Last Friday we announced that the 11th annual show will be on Saturday, November 7th. Wait, November? YES!!!! The show is being moved up a month. Why, you ask?
First, the “Christmas Show” had nothing to do with actual Christmas for years. No Christmas Songs, no Christmas costumes. It was just that it was in December. For the past two years we’ve been transitioning to call it the “annual show” anticipating that we wanted to move it out of December because of Christmas. Every year there are conflicting work parties and child concerts because of the holiday. So starting in 2020 we will now be avoiding those conflicts with an earlier date.
Thanksgiving weekend is a pain for rehearsals. Seriously. Groups usually have difficulty getting everyone together around that time due to family events and travel. This means a lot of stress in planning and not making for an easy show rehearsal experience. By moving up the show, we avoid this entirely. We also moved up the show far enough that it won’t conflict with deer hunting since we didn’t want to cause marital issues….yes, we took that into consideration when picking the new date.
Snow. Seriously. Every month leading up to the show I watch the weather like a crazy person and pray to every god that controls weather that whatever day the show happens to be on that year we don’t have a blizzard. We’ve been VERY lucky and only had yucky roads twice in the 10 years. But I’m tired of worrying about the weather! The earlier date will make a blizzard less likely…in theory…
In 2020 we are going to be working with a new production company, JEM, and the November date had less of a chance of conflicting with a Vic Ferrari show (which both JEM and I are usually at) and other holiday shows that are busy during that time. For the past two years I’ve missed Vic shows, that I would normally perform in, because they were scheduled after our show was scheduled and conflicted. This year we had reserved our date 14 months in advance with EPS (the production crew) then found out a few weeks before they had booked a bunch of other things the same day, were now short staffed, and we needed to provide setup and teardown workers. This was UN-FUN. So the earlier date should be less busy in the land of production.
One of the big reasons we also wanted to move the show date was to help our students progress. The summer slump is real. As is the December slump. By moving the show to November, show rehearsals will starting in July/August so the summer slump will be shorter. By having the show done in November, we have a ton of activities planned for classes to get students back into the studio and growing Nov/Dec instead of doing the show and taking a month off until January.
Our competition team dancers will benefit. A major competition is in January in the midwest. Moving the show means that we’ve added an entire month of time to let our competition dancers concentrate on that event. This means more competition team practices and training sessions. It also means a student could wait until after the annual show to start competition prep if she was inspire to do so after performing in our show.
And the final, a totally selfish, reason, all of your instructors, and especially me, want a holiday too. The first few years the show was not the monster it is now, so I could do both, put on a show for our students and do holiday stuff. But in recent years, like the last 6, the show is a HUGE undertaking and has basically meant I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas the way I would like. I haven’t really decorated my house because before the show there isn’t time and after I recover from the the show I wonder why I should bother with a week to go. I haven’t taken trips to see my siblings because I wouldn’t be back for show rehearsals. 2020 is my year to have holiday celebrations and I’m so excited for it. Moving the show means enjoying the full holiday season AND getting to put on an epic show. Sounds like a win win to me!!!