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Miss Leslea
Leslea Clark is a dedicated dance instructor, performer, and fitness professional. Leslea began to dance at the age of 3 and took her desire for performing and training to the next level in college where she obtained a degree in Dance Arts. She then began to teach a variety of styles of dance for all ages and went on to pursue her love of movement through a fitness career. Leslea teaches at her family-owned dance studio, Uptown Dance in New Jersey and travels to teach private lessons or group choreography. Her dance repertoire includes Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip-hop, Pointe, Lyrical and Creative Movement. As an AFAA Certified Fitness Instructor, Leslea enjoys teaching Yoga, Pilates, Spinning, and group fitness classes at local gyms. In 2002 she became a High School cheerleading coach which adds to her list of rewarding jobs. Most recently in 2007 she began performing professionaly with G-Volution Dance Company. Leslea always looks forward to sharing her love for movement and creativity with others and is continually excited about new opportunities to learn and grow in her fields.
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Saturday, October 18, 2008

UDMA Costume Preview Show

My mother and I attended this years UDMA Costume Preview Show in Seacaucus NJ. I felt the need to write a post about the very enjoyable time we had. Believe it or not, we had never attended a UDMA show together. I attended when I was younger as a model, and my mother use to attend with the owner of the school she worked at prior to owning her own.

The show is held in the Meadowlands Exposition Center. It is very organized with the booths lined up in aisles. You simply walk up and down and stop where you like. At check in you are given a badge to wear and tote to put your catalogs and merchandise in. For those who do not know, this is a free event for studio owners and teachers. There is even seminars and a fashion show you may attend at additional cost.


We enjoyed most the booths which had items for sale. I bought a "dance teacher" tank from Tia's Dancewear, silver dance sneakers from Stars Dancewear, and car magnet from All About Dance that says "Give Peace a Dance."


My mom won a free month from Dance Teacher Web through their scratch off game. We will be very interested in checking out their site. We were pleasantly surprised to see several games available for us to play. For example, we got to spin a wheel at Starpower Competition's booth and both won pocket mirrors.


We didn't spend much time at the costume booths because after 16 Recitals we have done business with almost all of the companies. We have narrowed down our ordering to 2 companies which we are very happy about. The only catalogs/companies that were new to us were UFO (hip hop dance pants) and Bodywrappers. We made sure we put ourselves on their mailing list and left confidently that we now get all of the great costume and dancewear catalogs to our studio.


I highly recommend The Costume Preview show to new studio owners. Its the perfect opportunity to get catalogs and put your studio on mailing lists. You also get to feel the quality and see the costumes on a model. Costumes, Dancewear, Competitions, Workshops, Conventions and more, all in one place.


For established studios its a great opportunity to check out new vendors and make sure you receive every catalog so you have a choice when selecting costumes. Its also a nice opportunity to bond with the teachers in your studio, you can make a day of it with lunch after or breakfast prior. That's exactly what we did after.



We very much look forward to next years show. For more information you can visit http://www.udma.org/. You can also join their mailing list if you are a teacher, school owner, or coach.

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