Just A Few Days To Go!

In less than a week now my dancers and I will be flying over the Atlantic en route to Europe on the beginning of an adventure that will prove to be life-inspiring in so many ways. All That Jazz has been selected to represent American Youth Dance at the National Austrian Festival, Tanzsommer (translation=summer dance)for the third time! The first was in 2003 when the Tanzsommer Rep saw us at a national level competition in Portland and asked us to audition for a spot on their "Stars of Tomorrow" tour....the second time we were invited was in 2007, and now again in 2011. As one of only 4 Studios selected from the United States, we all feel both honored and humbled to be ambassadors of our community as well as of our country and of American contemporary dance in general!

We will be performing across Austria in several cities during the 12 day festival, following in the same venues as the professional leg of the tour which includes companies like "Stomp" and "Rambert Dance Company". We will start in the city of Innsbruck at the foot of the Alps with 3 performances at the Dogona, the 1800 seat Theater at Emperor Maximillian's palace...followed by a performance on top of Kuffstein Castle and an outdoor concert in St. Johann, an alpine resort location where the entire city of several thousand people attends. With day trips to the city of "The Sound of Music", Salzburg, and gondola rides in Venice, Italy, the dancers and I will most assuredly enjoy our days off as much as we enjoy performance days!

Excitement is mounting as we approach our final concert for the year at the GPHS Performing Arts Center this Friday and Saturday night. The dancers and I look forward to sharing our Tanzsommer repertoire with our home town audiences before heading out across the ocean to share it with our international audiences. And we are so grateful for everyone's support and encouragement these past 18 months as we have prepared for this tour.

I will be blogging and sharing all of our adventures and experiences along this journey...including pictures and video... We hope you will follow along with us!

Auf Wiedersehen und Gott segnen Sie. (goodbye and God bless!)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Southern Oregon