Help bring the U Can Dance Program back!

It was always Miss Leslea's goal to start a program for children with special needs. This year I am happy to say that we finally did it! Unfortunately, timing was not on our side. Most of you know I was pregnant at the start of the program, and extremely pregnant towards the end. Sadly, I had to finally discontinue. I had high hopes on returning 4-6 weeks after delivery but once lil C arrived we realized that almost all of my free time needed to be dedicated towards him. Being down the studio for longs stretches at a time was just not working for us. With my sons demands still being pretty high, I am working towards hiring other instructors to take my place. With that, I would also love to expand the program with performance opportunities and take creative movement to a new level with props and fun games for the kids. That being said, I am reaching out to the community with hopes of some small contributions. The program was at no cost to the children or their families and I would love to keep it that way. The location will still be sponsored by Uptown Dance and some of our assistants will be donating their time. Let's see where this takes us, and high hopes for U Can Dance!! Thank you for checking out or page!

http://ucandance.chipin.com/the-u-can-dance-program

Peace, Love, Dance
Miss Leslea

Dance Advantage's Spring Fever Giveaway

Seems it is that time again and we are super excited to share another week of giveaways provided by Dance Advantage. The last set of giveaways was lots of fun and we were lucky enough to win the Cynthia King ballet slippers! You can read all about it bellow(info taken directly from DA's post) or simply go to Dance Advantage now!

Spring Fever Giveaway!!!!

When will it begin?

Monday, March 21.

When will it end?

Sunday, March 27.

What could I win?

Oh no you don’t. We like to surprise you! I CAN share that we’ve got you covered – your A-B-C’s and 1-2-3′s! Wearables, gear to help you practice and improve, teaching and curriculum aids, and more!

What will I have to do?

All you have to do is show up and comment. Stay tuned all week to DanceAdvantage.net. There will be a link to the giveaways on the home page. Or bookmark this post. I’ll update it to include links to the daily giveway.

What are my chances?

It depends. There will be up to three winners on each giveaway. Winners will be chosen randomly from those that comment on each individual giveaway.

Subscriber PLUS members will have the opportunity to earn extra entries. Good news! There’s still time to sign up… Join HERE.

Why do you hold giveaways?

I see it as a way to show appreciation to readers as well as highlight interesting companies and products with which you may not be familiar. And it doesn’t hurt Dance Advantage, either! It brings new readers and sponsors, creates a bit of buzz, and gives us a warm, fuzzy feeling.

What happens if I win?

After I randomly draw your winning entry comment, I’ll contact you via email. You’ll only have 48 hours to get back to me. I’ve got to put a limit on it or it drags on and on and on…. So stay close to your email throughout the coming week (and a half). When I don’t hear back from a winner, I move on to the next drawn winner which makes another person happy (yay!) but another one pretty disappointed. I’d rather that no one is disappointed!

What do I do now?

Tweet, retweet, tweet again.

Share, like, link on Facebook.

Blog, re-blog, broadcast.

(Monday – mark your calendar!)

Any other questions?

Ask now in the comments below or forever hold your peace...

The Dance Advantage Reader’s Choice Top Dance Blogs of 2010 competition

Contests are fun, especially those that support our dance community. Nichelle of Dance Advantage has done it again, she is rounding us up and encouraging us to enter her contest "Top Dance Blogs of 2010".

I decided to enter because there is a category for Dance Companies/Schools. I have never considered myself a "blogger" or even a good writer... You all know I (like many other dancers) express myself best through my movement and not my words. But, I do feel like I do a decent job at keeping Uptown Dancers and their family and friends well informed with my blog The Uptown Beat. So why not you guys...I'm entering, and I need your help to get to the next round.

If you support what I am saying, enjoy reading my blog, or are a new reader and support Uptown, please leave a comment on this post. In order to get to the next round I will simply need comments...easy enough for you guys, right?

Wish me luck and thanks in advance for your comments, or even if you are just here reading, I appreciate it! Also please support Dance Advantage and go check out this contest if you have not already done so http://danceadvantage.net/2010/12/08/top-dance-blog/

Peace, Love, and Dance!
Miss Leslea

The Dance Advantage Giving Thanks Giveaway

If you read our blog you have heard the names Nichelle and Dance Advantage before. If not, I will quickly tell you that Nichelle is an internet dance bud of mine who I finally had the pleasure of meeting in real life this summer. I am a super fan of her blog/website Dance Advantage and have watched her and DA become a huge success over the past few years. I am proud to inform you all of yet another awesome idea of hers. If you are not already a member of her site you must head over there now... Dance Advantage

If me simply encouraging you to do so is not enough maybe her newest creation will be...

Free Stuff!! Freebies!! Giveaways!! Prizes!! Fun!!

Did that get your attention? Dance Advantage has a super fun contest which started yesterday and will continue throughout the week. Details here... Giving Thanks Giveaway

What are you waiting for... GO!!!! =)

UDMA Costume Preview Show 2010

This year I attended the UDMA Costume Preview Show with my friend, fellow dance teacher, and co worker Graziella Baratta. For those of you who are not familiar with the show...

"The UDMA Dance Resource & Costume Show is the country’s biggest vendor gathering just for dance teachers and studio owners! It’s all under one roof— costumes, competitions, conventions, video and teaching tools, tours, flooring, fundraisers, magazines and many other organizations all showing their newest products and services to help teachers and studios owners with the business of dance."

It is an event I look forward to every year to gather info, think about costumes, and just see whats new. It's amazing to think that many years ago I attended the show as a model...now I walk the exhibit hall as a proud studio owner and teacher. The UDMA show is a special event to me for sure, and if you do not attend yearly as an instructor or studio owner you should consider starting a tradition as I did.

All the booths were welcoming, there were some great displays and excitement throughout. We were happy to run into Jose of Backdrops Beautiful and meet some new friends along the way.

Looking forward to next year already!
www.UDMA.org

The Girls Scouts Dance at Uptown

This past Thursday we had the pleasure of welcoming 19 Brownies into our studio for a Hip Hop class. The girls earned their Dancersize badge that day. I think it's wonderful that the Girl Scouts incorporate dance and fitness into the badges the girls are required to earn.

Having Troupe 762 at Uptown was a blast. Class started with a typical warm up, we then learned a hip hop routine to Dynamite. Miss Leslea taught the class and was assisted by Miss Danielle and Miss Alexandra. Great Job Girls!!

The Uptown Connection

For me, like many studio owners and dance instructors, summer is always the time where I think to myself...What can I do to make next season even better? Usually the first thing on my list is updating and improving our website. This year I was looking for an opportunity that would better serve our students and parents. I often ask myself, how can our website be more useful to our current clientele and not just be a form of advertisement for potential clientele? With the ideas I had in mind I realized I would need constant access to our site to be responsible for the many updates my ideas required. After a long process and some debating, I came up with a solution that I was very happy with... The Uptown Connection, our new site which is a social network exclusive to Uptown Dancers.

So many of you are probably saying, (much like my students would put it) "What's the deal Miss Leslea? Did you get bored again and just feel like creating yet another site for us to join??" My answer would be both yes and no. I do feel an extreme urge to let my creativity out over the summer while I'm not teaching, this year it was in the form of amateur web design and studio renovations. However, this site does have a purpose!! Let me explain...
The Uptown Connection will be a place where students and family members of students can go to get the information they need at any time, or simple go to interact with other Uptown Dancers. Memberships must be approved and there will be access levels. For example, currents students will have full access to class choreography, music, tuition and registration where as a friend or fan of an Uptown student just viewing the site would have limited access to things such as U dance apparel, class schedule and general info. This feature also allows teachers and parents access to information students may not be allowed to view. There are many possibilities which I'm excited about, mostly the opportunity for full control over changing content and monitoring the site.

Some features that are available now to benefit students and families of Uptown:

~Up to date Schedule
~Rates
~Online Registration
~Online tuition payments through PayPal
~Current Events Calendar
~Weekly videos of class choreography
~Class music downloads
~Shopping at U Dance Apparel
~Video Chatting and Rehearsing with classmates
~Social opportunities
~Share Photos
~Blog
~Join a Group
~Spark up a convo in the forum

Eventually the goal will be to have a network like this one available within our main site. Trust me, I prefer things simple and clean, and yes I believe less is more. But for now, at least members can benefit from the ideas I had for them to make their experience at Uptown even greater. I can't wait to expand upon this creation and I'm hopeful that this site will become a useful tool to the Uptown Family. Thanks for reading as always, and if you have any feedback for me I would love to hear it! www.UptownDanceConnection.com