Happy New Years!

Wow, another year has flown by here at Kinetic Energy! And what a year it was! 2009 brought many great ventures at Kinetic Energy.

One of the biggest ventures in 2009 was the addition of the Independence location. After finding the perfect location and two very eager-to-work teenagers, the remodeling project took no time at all. We took possession of the building March 1st and opened the doors April 1st with a very busy Open House. Independence got their first exposure to Kinetic Energy during summer classes held in July and August. Fall classes kicked off very strong with classes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

We kicked off the new school year with a big remodeling project at the Cedar Falls studio as well. Staff and students both were getting tired of the "white" walls so we decided to add some color in the form of 'Reflecting Pool'. One of our mom's spent several hours giving the studio a make-over and the students loved it. Now they are trying to convince me to put little Nemo's on the wall...it hasn't worked yet but who knows what 2010 will bring!

September and October flew by as everyone got back in the routine of classes and preparing for another great year. We welcomed more students through the doors of Kinetic Energy this year than we've ever had. We went from offering 37 classes during the 2008-2009 year to offering 50 classes for the 2009-2010 year! Wow!!

November became crunch time in getting ready for the Concert of Joy. We sadly were unable to take part in the Festival of Trees this year so we had all students perform in our own holiday show the Concert of Joy. In preparing for this, a select group of dancers were invited to perform with the Wartburg Symphony in their rendition of Swan Lake. Kinetic Energy dancers performed six full-length pieces from the ballet.

Although the weather did frighten us the week before the Concert of Joy, it did go off on time this year. The students and staff put on two wonderful shows at the Strayer-Wood Theatre in December. The theatre was filled with songs like "Mr. Grinch", "Rock This Christmas", "Run, Rudolph, Run" and many other holiday favorites. The following week we celebrated the successful shows and played some 'reindeer games' in preparation for our holiday break.

So here I sit, break coming to an end and headed back to classes in less than 48 hours. Break was wonderful but I'm ready to get back to work. We will take a month or two to focus on technique before we begin working on our year-end dances. This years theme is 'Oh, The Places We'll Go' and the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center will be filled with a wonderful selection of songs depicting different places around the world.

I look forward to the adventures 2010 holds for Kinetic Energy! Best wishes to everyone this year and watch for many more blog entries this year. This is my New Year's Resolution (well one of them) for Kinetic Energy...make sure I share more of the exciting happenings with everyone! Hold on to your hats cause there is never a dull moment!