover of your payment booklet and on our online calendar.  Remember that we are on a 36 week dance season, as some months have three dance classes and others have five within our nine months of dancing!   Info. on classes...  There are a total of 36 classes beginning in September and running thru the end of May, that your child should attend for ballet and tap.  Tuition is based on a 36 week dance season.  If your dancer starts in the middle of the month, we will pro-rate that months tuition and credit you the following month or provide you with a quote.  If your dancer should miss a class or if your preschool is closed for any reason, your tuition is not pro-rated.   If we should miss a class for any reason and a make-up class is not provided, you will be given a credit for that missed class. If your dancer does not dance or does not seem interested two weeks in a row, we will contact you to see if your dancer still wants to continue with dance classes. What your dancer should be able to show you...  Remember each dancer is different!  We have comments from parents all of the time that they ask their dancer what they learned in dance class today and they get, "I don't know".  But then we get other comments stating that their dancer comes home and puts on their shoes to dance around the house all night long!  Which ever one your dancer is, we hope that the below terms and definitions will help.  For our Ballet portion of class, your dancer should be able to show you the following:    *Streching our feet/toes.  Point and flex.      *1st position with their arms; hold a beach ball.  With their feet; heels are together and toes are apart, 'V".   We use the French Method arm/feet positions.    *2nd position with their arms; drop the ball/arms out to side. With their feet; jump out with feet shoulder width part.        *3rd position with their arms; one arm above head with hand curved over head "wave to the crowd", other arm out to the side straight.         *4th position with their arms; one arm above head with hand curved over head, other arm out front like "petting our dog or cat -  hold".     *5th position with their arms; both arms above head to "make the sun".         *Arabesque is our "elephant"; one arm extended at an angle like a "trunk" the other arm pointed down like a "tail".  The same leg/foot pointing outward.          *Bourre' is our train, choo-choo... walking on toes.          *Plie' (demi - small/half bend, grand - big/full bend), feet in 1st position while bending knees.  Back is straight with head high.       *Releve' is our "elevator", which floor are you going on?  Feet in 1st position while raising up on your toes.  Eleve up, Eleve down.      *Rond de jambe is us being rabbits in a garden.  Circling of the leg; point your toes to the front, side and back.       *Tendu is pointing of the toes.  For our Tap portion of class, your dancer should be able to show you their jazz hand/arm; tapping toes to front, side and back; be able to show you their top taps from their heel taps on their shoes.  Look for more information to come! Are you remembering their dance attire?  Please remember their dance attire on your dancer's dance day!  Students are really excited to get dressed up in their dance attire on dance day.  When your child does not have their dance attire, they might feel out of place and they might not want to participate with the class.  You can purchase ballet and tap apparel at:  Target, K-Mart, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.  Payless Shoe Stores (not located in a mall) offer ballet and tap shoes. For those of you in our Middleburg/Orange Park areas - I have located a nice, inexpensive dance supply shop called "Ballet Shop" located at 799-6 Blanding Boulevard. Phone number 276-5992. Some of our dance time is used to change your dancer into and out of their clothes.  Please make sure that if your dancer's class is in the morning, to have them dressed for class.  Your dancers name or initials should be on every item that your dancer takes with them to dance class.  We prefer that your dancer wears a pull over dress on dance day to avoid multiple items possibly being misplaced.  Less items for your dancer and us to keep track up!