ELITE Dance Studios NEWS!

ELITE had a great time at the “JUMP” convention down in Los Angeles this past weekend.  The girls Represented! and were awesome!  Dancing the weekend away with “So You Think You Can Dance” choreographer Mandy Moore, “This Is It” Michael Jackson tour dancer Misha, Dee Caspary, Doug Caldwell and many more talented dancer/instructors.

Thanks to Break the Floor Productions for a fun weekend.  ELITE Dance Studios is excited to gear up for another exciting event!

Check out some of our ELITE PETITE dancing in the JUMPstart room!  Adorable and definitely ELITE!!!!!!

First High School Dance Team competition of the season and…..

FIRST PLACE GOES TO KELLEY KUNAK! 

Freshman solo for West Ranch High School Dance Team - Choreography by Jacqueline Hill of ELITE Dance Studios to the song ”Promises in the Dark”. 

Way to go Kelley!  Keep it up and keep dancing hard!!!!!

AWESOME JOB, WE ARE ALL SO PROUD OF YOU!

YOU ARE ELITE!

Pictured here with proud Mom & Dad (John and Mary Kunak) at one of the many successful ELITE Dance Studios Performances!

New pointe shoes for ELITE dancers! At ELITE when it’s time to move onto Pointe, it’s a special day and Jacqueline spends many hours shopping for the perfect pair of pointe shoes for EVERY dancer!  Thank you to Erica at The Dance Store in Los Angeles for helping us make sure that all of our dancers find the right shoe.

Kelsey’s shoes had to be special ordered!  Photo coming soon….

Under the guidance of Jacqueline and Erica the dancers made out!  Lindsay Ryan (in Bloch), Kelsey Treichler (in a Grishko “Maya”) and Taylor Kakiki & Jennifer Kelleher (European Balance) got their very first pair of shoes - CONGRATULATIONS girls!  Molly Ryan (Grishko 2007) and Hayley Smith (Russian Pointe) were fitted for new shoes and excited to sew them as soon as they could! 

Miss Jacqueline picked up 3 pair for herself!  A couple of Russian and a British - she is thrilled to be dancing with the girls and loves being able to dance in so many different, beautiful shoes!

WOW! is all we can say….”The Magical Journey of Hope” was a huge success. 

“Stunning!” - “So entertaining, it should be on Broadway!” - “The dancers and costumes were beautiful, a phenomenal show!”

Take a look…so many amazing moments!

Thanks to Brad Alden for heading up the fantastic entertainment and to Renee Sabol (organizer of the event) for a great weekend.  We look forward to next year!

(Did you see us in the Magazing of Santa Clarita!?!  That’s Jacqueline introducing the talented Performance Group!)

Congratulations to ELITE PERFORMANCE GROUP TEAM DANCERS Lindsay Ryan and Molly Ryan on a wonderful opening night!  Complete with the red carpet and celebrity guests ”How The Grinch Stole Christmas” at the beautiful Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Blvd runs until January 3rd 2010…performing in this Broadway production is a fun way to fill the holidays!

“How The Grinch Stole Christmas” opened to a full house, laughter and much applause.  With John Larroquette as “Old Max” and Stefan Karl as the “Grinch” the audience is treated to original songs like “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch” and “Welcome Christmas”.

Thank you to the Ryan family for inviting us to spend this special time with them at the theatre.  ELITE Dance Studios was represented top notch!  Wandering around on the stage we had the opportunity to tell John good job and to take a look at the props, stage sets and fun stuff the “Whos” get to play with!

Fun times for TEAM at the Halloween show!!!!

Thank you to Lisa Baumbin and the Santa Clarita Sheriff Station for hosting another great event!  Our good friend Rick Chambers former news anchor of KCBS/KCALwas there too, alway great to see him! 

Take a look at some of the creations!

Take the Home Depot Center + the LA GALAXY SOCCER TEAM +20,000 fans…add The ELITE PERFORMANCE GROUP = What do you get?…..Only ANOTHER AMAZING PERFORMANCE DAY FOR ELITE DANCE STUDIOS!

After a crowd pleasing performance on the Concourse for the waiting LA GALAXY fans the ELITE TEAM took the field and THRILLED 20,000 more with an outstanding performance of “Black Betty”.  The Home Depot Center and LA Galaxy crowd had never seen anything like it!  The stands roared with applause as the ELITE TEAM danced on the field.  The camera men worked their way through the dancers to bring them to the jumbo tron for a closer look at their beautiful faces and talented dancing.  The TEAM never missed a beat! 

The LA GALAXY had made contact with ELITE last year after seeing the ELITE website and requested a meeting with our studio director Jacqueline Hill.  After a few meetings with the GALAXY rep the TEAM agreed to bring “Black Betty” to the field this June (just one week after performing four sold out presentations of the Summer Festival of Dance 2009).  The ELITE TEAM was thrilled to work with Nick Mann and Rachel Valadez of the GALAXY and are looking forward to bringing their talent to the Home Depot Center again soon….that is of course if they can fit it into their already full performance calendar!!!

  BA BLAM!  YOU WERE AMAZING!

Well done TEAM!  Congratulations on 4 amazing performances at the High School Spring Season of shows!  West Ranch started off the season and the crowd couldn’t believe their eyes as all 65 ELITE TEAM members took the gym floor for an electrifying performance of “Black Betty”.

With TEAM dancers ranging from the ELITE PETITE - ONLY 5 YEARS OLD!  dancing with the oldest TEAM members (20+ years) the ELITE TEAM stole the show!  Following up West Ranch with Valencia, Hart and then Saugus it just kept going and going!  The applause was thunderous, the ELITE TEAM created a rock concert!  4 amazing performances…4 fun weekends of hair and make-up to prep for each show…65 AMAZING DANCERS blowing everyone out of the water!

If you are interested in joining this incredible TEAM of ELITE dancers stop by and visit us or give us a call…we get dancers everyday from all of the studios, don’t waste any more time!  The new TEAM season starts July 2009.  Beginners thru advanced - you won’t be disappointed!

CONGRATULATIONS 2008/2009 TEAM

A true story…

Having attended another local dance studio and participating in the year end recital the father became increasingly disappointed.  Having dance experience himself he turned to the mother and commented on how the dancers only got worse as they got older.  There was no way they were going to spend their hard earned money and their precious time continuing with this kind of dance training for the daughter.  So the family decided to attend the West Ranch High School Dance Team Show in April 2007 with the purpose of taking stock on what else Santa Clarita had to offer. 

The mother sat with note pad and pen taking specific notes on the multiple studios performing.  Sitting through the entire show the family was yet to be intrigued let alone see a studio that they would want to move to, perhaps the daughter wouldn’t be dancing afterall…and then about two numbers to the end of the show came ELITE!  Down went the pad and pen, the eyes widened.  The familiy couldn’t believe what they were seeing, finally a professional dance studio!

The professionalism of the TEAM was out standing.  The dance quality was unprecidented and unsurpassed.  Add the costuming, hair, make-up, and extreme origianlity of the choreography the father turned and said to the mother “that’s it…we are moving to ELITE”.  

And that was it…the daughter joined the studio right away and soon after became a member of the ELITE Petite!

There you have it… Performances by the ELITE Performance Group TEAM are always professional and never let you down.  A knock your socks of show always!  They work hard, are disciplined, and love what they do.  The ELITE Performance Group is in such high demand that their performance calendar books a year and a half out.  Fun loving TEAM parents and families spend time working with the dancers, making new family friends.  Life long friendships for the dancers are another beautiful side product of being on the TEAM. 

You don’t have to be on the Performance Group to get the most out of your dancing at ELITE.  All ELITE dancers get the most professional, top shelf training out there.  ELITE dancers get custom schedules and individual attention.  Non performers continue to get unbiased classtime focusing on technique and continued improvement year round.  Constantly we are praised that “even the ELITE 2 yr olds are actually learing how to dance”.  Parents are thrilled that they are not wasting their hard earned dollars on baby sitting.  In these tough economical times that is so important.

At ELITE we spend our time really teaching dancers, watching them closely, inspiring them, and motivating them.  Constantly setting the trends at ELITE with music, choreography, costuming and more we find the other studios struggling to immitate our studio structure and creations.  As they say “immitation is the sencerest form of flattery”. 

ELITE welcomes dancers from all studios, competition teams, performance teams, beginners to the most advanced.  They come to us every single day so you won’t be the only one, you’ll for sure see dancers that you already know!

We can guarantee you the most professional, nuturing and inspirational classes of every style.  The most performance opportunities city wide for our performers.  If you are even the slightest bit unhappy with your current studio, or simply new to dance, we encourage you to take a leaf out of hundreds of other dancers books…come and watch The ELITE Performance Group this Spring show season.

COME AND WITNESS WHAT HUNDREDS BEFORE YOU HAVE!!!! 

Contact us at info@elitedancestudios.net for info on upcoming shows…you won’t be disappointed!

We filled Chili’s up, filled ourselves up and had tons of fun!!  Thanks to Mike Kakiki and our new friends at Chili’s for a great night.

At ELITE all of our dancers are important.  From our tiniest two year olds to our oldest, most professional performers everyone is an ELITE dancer.  We consider each student as an individual first.  We customize schedules for every dancer that attends ELITE.  The Santa Clarita Valley has never known a studio like this before.  So many parents have come to me and expressed concern and unhappiness based on their experiences at other local studios.  “If you aren’t already good, they ignore you”  and ”My daughter gets treated badly because she just joined”.  How about “We’ve been there for so long, being treated terribly the whole time,  I don’t know why I didn’t leave sooner!”.  These are only some of the statements made to us on a daily basis.

Our theory at ELITE is a simple one.  Anyone who wants to be able to dance can!  Professional studios all over the world enable dancers (of all ages) to learn to become amazing at their craft.  ELITE falls into this category by offering a staff that is actually capable of teaching, a staff that understands the work that needs to be put in, and a staff that pays attention to every student all of the time.

We don’t expect our dancers or our parents to know everything when they come to us.  We are here to educate all of the parties involved.  We encourage questions, we inspire thought and we take care of our customers.  No one falls into a general, non descript group.

With the most performance opportunities of any studio all ELITE dancers have the chance to shine on stage.  If the stage is not for you - no worries!  Class time at ELITE is not impacted, all dancers get a top shelf class no matter what.  For the best customer service, instructors with the most professional background and knowledge, and the most performance opportunities stop by ELITE and become an ELITE dancer!

At ELITE “ELITE” means everyone!

Anyone happen to catch the Grammy Awards this Sunday?  Well…just thought you might like to know that the amazing lights the stars perform under are supplied by ShowPro of Los Angeles.  ShowPro is a friend of ours and guess what?  He lights your beautiful little dancers during our Summer Festival, and “The Magical Journey of Hope”!!!  One of the joys of producing our own shows is working with people at the top of their profession.  David and the team at ShowPro www.ShowPro.net are THE TOP and we are proud to have such a great relationship with them.  Thanks to our friend Frazer for adding another great talent to the TEAM!

David Smith (owner of ShowPro) www.ShowPro.net was kind enough to share the press release with us the week prior to the show, informing a select few in the industry of the technical side of the set up.  We made sure to tune in to see the “Versatubes” in action! 

ShowPro provided the Grammy’s with an incredible variety of amazing lights for their 51st production Sunday, February 8th 2009 at the Staples Center.  Below we have included the press release!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

ShowPro Sets Scene for 51st GRAMMY Awards

Los Angeles-based ShowPro is setting the scene for the upcoming 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards with over 1500 HD VersaTubes for lighting designer Bob Dickinson and production design partners Steve Bass and Brian Stonestreet. The VersaTubes are mounted on various parts of the set including stair cases, rolling walls, and a unique mechanical “close down” wall on the downstage edge of the stage. One special performance will feature an array of VersaTubes as chandeliers and uprights. To facilitate the application, ShowPro did a pre-install at Scenic Express, a Los Angeles based scenic shop, with the support of VER.

“This is a stunningly beautiful use of one meter and half meter HD VersaTubes,” says ShowPro president David Smith. “This is our second year working with Full Flood on this show, and we are so impressed with Bob’s application of these devices not only as effective motion graphics tools for the camera, but as stand-alone sculptures as well. They’re just beautiful when applied in this setting.”

The GRAMMY Awards will feature performances by Paul McCartney, U2, Radiohead, Jennifer Hudson, Justin Timberlake, Neil Diamond, and 15 other artists. The annual special airs on CBS Sunday, February 8th at 8pm et/pt in HD, live from The Staples Center.

The 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards are produced by John Cossette Productions in association with AEG Ehrlich Ventures for The Recording Academy. Ken Ehrlich and John Cossette were executive producers.

ShowPro provides lighting, projection and video to the special event industry.

Way to go David and the TEAM at ShowPro…we can’t wait to have you light our upcoming Summer Festival June 13th & 14th!!!

       I also want to congratulate a few of our youngest students.  After months and months of watching their big sisters in class, five little girls have made it to their second birthday and have finally gotten their chance to shine.   So to Brennan Cabunoc, Kennedy Crone, Mallory Palm, Olivia Upton and Savannah Spies, you’re all doing a great job in your “big girl” class! 

 Here is a picture from Brennan’s and Kennedy’s first class!

Brennen and Kennedy

   Everyone keep up the hard work and we will be sure to have another great year of dance!

          - Miss Amber

WELCOME BACK!!!

I just want to congratulate everyone on the very successful performance of The Magical Journey of Hope! I’m already thinking about next year. It has been a great first week back. With The Magical Journey of Hope behind us we have until the summer to work on ballet technique. I used the break to do lots of reading a research to come up with a unique syllabus for each and every one of my ballet classes. It is based off the principles of the Vaganova technique and used is used in the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Russia. It will of course have my own touches as well as Elite’s one of a kind stamp I can guarantee you will not find anything like it in the Santa Clarita Valley!

2009 is going to be a great year for Elite.

You may have heard this term of endearment from many….well, yep!  It is true!

ELITE Dance Studios is the trend setting studio of the Santa Clarita Valley.  With a reputation that proceeds it, this is impossible to deny.  While the dancers at ELITE are making history with the new and innovative holiday production of The Magical Journey of Hope™other studios are falling behind with out dated presentations of The Nutcracker or trying to catch up by attempting to recreate old holiday productions at the last minute.  Nothing original, nothing new.  At ELITE it is all new, all original!

Not only are ELITE dancers playing a huge part in the evolution of dance they are propelling it into 2009.

Imitation is said to be one of the biggest forms of flattery…  Often I am approached at shows and complimented on how it seems we are always ahead of the curve.  As I travel the world sharing my knowledge with other top professionals it is exciting to know that my dancers have all that is new and exciting in the palm of their hand.  With the creative staff at ELITE the customers are sure to have the most up to date choreography and music; but it doesn’t stop there!  Custom make up sessions for performances enhance the precisely designed costumes that the dancers adorn to take it up a notch.  Stepping onto the dance floor with original ideas and creations is something that we take pride in at ELITE.  On many occassions our dancers will be emulated the following season.

In the business we say “bring it home” and let me tell you that is exactly what the ELITE performers do.  When you are coming close to the end of a piece of choreography you know that the audience should be taken with you to the next level of excitment.  Our dancers understand this…I see so many others somehow maintain a mediocre level of performance quality.  Performance is for a reason and part of that includes how you move your audience; it is not only about kicking high, jumping huge and turning endlessly.  In this day and age audiences want excitment…blow something up!  Just look at movies.  ELITE understands what an audience wants and works hard to take it all to the next level.  Our dancers put more than just dance out for an audience; dance, heart, soul, pride and then some.

In the grand scheme of things the dance world is a small and intricate world; but one that dancers can have an impact on that will translate to the bigger “outside” world if done right.  More than right is what is happening at ELITE!  Join us this year to make a difference in your dance world, and the entire world of dance!

With 2009 only hours away I would like to wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

AND…I would like to take this moment to congratulate you!  Congratulations on a year filled with much success. 

Congratulations to our parents for searching out one of the top 3 dance studios in Southern California for your young dancers; you have found the most professional, positive, progressive studio available to you.  Thank you for your continued patronage! 

Congratulations to our students for making history by being a part of what is new and exciting in dance around the world.  You have helped to create a place where all dancers are welcomed and encouraged to be their best! 

Congratulations to my ELITE staff for contributing your talents to THE TREND SETTING STUDIO OF THE SCV!  You have helped bring professionalism, motivation and creativity to Santa Clarita’s dance world. 

I am looking forward to sharing the next year of dance with all of you.  The memories we are collecting are priceless.  I will hold them close to my heart and treasure each and every moment of the past as we continue to create our future together. 

At ELITE it is my pleasure to watch every student we have grow and progress to the heights of their dreams daily.  I often tell people that I have the best job in the world…I continue to do what I love, am fortunate to get to share it with many other top professionals in my field from all over the world, and have a beautiful ELITE family to bring to life my visions with…all while I watch young dancers make and fulfill desires and goals of their own. 

As we enter into a new year together know that I am grateful for all of you and what you bring to ELITE with you…none of this would be possible solo!

Happy New Year!  with love xoxo Miss Jacqueline

The Magical Journey of Hope™

A custom written story; this colorful heartfelt production thrilled the sold out audiences as it filled the theatre with music, dance, color and beauty.  Sounds of tears and laughter joined the applause as it roared through the audience.  “Broadway is where you belong ELITE!”

Congratulations to all of our ELITE dancers!  You are making history, not repeating it!  An amazing production was brought to life by you, we are again setting the trends in dance!  Out standing!!!

Thursday matinee with Paul Strickland, listen here!

http://www.hometownstation.com/thursday-matinee/thursday-matinee-november-13-2008.html

Too much fun!  Thanks to Westfield westfield.com
for another great event!

Check out the amazing photographs taken by the KHTS photographer for our hometown radio station’s website!  We had a great time hanging out with everyone and wowing the crowds again this year with our fantastic creations.  ELITE On air again at this event added to the fun!

Here we are again!  The November issue of the “Santa Clarita Living Magazine” has us featured!

Check out this link!  Go to page 24 and there we are!

 http://publishing.yudu.com/Library/Avief/SCLNOV08/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbeta.yudu.com%2Flibrary%2Fitem_details%2F21704%2FSCLNOV08

Check out the latest podcast with our very own Studio Director and Lifestyle Fitness expert Ellen Como.  Stay tuned for live broadcasts every month from the Valencia Town Center!

ELITE and the Santa Clarita Kids Expo!  Another great event, a day filled with fun, families and dancing. 

The ELITE Performance Group took to the stage and the microphone!  With on air interviews every hour our dancers were busy entertaining not only those in attendance but radio listeners too!