Martha’s Place teaches Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and Pointe. The Martha also does choreography for local theatre groups and schools. The dance studio teaches to all ages. The youngest student ever was 2 1/2, while the oldest (so far!) was 65. Boys, Girls, Women, and Men are all welcome. Martha loves working with children, and performing for people.
Recitals are done annually. Recitals are for Martha as much as for the students. Although some studios are backing away from the Recital concept (some opting for competitions), Martha feels that the students need a non-competitive arena to show how much they have accomplished in 9 months of dance class.
The most recent recital was held in May of 1997. It included the Sleeping Beauty Ballet, because Martha promised a student that she could be a Princess in her Senior Year!
The next recital (#9!) will be held in May of 1998. Martha is still open for ideas! Does she do a theme, a ballet, or just straight dance?
The first half of the show will be dedicated to the Rainbow. Each basic color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) is represented, with one class using all colors-the R a i n b o w D a n c e. The students seem very excited about the dances and colors, and one class actually VOLUNTEERED to be orange!
The second half of the show will be titled "Dancing Through The Years". We have started with the 1920s, and are moving up through the present. There will be Charleston, Shim Sham Shimmy, some Ponies, the Hustle, a little break-dancing-it should be quite a ride through the history of music and dance for the last 70 years. We have chosen music from a wide range of artists, and think it will be really fun. Most of the dancing will be tap and jazz, but there is a little ballet in this half.
Because there was so much music produced in the 70 years represented, we were obviously unable to hit all the targets. Before the show starts we will be playing some of the music not chosen. It should bring back a lot of (hopefully good!) memories for a lot of people.
Moving on to this year-a very sad year for me. I will be losing three very talented and helpful students. These ladies have been with me since they were 2, 4 and 6 years old. I shall miss them terribly. ANYWAY-they have chosen the theme for their year to be "Martha's Place revisited-the best of 10 years". We will be re-dancing (is that a word?) routines choreographed by me, or learned by me at a workshop. It will make my job easier, since I only need to make the dances fit the dancers-no heavy choreography to do! And I will have videos from past years to refer to. Hallelujah! Now you see one of the reasons why I will miss them!
The recital will be held on Saturday, May 15, 1999 at the Camden Opera House in Camden, Maine. Tickets will be available at the door. If you are interested in attending, and don't know any students to get advance tickets from, e-mail me and I will be happy to have some tickets at the booth for you!