Quick Showstopper Update

July 18, 2008

The kids and I are having a fantastic time in Anaheim at the Showstopper Competition. For the kids, all of their Solo and Group numbers scored in the Gold award category. Thursday was a full day with Sean and Savannah performing their Mexican Folklorico routines Then Savannah’s Polynesian class performed their number followed by Sean and Savannah’s clogging routine. Then Savannah’s Tap/Lyrical/Ballet/Jazz class performed a Lyrical and Jazz trio. Only three dancers from the class could come to the competition, so the class performed in the Duet and Trio category.

Thursday, the kids and I attended dance workshops all day long. We started with Tap, then Jazz, and then the kids did the hip hop class with Deena Rizzo, while I prepped for my Small Folkloric Norteno Polka. Our group performed right near the end of a huge block of Lyrical dances, so our really different Mexican Polka really got the crowd going. We actually won a Gold Award, but Julian gave us a Platinum trophy. When we went to exchange it, he said he actually did it on purpose saying the thought we deserved a platinum.

Today, we had had our solos. The kids performed Song and Dance, and Clogging, both earning Gold and First Place in their categories. After that awards session, Savannah performed her hip hop routine. I was very impressed with her “gliding” which I thought started to show some real hip hop technique. She earned one of her highest ever Showstopper scores. Sean also had some great scores on his Solo, topping his regional solo score.

The evening ended with my Song and Dance solo to New York, New York. That song has long been one of my favorites, so I really enjoyed the challenge of putting dance moves in with the song. The performance went better than I expected and I ended up not only earning a Platinum award level, but also won second place overall in the Adult Age division across all dance categories. It was a nice end to our busy schedule at Showstoppers.

Tomorrow, we head back home.

Posted by Suzanne | Filed Under Games/Hobbies, Travel | 3 Comments

Savannah’s First Video Production

July 14, 2008

During many of our vacations, Savannah has enjoyed time taking video of the various things we have been doing. She knows that Suzanne will spend a bunch of time later editing the video to create a DVD of the experience.

She was so interested in doing this herself that last Christmas we got her a Disney package of a very low end video camcorder and some editing software. It turned out to not be a very good software package.

She has recently spent a lot of time on youtube watching videos and has an account and does other stuff there. She has been wanting to create some of her own videos to upload to youtube. So during our last trip to Michigan, while at the Lake Huron resort, she filmed a bunch of stuff when the weather started getting bad to make her own weather report video.

This weekend we spent a bunch of time teaching her how to use our video editing software (ULEAD) to make videos. When she was done, she posted her work to youtube. Its about what you would expect from 10 year old, so don’t expect an Oscar Award winning short file, but I am pretty impressed with how she picked up the software package and was able to take a bunch of video and edit down to the video below. Enjoy!