A Personal Letter from A Dancer

Dear Amy and Karen,

I want to truly thank you from the bottom of my heart!

It is my number one dream to go to school for dance and be a star Broadway performer/professional dancer/choreographer/teacher! Yes, I have big dreams, but I have even greater drive to achieve these dreams! The eight weeks flew by so quickly; I can't believe that the program has come to its end! No matter how small a part in time these eight weeks have been compared to the many years that I've been training, these eight weeks mean so much to me!

Karen, this ballet...
It was first my dream to be a professional ballet dancer. Of course, this was before I even took my first ballet class! I have had my good days and my bad days with ballet, honestly! There are some days I want to give up and just sit down; then there are days where I feel like I quite possibly look like Martell up there at the barre. Haha. Regardless, I never did give up on ballet! I may have chickened out in the end (which I greatly regret, actually -_-), but I feel so accomplished because I learned SO much about ballet and ballet technique! I use words now when I'm dancing that I never heard of before! I still refer to the terms sheet that we were given the first weeks! I make sure to slow down and make sure I'm doing the technique properly now. I now know what the proper technique is. Haha. Thanks to you. I want to thank you so much for all that you have taught me this summer! I want to thank you for just being an amazing teacher and having the best analogies for helping us all understand how to execute things properly! No seriously...they're the BEST! Ballet may not be my strongest suit, but I am beyond proud to name you as my very first ballet teacher! :) You are so great, Karen! And although my ballet dancer dream may be slowly fading away from reality, you MADE me realize that with a lot of confidence, I could learn! Because of you, I will fight to learn as much as possible and try my hardest at everything I come across! I really hope that my schedule works out with Dance Ensemble for the fall so that I can learn under you!

Amy, this choreography, though...
It is STILL a part of my dreams to be a choreographer. It will probably always be my dream to be a choreographer. This summer, I saw my first piece come alive! I instantly fell in love with your style of dancing our first day of learning Bahamut. The way that you dance and choreograph is sorta like the way I dance at home when no one else is around! You have truly inspired me to explore my individuality and express my weird choreography! From watching you help with my piece and others' pieces, I have learned so much about choreography and the process of cleaning and everything. I learned mostly from watching you choreograph your own pieces, though! You're such an amazing choreographer! I think about how you've managed to make these pieces flow so smoothly and look so great! It blows my mind! One day I will be able to just choreograph and morph my own pieces to exactly how I want. Furthermore, I don't think you realize how much that heart-to-heart we had meant to me. In the beginning of the summer, I had so many bad days--not sure if you and Karen noticed. I had been going through a lot of personal things regarding relationships--family, friends, and ~teen stuff~. LOL. Anyway, having that talk with you was exactly what I needed to find the strength inside of me to get myself together. I had been thinking about dropping out of the ensemble. I mean, my health was starting to irritate me, my relations were ALL out of whack, and I had lost so much drive to even get up in the morning to go to work! If it weren't for my grandma making sure I was up around that time, I don't think I would have come! After that talk we all had, though, I took it upon myself to make things in my life work for me; if they didn't work for me, I cut them out. Amy, you are an amazing person! You are so inspirational! You make sure that we get our work done, but we can also have so much fun and be real people, even if it's for a minute or so! I have greatly enjoyed dancing under you and picking up from all the knowledge you throw out there! Oh, and your awkward words are the best! LOL. Octo— HAHAHAHAHA!!!! You are so great!

My junior year dance teacher and mentor told me that there are people you have to learn to know and then let go. He also told me to make sure that the people you know you'll have to let go, even if you may come across them again, should know what they have done to contribute to your life. You have both made me learn so much about dance and even myself! I was so upset when I didn't get to do Joffrey's program! After DAY ONE, those feelings were gone! I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart! We, as an ensemble, can be very annoying! In the end, though, we have accomplished a lot! We have all learned a lot! Please never forget me! When I'm big, both of your names HAVE to be in at LEAST one of my acceptance speeches! :)

Enjoy this break from me! I'll be seeing you soon!

With love, love, and more love,
Yasir Stackhouse, Jr.

Our Summer, Summed

Please enjoy this video to see a taste of what this summer has been like for us! 

This has been an amazing summer of great ventures! Who would have believed that we would have had the opportunity to work with such amazing people and have fun doing it? 

Thank you so much Amy and Karen! You all have been the most amazing instructors and support system for many of us! :) 

This summer means so much more to all of us because of Dance Ensemble! Graduates will be missed and there's always hope that familiar faces will return!

Millennium Park Photo Shoot

The ensemble hit the trail and took a nice, long walk...right across the street to one of Chicago's greatest landmarks, the Bean! There, we originally planned to dance—our own little version of a flash mob—and take pictures. Sadly, we were shut down about 30 seconds into our first piece! Luckily, however, we were given enough rights to "practice"; this was enough to have an amazing photo shoot.

DANCE. IS. LOVE!

Summer 2012

The Ensemble After Our Attempted Flashmob/Photoshoot

The Ensemble After Our Attempted Flashmob/Photoshoot 2

This has been a very exciting summer filled with learning experiences and greater accomplishments. As an ensemble, I'm sure everyone can agree that we have had our share of good days and bad days, but somehow we can come together and get the work done. Dancing along side one another, we have only began to learn from each other and grow together, taking our love for dance, technique, and ability to learn to greater levels. We have suddenly realized that this summer, however, is sadly quickly coming to its end! But this will not slow us down!

Why?, you may be asking! Why is this post a necessity? Well, that question has two answers.

Firstly, this blog needs something on it! The poor thing hasn't been touched in two years! And for the remainder of the program, there

Secondly, it's to catch everyone up on all the wonderful things ASM Dance Ensemble has gotten themselves into!

We have had our fair share of shows, performing at venues such as South Shore Cultural Center, Loyola Park, Daley Plaza, and The Chicago Cultural Center. Some students have began to explore their choreographic creativity, setting some of their first pieces on the company. In an attempt to do a very original flash mob, photo shoot mix, we were sadly told to stop the "show". Luckily, with the right connections, we were at least able to take some amazing pictures! There was an amazing joint masterclass and performance  with dancers of Douglas Park. Dancers were treated to a masterclass with Danceworks Chicago. There has been fun, hard work, tears, a lot of blood and bandages (thanks to Amy's insane floor work), burned feet, and even a little vogue! All in all, we have really enjoyed making very positive memories with one another doing the thing we love most!

The ensemble after Danceworks Chicago masterclass

There is more to come! We have the biggest shows of the season coming right for us! We are in crazy clean mode where everything has to be made perfect and then be made even better than that! Pieces are being finished, dancers are making them come to life, and our fire is still burning bright!

Support us all in supporting our communities through dance!

The Ensemble ♥