Fall 2023 “Spotlight”
Fall “SPOTLIGHT” 2023
We had such a wonderful fall here at FDW. It is such a busy time but some of the best memories at the studio are made this time of the year. Everyone here worked so hard to get ready for all of our productions. Here is a quick highlight of our 2023 Fall.
Nutcracker Night
Our Nut Night was a huge success! We had so much fun getting our cast shirts personalized, making art projects, and watching one of our past productions of the Nutcracker from a previous year. We found out who our big/little brothers and sisters were (always such a huge hit with everyone)! The goal is to develop bonds throughout the Nutcracker season as our older dancers get to mentor our younger dancers.
Learning who our big and little sisters are for the Nutcracker season!
Arts and Crafts
Winter Celebration Design Contest
The creative juices were definitely flowing with some fabulous designs for our Winter Celebration marketing. Congratulations to Kaya Aurand on her wonderful design which was featured on this year's t-shirts, posters, and program cover. We featured all other submitted designs inside our Winter Celebration program. We have such creative dancer-artists! Thanks to those who participated.
Halloween Costume Contest
It was so much fun to have a week of costumes in class!! We had so many great costumes this year. Thank you so much to all who participated!
Ballet 5 (Group Costume - Beach Day)
Ballet 4 (Group Costume - Dance Teachers)
Hip Hop 2
Ballet 2
Community Performance
Some of our advanced dancers were invited to perform at a recent Rhythm Studio dinner and dance at the Depot. Our dancers performed two numbers, a ballet variation and our company number - “Diamonds.” We are always happy to support our dance community. Big thanks to Taylor Winningham for having us along for the evening.
Diamonds
Clara’s Nutcracker Tea
We were able to start a fun new event this year that will become our new annual tradition. Clara’s Nutcracker Tea was a meet-the-character tea party, with treats, crafts, and sneak peek performances from the Nutcracker ballet. We had magical guests from the Land of Sweets, including the Sugar Plum Fairy, Dew Drop, Clara, the Nutcracker, and guest of honor - Santa Claus!
Dancers from the Nutcracker taking photos with our guests
Clara, The Nutcracker and Sugar Plum with our special guest, Santa!!!
Tree Lighting
We had a great time at the annual Anacortes Tree Lighting Ceremony. We were able to bring a couple of our performances from the Nutcracker and Winter Celebration. This is always a great way to reach our community. We heard a lot of comments from the community about how fun our performers were to watch. Despite the wet weather, they certainly brought amazing energy to the event!
Tree Lighting
The Nutcracker
Nutcracker was a huge success with many in the audience saying it was one of our best ever. All of our dancers have worked so hard and learned so much choreography to be ready for the big show. Every year all the dancers learn many new skills and grow in their technique so much during this time. We want to congratulate the entire Nutcracker cast on a fantastic job this year! This year we added an additional matinee show to go along with our two regular evening shows and our school performance. It was a great opportunity to allow more dancers a chance to try multiple roles. Putting on any production takes a lot of time and hard work from everyone involved. Thank you to the dancers, families, and staff, without whom we would not be able to put on such an excellent show for our community.
Winter Celebration
Winter Celebration was also a wonderful show this year! All our dancers grow so much from September to December and it is such a fun way to show that off - especially for our youngest dancers, for some of whom this is their very first chance to perform on stage! Winter celebration is always a show full of creativity with all our different contemporary styles - jazz, tap, modern, tumbling, hip hop, contemporary, and all of our preschool and Kinder classes . It really showcases that anyone can find something they love in dance!
Backstage Fun at Winter Celebration
We couldn’t do this show without our army of backstage dance moms and mentors - you’re the real heroes of this performance! A million thanks!
If you know a FDW dancer whose accomplishments need a shout out, please let us know! We’d love to feature them in a future installment of “Spotlight.” Send details to studio@fidalgodanceworks.org
