UPDATED Recital Location!

Good Morning Dance Families,

As you all know, we were planning on doing our Recital at Rock N Bowl again this year since everyone loved it so much last year. Unfortunately, they recently dropped a 4k price increase on us, and being that having our recital at a venue that isn’t completely set up for recitals is already a huge cost increase, we can’t make that work.

 So I’ve spent some time researching all possible options weighing pros and cons and have luckily found a NEW venue for us! The New Grouse Room just a few blocks from Rock N Bowl. With this location, we will still be able to incorporate the aspects that you guys really loved last year which were shorter shows, food/drinks available, VIP rooms, and a cozy feel. Also, we were even able to reserve our existing Date for Recital on May 23rd with our Dress Rehearsal the day before on May 22nd!

If you’ve never been to the Grouse Rooms new space, it is a must-see and is plenty of space to seat our audience, add a performance stage, and have a better backstage area. I will include pictures in this email and will send out details on the layout and our plans for using the space when it gets closer to the Recital.

I pray that you guys have faith in our ability to pull off an incredible show despite any circumstances but just in case you have doubts, I wanted to just go over a few of the things that we have thought out and the solutions we have found.

-Location being downtown: Being that the location is downtown again we have chosen to have our Recital on a Sunday again so that our dance families feel safe like last year.

-Dressing room areas: We will be curtaining off the entire right portion of the building to create a large dressing room area which will include cozy booths for students/helpers to relax in between changing etc. We will make sure that these areas are well lit so that dancers can see what they are doing with ease.

-Seating: We will have the chairs staggered this year to help avoid vision being blocked. Also, we will have the performance live-streamed on multiple TVs in the audience so that if your vision is blocked for any reason you can still see the entire performance there. Also, we will have a few rows in the back of bar stool height chairs to create a better viewing dynamic for all guests.

-Staging and Support beams: Being that there aren’t bowling lanes restricting our stage this year we will be able to build it out wider than last year. However, there are 2 support beams that will be at the edge of the stage that may block the view for certain guests periodically. The Livestream feed on TVs is meant to help with this as well. In addition, we will do our best to create a seating map that creates the least amount of view blocks as well as ensuring that our camera guy’s view is unblocked so that your recital recording has the perfect view.

-Spacing on Stage: Luckily this year we know in advance what our dimensions will be for the stage so that we can choreograph and create formations accordingly. Instead of only having 1 month to do so like last year. We will make sure your dancers know what to expect and are rehearsing accordingly.

-What restrictions might be in place: Things are changing each month and of course there are a lot of unknowns about what restrictions will be like at the time of recital. This is just one more of the reasons that we chose the Grouse room instead of a typical venue or school performance stage. Traditional venues and schools are typically the most rigid with restrictions which would make it impossible to have our recital with your amazing dancers.

We do not have details yet for tickets and VIP rooms but I assure you we will send this out as soon as we do:) If you have any questions or concerns please let us know. 

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation,

Thea Francesconi