Lienz Matinee, City Tour, Afternoon Free Time!

The Lienz Theater

Our day started with a staging rehearsal at the Lienz theater, just a 100 yard walk from our hotel. The venue seats 600 and was filled with local school children and teens for a matinee performance to end their year on a celebratory note. They cheered throughout the entire show. All of the dance companies did a wonderful job...by now, after having six performances under their belts, the show flows like clockwork and the level of excellence from each ensemble is incredible. The manager for the Northwest Tap Company from Seattle grabbed me today and said that they all LOVE our choreography and our dancers, and gave me his card so we can keep in touch when we get home...perhaps we can have them as guest performers in our studio concerts next year :)

After the show, we took a city tour led by two adorable local high school girls assigned to us. They showed us the typical historical sites around the town center...churches, schools, the river, and the gelato shop! Our girls asked lots of questions, and here is what they told us: you must be 18 to get your driver's license here in Austria, and it costs about $1000 Euros (~$1250 in US dollars). The Lienz girls were amazed that most of our girls who have their license also have their own cars, I guess that's nearly unheard of here, and they all must borrow their parent's cars until they are married or at least much older. Braces/orthodontics is nearly covered in total here with their national/universal health care...they only pay a small surcharge of a couple hundred dollars... They think it is sad that we in America have to pay hospital bills to have babies or emergency surgeries, etc. Here it is all covered and the care is excellent...we in the US can learn a lot from their and other European country's successful, self-supporting health care system that they say is , "great!". They call school for ages 15-18 "college".... And post high school education "university". They attend school from 8-1:30 each day, but from 8-5 on Wednesdays. All Austrians get free tuition to the university of their choice within their country, therefore, no one has to worry about being able to afford university, and their test scores are among the highest internationally.

Lientz Town Center

The cutest part of our tour was when the girls said," ok, we are done now...but before we leave can you show us some of your hip hop moves??":D. Of course the girls obliged, and broke out in a full "tutting" session in the middle of the square with all eyes watching from surrounding cafes and shops watching. At dinner we watched off the balcony of our hotel as an authentic Oompah band, dressed in traditional Tirolian costumes, marched through the town square to a stage set up for their concert in the plaza! So fun...

The View from Our Rooms at Dawn

We had a meeting about our next two days, and everyone is so excited to hear the itinerary: Wake up at 5am tomorrow , board the bus, and drive for five hours to VENICE, Italy!!! Once we arrive and park the bus, we take a private "Vaparetto" (boat) to the island of Venice for a day of gondola rides, feeding pigeons in St. Mark's Square, watching glass blowing at the Murano glass factory (Thee original Murano glass factory in the world), eating paninis and pizza at walk up cafes, and shopping! It will be a long, but fun day.

At the end of the day, we will drive back to Austria and end up in our final city, St. Johann where we have our final show in their town square for the entire city. We are told that nearly 3000 people show up to watch...many sit on the roofs of buildings and hang out 3rd and 4th story windows to get the best view of the show. There may not be Internet Wifi in our St. Johann hotel, so there may not be a blog tomorrow...but I will try my hardest to find an Internet cafe so that I can update everyone on our Venice trip (with pictures, of course), and give the account of the amazing things that our dancers get to do in St. Johann on their free day there (hint: gondola rides, hang gliding, zip-lining, riding down the Alps on the luge.....)

Goodbye Innsbruck-Hello Kuffstein Castle & Lientz

We boarded our buses this morning bright and early saying a sad goodbye to Innsbruck.....destination: Kuffstein Castle! Our 10am performance at the top of the castle was wonderful..hundreds of children, teachers and parents were there to celebrate Austria's last week of school and to watch us perform our short show (3 pieces each studio).

Our dressing room was under the castle in the dungeons!!! We wondered out loud to each other how many knights had walked through the very same halls hundreds of years ago in armor with spears and shields :).....it was SO cool (figuratively and literally) down there.

As we entered the stage to perform our hip hop, the MC pulled the girls out in front and had them line up. A man dressed in a suit and tie began talking to the girls, shaking their hands and a news photographer was snapping photos. It was obvious that something grand was happening, but we had no idea what it was :).... Naomi was asked to go down onto one knee while the man in the tie appeared to be giving some kind of proclamation; then, everyone clapped, the girls took their places , and danced their hip hop to resounding applause.

Afterwards we asked our interpreter what just took place. Apparently, the man in the suit was the Burgemeister of Kuffstein and Tirol (definition- Mayor). He was welcoming the Tanzsommer dancers with great joy and anticipation...Naomi kneeling was apparently a custom done as a gesture of receiving the Mayor's welcome and invitation to Tirol....sort of like kneeling to be knighted, it is a carry-over custom from the medieval times. What an honor for us. Of course, it was on the news and in the paper here as well.

Hip Hop!

What an amazing stage, and wonderful venue! It's not often that we get to perform on top of a castle.

"America"

"Mack the Knife"

After our show, we all got to spend three hours in the little town of Kuffstein. Some of us had weinerschnitzel, spaetzle, and Fanta! My group of lunch buddies had the joy of eating at a little cafe with a yodeling waiter! He yoddled and joked with us in broken English each time he brought out our food. He even mucked it up with Madison for the camera.

We jumped on the buses again and headed out for our next city: Lientz......we had dinner at another castle and swam in the roof top pool with 180 degree views of the Alps and cityscape through the floor to ceiling glass windows surrounding us.

Everyone is trying to get to bed early tonight because tomorrow starts at 7 am with stage blocking, a city tour of Lientz, our matinee performance and then some FREE time to shop or head up to the luge top ride down the Alps on sleds (on a track). Guten Nacht!

Dinner at the Castle

Innsbruck Evening Gala, Matinees, FLASH MOB, Time off! :)

It has been a whirlwind in the last 24 hours: a nonstop flurry of rehearsals, classes, pre show warm ups, photoshoots, a cultural exchange with Innsbruck teens, the Gala Concert and two Matinees for the Austrian kids...whew!

The Gala was magnificent! When the doors opened, our audience of usually-reserved Austrians, BOLTED down the theater steps and lunged for seats....women in pearls and men in suits and ties, all running to get the best seat (there was no reserved seating, first come first served). The theater of 1200+ seats filled fast, including the box seats on the second level.

Our audience couldn't have been better or more responsive...they cheered after each piece, clapped thunderously in between, and gave us two standing ovations requiring an encore from us! The finale was grand...each dance company looked so good and the excitement was intense. Our dancers were greeted as they walked out of the backstage theater doors to return to the hotel after the show with shouts of "bravo!" and applause from audience members and parents waiting on the streets and sidewalk. The Austrian press was there as well. Dinner was at 10:30pm; and afterwards, exhausted, we all were thankful for our heads to hit our pillows!

Pre Show Warmups with Tom

The Palace and Dogana Theater

"America"

"Mack the Knife"

Finale WAVE thanking our wonderful audience and ending pose...all dance companies together

Up at 6:30 this morning to prepare for our two matinees today...2400 Austrian students were busses in to see our show. We performed our "short program" to keep within the hour time frame. The kids LOVED our black light dance and our hip hop....the parents and directors from the other studios loved "America" and the other Tanzsommer performers were crazy about "Stream of Comfort"....something for everyone, we met our goal. Between matinee performances, each dance company had a photoshoot on stage with the Tanzsommer photographer...
Make sure to watch the videos below of the Austrian kids arriving at the theater in droves...and the finale, etc.

After the last matinee performance our dancers were paired up with Innsbruck High School students in a cultural exchange...the teens took our dancers around town showing them their favorite things to do and places they frequent. New friendships were made, and everyone learned a lot about each culture from each other.

The Tanzsommer directors finally told us what the "secret choreography" we learned the first day was for: we were going to perform the first FLASH MOB in Austria! After the cultural exchange, our dancers congregated in the town center plaza and performed out of the blue for hundreds of Austrians and tourists alike. It was FUN, and everyone had a great time, including Austrian TV....we are going to be on their national news tonight!

Innsbruck Town Square before the flash mob...notice the real gold roofed building

FLASH MOB!

After the flash mob, we all had some very need (and deserved, I might add) free time! Yay!!! Some shopped, some relaxed with a snack under a market umbrella at one of the many cages on the square, some found the Gummy Bear store, and others went swimming in the eternity pool. After dinner at 7:30, we all returned to our rooms to organize and pack....tomorrow we leave at 8am for the city of Lientz with a matinee performance on top of Kufstein Castle! It can't get any better than this...that's what the kids are telling me :)....and the parents have all confirmed unequivocally that this tour has already FAR exceeded their expectations as the most wonderful experience for their kids AND themselves. Of course, I agree :D....

the view from the eternity pool!

VIDEOS

.........please use this private link to view the Tanzsommer videos I've uploaded to YouTube today (you may have to copy and paste, sorry):
m.YouTube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=US#/home

Gutten tag!

Tech Rehearsal, Gelato, Ballet Class & the Gala!

Out the door at 9am today for a city tour of old town Innsbruck...then, tech rehearsals at 10am ... The Tanzsommer photographer did a photo shoot of us in costume as well. Oh, no, we find out that the theater does not have a black back curtain; so we are all hoping the black light effect for "Situation" is not lost in the white cyc. The lighting crew is moving mountains for us to make it look great...it's so wonderful to be working with professionals who make it their goal to accommodate the performers' needs. :)

The Dogana Palace Theater is incredible... (see picture below)... The girls are humbled by the incredible opportunity to perform in such a beautiful, and historically relevant venue.

After our tech, we had about 45 minutes before our next call time, so, of course we found the best gelato shop in town and celebrated the day with flavors not found anywhere but here.

Next was ballet class with a former dancer, now choreographer for the Innsbruck Ballet. The girls were challenged, and inspired by both the teacher and the other dancers who are from a ballet studio in Texas on tour with us. They did SO well in class...a credit to the wonderful ballet teachers at All That Jazz. Now the girls understand why we drill ballet terminology into them at the studio: since ballet terms are universal, they took class today from a German-speaking teacher, but had no trouble understanding his direction at all.

We look forward to the show tonight with much anticipation. Then, tomorrow we have two matinee performances in the same theater for Austrian School students who are bussed in from across the country. School is still in session here; and because the Austrian culture and school officials value the Arts so much, they close school in several towns and bus the students to Innsbruck to see our dance concert. If only America valued the Arts as much for our children!

Once again...sorry for the pictures that are not upright...we googled the problem, and there is no way to fix them with this blog app. Please continue to tilt 90 degrees to view as needed :)