Hot mikado

 I thought you might like to see a few pics from the play I choreographed.  I had a blast and these kids were wonderful.  All but one of them had only seen tap on TV or in the movies, so it was a big under taking to get the finished product.  But they hung in there with me and it was great.  The first night I started teaching I went home and said, "What have I done to these kids".  But the next day they had it, they had gone home and practiced and learned it all.

 Of course, I have to have a Young Ambassador/Janie Thompson ending.  They performed to almost a full house every night for 4 nights at the Turkish-American Association Theatre.

 You can see their hands by their necks. . . They were singing and dancing about an executioner and what he was going to do.  So fun.

 This number was the funnest one to choreograph.  It was called "Three Little Maids".

 The girl in blue was our lead.  She has a voice as lovely as any I have ever heard.  A darling actress also.

 The little gal in the yellow dress almost quit on me.  She didn't think she could ever do it.  I told her that she had so much natural talent and that the audience deserved to see how much she added to the play. I went over the steps with her again, and she had them all.  So we talked some more, next day - she just was beaming and was wonderful.

 The gal in the front with the white dress would never hold her head up during practice and kind of hid behind her hair.  She had an excellent voice and picked all the dances up very quickly.  One day I took her aside alone and stood her in front of the mirror and told her to look at just how beautiful she was.  That she needed to be proud and hold her head up.  We had a great little chat.   Wow! look at her now.

 This is Abu.  When I learned I needed to teach him a solo tap dance, I didn't think it could be done.  He wanted to learn so badly that he worked really hard and in the end he brought the house down.  He had lived in Utah for a couple of years and totally understood where I was coming from and we ended up being great friends.  He has a PhD in mathmatics and does research in the 4th and 5th dimensions.

It was so fun to get flowers and hugs from everyone every night.

 The fellow on the floor in the blue vest was the director.  He had lived with a Mormon family in Idaho as an exchange student.  So he never even asked me to come to the rehearsals they had on Sundays. 

Duard was amazing.  He came to every rehearsal and performance and never complained once.  He even got invited to come to the center and teach a family history class and he is very excited about it.  I hope I can be as supportive.