Monday, April 18, 2011

Coaching, a profession of love

"Coaching is a profession of love. You can't coach people unless you love them."
-Eddie Robinson

I love the ladies I coach and feel very blessed to be doing something I love so much. These two dancers are my seniors this year. I've coached Nat for four seasons and Kay for two. Especially Nat, I've seen blossom from an 18 year old into a beautiful woman about to graduate college. I'm so proud of all my dancers and I'm especially proud to send these ladies off and welcome them as alumni to our program. This picture was captured on our last night at Nationals during our special team dinner. Nat and I didn't realize it was being taken but Kay, the ham smiling, knew :) They edited it and put "We will always be KSU Dancers!"



We always have an end of the season banquet for Spirit. I give the girls gifts and they give each other gifts. It's a bittersweet part of the season where we say goodbye to those that are leaving us and hello to a new season for those that are staying. I am so grateful for the gift they gave me this year...a scrapbook of the entire season. They gave me a scrapbook last season also and I selfishly hope it becomes a tradition. This book is phenomenal and they spent so much time on it. I choked up when they presented it to me. I couldn't be more thankful and here we are enjoying it.


"Less me, more WE...K, S, U know!!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Southern Lights: Atlanta Youth Cultural Celebration

The Atlanta Temple in Sandy Springs, GA was closed for renovation for nearly 2 news. When a temple is closed for construction and then re-opened, a few things occur. An open house is organized and open to the public for a couple weeks and then the temple is re-dedicated by the prophet of our church, Thomas S. Monson, allowing temple recommend holders from re-dedication forward to enter. In April 2011, our temple was reopened and re-dedicated. Customary to a temple's re-dedication is a cultural celebration by the youth of the church in that area. There are temples all over the world.

Kathy and Rene Alba were the co-directors of the show and I was asked to be one of the choreographers and cast directors for this production...and production it was. There were over 2,000 youth that participated from all over the state of Georgia and they took such pride in it. It was such a blessing to part of. The production theme was the history of Georgia with dialog and dance. It was called Southern Lights. The opening number was "Waitin' for the Light to Shine" by the youth choir (who sang a number of songs). I choreographed 4 routines: the Stomp, Salsa, Flags and Cheer. I also taught the Charleston to the youth in my area. These youth worked so hard. The whole event took months of preparation and the show was one night with a pre-show by an adult choir. The Prophet was in attendance and he took about 15 minutes to start off the evening by speaking. Truly touching and inspired. The whole event was memorable and I got to meet some fantastic people in the process. But the highlight would have to be when the Stomp received a standing ovation by not only our Prophet but the entire audience (the only group number to get a standing “O”). I was backstage the whole time so I didn’t know until after the show. I couldn’t help but get emotional from that. What we do humbly and put ourselves honestly and whole heartedly into makes a difference. The standing ovation was an added bonus but to see the pure joy and excitement that these youth had and how proud they were of themselves was amazing. Most of these youth didn’t have dance training, we made the dances simple yet effective and the teachers in their area did a phenomenal job teaching them the choreography and perfecting it. All of the choreographers taped their routines teaching with counts, performing it with music and then the reps in each area taught them. I had youth performing my particular dances from Sugar Hill, Macon, etc. Too far for me to travel multiple times a week to work on so how thankful I am to everyone for collaborating and making this a group effort for success.

Tom being so talented in his music, video and audio ways did an "I'm a Mormon" video by highlighting about 6 youth from all over the state and compiling this really neat presentation. If I can upload a video here, I will. It’s worth sharing. Tom also got to be backstage when our Prophet arrived and be one of the photographers for the event. I was back with the cast directors around the time our Prophet was arriving and shortly after, Tom came into the room with a face that I knew he just experienced something special. He pulls out his camera and shows me the pictures...amazing... I know that Thomas S. Monson is a man of God. Tom got to take pictures during the show and captured some great moments.

I am grateful for the Atlanta Temple and for the opportunity I was given to be part of this. Here is a picture of all the cast directors and assistant cast directors.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Shooting Star 2011

I'm looking forward to dancing and cheering for the WNBA Atlanta Dream Shooting Stars another season!! This time as a veteran to the team.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Rookie of the year 2010

The Atlanta Dream Shooting Stars got together one last time, before tryouts, to celebrate our 2010 season. It was a banquet and we had a good time. At the end, we had awards. I was given the award for Rookie of the year, voted on by my teammates. I felt honored. These other two teammates got awards also. Thanks stars!!

Sassy hair

Laura decided to make some changes upon returning from her mission. They came to visit GA after a few weeks of being home and one of those things was cutting off those long locks! Look at her sassy hair! It looks so good. Another is going by Lee now (her middle name).