Christmas Gifts for Dance Teachers..!?!?!**&^! HELP.

December 2, 2008 on 9:29 am | In Anthony, Positive reinforcement, Uncategorized | No Comments

With the last Turkey Day leftovers being gobbled up, I am now turning to Christmas. The tree in the house is up, the “North Pole Village” is placed, and I am getting itchy to bake my once a year treats.  I also have some comments and suggestions for Christmas gifts that are simple, valuable, and will put a happy face on any Dance Teacher in the world!

For years I have been blessed with gifts from parents and students, but at Christmas I am even more greatful, surprised, and blown away at the amount of goodies my wife, Bethany, and I receive.

First, as much as I love the cakes, cookies, sweets, and chocolates - I need a muzzle for all those munchies.

Now, that doesn’t mean home-made cookies and treates from the kitchen are a no-nos. The rule should be, “If you make it at home you’re good to go.  If it comes from a store, that sweet is a bore.”

Plus, there is better, cheaper, and more lavishing gifts you can get a Dance Teacher as you will soon see. Remember, as Dance Teachers we discourage sweets to our students and try to stay healthy ourselves. You know we need to watch our girlish figures.

Second, a little attention to detail goes a long way. Does your Dance Teacher have an ipod? As Dance Teachers we  spend so much of our own money on music for classes.  An iTunes gift card - get $1, $2, or even $3 bucks from a few parents (or out of a student’s allowance - their teacher, their $, their gift - why not?).  If your teacher always has cups of  Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Smoothie King, or - well you get it.  With 10 students/parents you can give a $30.00 gift card. That is huge for a Dance Teacher and a pretty sweet iTunes gift card.

With the abilty to generate larger denominations, you start to get more options.

  1. Movie Theatre gift card
  2. Gas gift card
  3. local place for lunch gift certificate
  4. Gift certificate for a manicure
  5. a simple Thank you card signed with 3 crisp ten dollar bills enclosed.

All I am saying is with five minutes, a little communication (Danceregister is the perfect way for parents to quickly, simply, and safely communicate), and some observation you can give someone special, something special. They will be impressed, thankful, and I bet they will remember what a fantastic gift they recieved.

A handful of gifts cards, that will save a teacher money, is like an investment in your student’s education. Plus, it is so much easier to put those in your dance bag - My wife actually brings home 5 or 6 bags of gifts, over-flowing with sugary goods, every day the week before Christmas break. HOLY COW!!!! The first time I saw that I thought she was a traveling bakery…Just kidding. I hunkered down and started eating.

Hope this helps - Happy Holiday Season!

Tap w/u Soon, ALL

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Anthony and Thunderstruck, 2009 dates just announced!!!

December 2, 2008 on 12:34 am | In Anthony, Tap Dogs, competition, danceregister, judging | No Comments

Recently, I was contacted by friend and a former Tap Dog Cast member of mine,  Jeremy Fullam.  He is a co-founder of Thunderstruck Dance Competition and owner of Summerlin Dance Academy in Nevada.  I was invited to participate at 9 events in 2009. Dates I will be appearing with Thunderstruck are currently listed on Danceregister.com.

If you aren’t currently a Danceregister member, join us now, as we “Race to 1000″!  At DR we are getting closer and closer to our goal of 1000 verified dance related members! As of this post we are at 953! It’s currently free to join but won’t be forever….

See you at Thunderstruck!!!

Tap w/u Soon, ALL

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Holland: Found a Dog & Rehearsal Day 1

September 16, 2008 on 10:47 am | In Anthony, Tap, Tap Dogs, performing, report | No Comments
Waking up after a few short hours of sleep, in a different country, after a day and 1/2 of travel was easier than I expected. I was up an hour before our call, went down to have some breakfast, and chatted with new Dogs. I discovered on the way out that morning that Josh was located and it was going to be a long day.

Josh had major ticket issues with his flight. In true “Dog” form he sorted it out. On his own credit card he purchased new tickets. He made it to Amsterdam late the night before and then took a train to Rotterdam. Finally he arrived late in the night and with no sleep was ready to rehearse. That is a determined Dog and we were very glad to see him. I was very excited to see him and took advantage of the 30 minute bus ride to the performance site for some catch-up time. He wasn’t living in Vegas anymore. Josh moved back to Vancouver and has ventured into becoming a Chef. Very cool. Very tired from his unconventional trip, it was a lazy but fun little conversation. I missed him over the past 4 years. He and I had a very long history as Dogs together, experiencing all of America over the 6 years we toured with Tap Dogs. It was amazing not to see him, and other American Touring Dogs, for such an extended period of time, yet pick-up just where we left off. It was almost like the four years we all spend apart instantly melted away and we all pick-up these life-long friendships right from where we last parted.

Soon we arrived at the performance site. I say site because this is NOT a theatre, convention hall, or any other traditional stage setting. We enter a heavily guarded international shipping terminal. This is brand new terminal that cost over 1 Billion Euro. That is a lot of money, and a lot more than 1 Billion U.S. Dollars. The terminal was huge and beyond real comprehention. Unless you actually stand in the middle of this vast landscape and visually see and feel the money, power, and strength of this terminal could you possibly understand it’s greatness. The event we were the entertainment for, was the official opening of this terminal. It was a 1 Million Euro party with international guests from all over the international big money business world.

We were set up in the “green-room”. It was located in a self standing RENTED building , yes rented, which had 4 sections. The main hall. The VIP section. The Kitchen! and the artist’s area. We have some coffee and head into the main hall. I slowed as we approached the round stage in this hall but I realized nobody else stopped. Everyone headed to a covered hallway I didn’t notice on the way into the building.

We followed this maze for what seemed like 4 or 5 NYC blocks. It started to feel way bigger than I ever could have realized at this point. As we turn the final corner there was sunlight. When we stepped out of the tunnel into the daylight, it started to hit me….This wasn’t big - this was huge. In 2 days we were going to perform for enormous business entities that are powerful enough to effect the international business landscape with a phone call or even a simple nod of the head.

Rehearsal was excellent right from the first day. Much quicker than I, or anyone expected, all 14 of us were not only tapping, but tapping TOGETHER and very well I might add….O.K. there was a rusty boot or two but they shed their skin fast and sounded well practiced only after a few short minutes. In the later morning it started to get cloudy and we had rain on and off. We tapped between short storm clouds and then went in for an early lunch.

After lunch it was back to the performance area. It was raining the hardest yet that day. I sat and started to take the moment in. There were shipping containers stratigically placed all over the yard. There was heavy moving equipment everywhere. Large trucks, enormous container cranes and  un-manned remote control “jockey horses” to shift and swing the large metal boxes all around us during the actual performance. The best part. The coolest part of the backdrop wasn’t even there yet. An actual open ocean container ship.

The stage itself was wooden as expected. Behind the stage, where we were to perform, was a pyramid of even more shipping containers and a large LED screen to broadcast the stage show during the event. There was metal and wood ramps for us to tap on, plus we were going to start the actual performance about 50 or so yards away in the audience. This is going to be cool!

I started getting antsy and wanted to get tapping. It was still raining and some of the guys were clapping grinders. Grinders are industrial power tools we utilized for the brilliant spark effect in a dark setting. The industrial nature of these metal grinding handheld mini monsters was perfect for this show. Since these are not the safest things to work with in the rain, clapping the beats or counts as a group was a useful way to practice this section of the show.

About an hour later we were back to work. We went through the entire first 1/2 of our performance. Sheldon and Doubtfire (my new favorite best friend) created some new material for the audience section. 10 of us will be tapping up and down the stairs and isles. Then we run across the open section up to the stage area. In true Dog fashion we start the pack and then off we go. Did some drum beats, tables, Basketball (I sat that section out), and finally grinders. Show Part I - Done! It was then I requested a time check…..8pm. 10 hour day…Not bad for the first day back to being a Dog! We did one final run for the day and then headed for the green room. We had a hot meal and then all quickly dragged our bodies back onto the bus for the ride home.

When all was said and done, we were back to the hotel about 10:30 that night. What a long but fantastic day. All Dogs are accounted for, the setting for the show is the perfect for the Tap Dog vibe, and we all “dogged-up” came through and were off to a fantastic start. The rain was a small concern on day one and didn’t have it’s final say as of yet. But that wasn’t going to become evident until show time.

Got to my room. Took a shower…ahhhhhh! Set Bethany an email - darn phone card was the source of my current troubles, and down to hang with the Dogs. Chatted for a few hours. Laughed, told old and new stories, and created an even better bond with the “new-to-me” Dogs. It was kinda like when dogs first meet and sniff each others butts. They are feeling each other out and building life long files in their brains from the sent. Well nobody was sniffing anybody’s butt, however that same excited puppy energy was fueling the chatter and cause for much excitment and laughter.

When the pub closed that night we didn’t stop the mucking around. We marched out to the end of the parking lot and played tell funny stories until early in the A.M. Slowly we each peeled off an went back to our hotel rooms. The call in the morning was noon though we could sleep in we still had a long day ahead of us. Little did we know how long…..But that is for the next blog! Day Three: Rain, Scaff and a note about pyro durning the show! This was going to get better every day!

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Sept. 1st & 2nd - Travel Days to Holland

September 11, 2008 on 10:27 pm | In Anthony, Dance Blogs, Tap, Tap Dogs, performing | No Comments

Traveling to Holland was much easier than I expected…..Long but not bad. I left San Jose CA in the afternoon on Sept. 1st. and arrived in the Rotterdam airport on Sept. 2nd. My first flight was a quick skip over to Denver. Of course it was delayed (United) but I had a 3 hour layover so I wasn’t concerned about missing the first connection. Denver is a great airport…Did some computer work and before I new it, time to fly to the UK. This was an 8 hour flight…however, I watched an in flight movie, read USA Today, took a long nap and was in the UK before I could get restless….Niiice!!! Last flight was to Rotterdam, but I had an 8 hour, yes 8, lay-over in Heathrow, airport. At the airport I was excited because this was the first time I was to see some of the best friends I have made in my life.

For hours I searched for Josh. We danced together for 8 years and I haven’t seen him in 4! I was bummed that he was nowhere to be found. I finally went for a coffee and got a tap, no pun intended, on the shoulder. I turn to see Bozzie…..We performed Tap Dogs together for 6 years and I have not seen him for 4 years. We played catch-up for a couple of hours. He went on to tell me he is living in South America and is engaged to be married July 4th. 2009..In our chat he stated couldn’t find Josh in the airport either….Opps, didn’t even get to Holland yet and we have a lost dog. Hopefully he’ll be on the flight we both thought out loud with just the look on our faces! We hang for a few more hours talking about old stories and great friends. No Josh, but it’s time for our flight. We get to the gate and I meet a new Dog, Chaise. He an Auzzie “bloke” who as been a Dog for just a few years….He was pretty excited to meet me because he has heard stories about me but never met me prior to the Holland gig. We all board the plane, a propeller plane, for the less than 2 hour flight to the Rotterdam airport. Keeping our fingers crossed we keep an eye on the door. We were all kinda hopping that Josh would pop in just before take-off…..Never happened! Bummer…..

When we arrive in Holland there was on more surprise for me at the airport. Sheldon Perry, Dein’s brother, was my foreman for the majority of my Tap Dogs career. I was unaware but he was there waiting for us to arrive in Rotterdam. It was so thrilling to see him. We shared so many experiences in our lives together and they all flashed through my head as we excitedly said our hello. He was living in Zurich with his new wife Anna. They had just gotten married a few weeks ago….Amazing….3 Dogs married since we have seen each other last….I though it was cool that after traveling to so much of the world and meeting so many different people the three of us found a companion we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. Plus, we all were so happy about it. Me a year and 1/2 in, Sheldon just a few weeks and Bozzie, Ryan Gravelle,  less than a year away from his ceremony. I was still looking for Josh but even there in the airport nobody had a clue, a message, or email from Josh. We all jumped in the car and headed to the hotel. At this point I was so excited to get there and see the Dogs.

When we finally arrive, after our 30 minute ride, I have now traveled over 16 hours and through 8 times zones. We all head to the front desk and can hear loud voices in the pub attached to the hotel. Every Dog is over 21 so it was kind of the meeting place. We instantly dropped our bags in the lobby and headed to both familiar and new voices. Here we found the “Dog Collective”. There was UK Dogs, Auzzie Dogs, and two more US Dogs all hanging out playing pool and having a beer. This was never before seen in the world of Tap Dogs! In all we were 14 dogs. Only 13 present, but nobody gave up on Josh yet.

Meeting people who you have never met but have so much in common with is wonderful, weird, and amazing all at the same time. It was wonderful to meet people who I know so well but have never met personally before. You know stories about them. You have parallel stories from being in the same network of people for so many years. This instantly creates a new best friend. It’s like you were best friends your whole life, you just didn’t know it yet! The one that rings in my head is James Doubtfire! He is the definition of an old Dogs best friend from the second we met. Ernie was Brilliant, Nicky was a laugh a second and I only need to say hello to know it. The best part was they felt the same way. Some of the Dogs knew who I was for years and couldn’t wait to meet me. That is crazy. I was blown away from the response and welcome I got from these Dogs…..There was some new Dogs as well. Chaise, Papa, Jesse, Jason, and Mitch off the top of my head….Nice guys, good Dogs….The stand-out in the bunch was Papa for me….He has that puppy Dog attitude that will help him grow into a pure breed Dog one day! Two of the new Dogs are into tap as well as Hip-Hop. Great guys with great futures who I hope will always perform & teach whatever form of dance becomes there favorite over time.

I met all the Dogs new and old before making my way over to Anthony AJ Russo. This was a Dog I was very excited to see. He and Donovan were sitting on stools having a chat. Donovan is a quiet Dog. The last American into the show as far as I know. Since I last saw him he has become a monster of a Dog. He has become an excellent performer, respects older Dogs and Helps them every time he is asked. He is sharp, pays excellent attention and impressed me in many ways over the time spent with him in Holland. AJ, as I tend to call him, was a Dog I wanted to spend time with. As far as what he did as a Tap Dog and where he went with that when he wasn’t performing was exactly what I wish I would have dome after I finished performing on a regular basis with the show. I have an unlimited amount of respect for him and feel he is the kind of person I can learn quite a lot from. Like all Dogs who came into a cast I was a part of, I hazed him. Tap Dogs is a very special group of people. Not just any Tap Dancer can be a real “Dog”.  The hazing was in order to keep our American Dogs up to par with what Dein Perry expected from us as performers, tap dancers, and ultimately friends! It was more about being your best, working hard, and having respect for the show. I always told new Dogs - I worked twice as hard as the original Dog I took over for on stage. You have to work 4 times as hard, and those after you need to work 8 times as hard!!!!! There are two kinds of guys who come into the show….Those who realized this is a lesson in how to become part of an elusive group of performers. They are quiet, they listen, learn, improve and one day become the teachers who enforce the same values they were taught. The second guy is someone who always has an answer to a lesson being taught and doesn’t realize there are people who came before them that established the show that they are benefiting from. They speak instead of listen, they play instead of work, and they are more of a soloist who can’t also be part of a group. That said - I judge nobody. But in this case this information is imperative. AJ was an ideal Dog from day one. He took the hazing, never said a word about it. He laughed things off and just concentrated on improving. I think he may be the best American Dog ever. His style is all his own, his choreography is brilliant, and you don’t want to turn your eyes away whenever he starts to dance. He loves what he does both on stage and off stage. He is a force to reckon with when it comes to tap dancing and can’t be compared to any teacher I have seen in the last 10 years. He is  consistent, and deliberate with ever step he performs or teaches. On top of all this he is guiding Donovan who is quickly climbing the Dog chain to sit right behind Anthony as my favorite two Dogs ever. I say this because of more than what they have accomplished as Dogs. AJ created the ideal way to show how much he loves, respect, and appreciates the tap art form. He created Tap the Map. If you are not familiar - go visit and request a friendship now. AJ and Donovan, with a few other veteran Dogs tour the USA teaching master classes at dance studios. AJ is the driving force behind this and I wish I would have been as smart and determined to create a “Tap-the-Map” type program when I finished touring with the show. I do travel to studios with Bethany and we teach workshops - BUT AJ concentrates on Tap and Only Tap! They spend time with studio owners helping to develop their tap program at the studio, they are “Green” friendly and work on become even more environmentally friendly ever year. AJ’s program is growing at an impressive rate every year and I feel at some point it will be hard to book Tap the Map because of their increasing popularity and pristine reputation. All of this made me so proud to be a member of the same show as him. I hope through the years just one thing I said or did helped him or educated him, or influenced him in any way. I know things he done since the last time I have seen him have influenced me and made me proud to say I worked with him as a Dog.

It was late so AJ and I did play catch-up but soon many Dogs hit the sheets due to our 7:30am call in the morning. We said goodnight to a bunch of the guys and looked at who was left. Sheldon, AJ, Bozzie, Donnie (Donovan) and me…..I ducked out first about 1:30am. I tried a few times to call Bethany over my long travel day but had no luck…I was gonna give it one more go before going to sleep….

I went up to my room, grabbed my phone, took my time and read the directions once again, yet still had no luck with my call…It was late so I showered and got ready for the big day….I haven’t worn boots in 4 years (Tap Dogs dance in Blundstone Boots altered to be fitted with taps) . Haven’t done this choreo in 4 years, had to learn new choreo, had to dance with guys I never met before, perfectly, and the show was in two days!!!! We already lost a dog, though we were about to find him in the morning, and this was all too surreal. Took my shower, answered a few emails, and it was off to bed….

Tomorrow: First day of work!
Tw/uS, A.

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Home from Holland

September 8, 2008 on 3:11 pm | In Anthony, Dance Blogs, Tap Dogs, performing | No Comments

Hey everyone…WOW! what a week…Too much for one message. I already wrote day one Travel to Holland and after it is proof read it will appear on the home page as a featured story. There will be new stories every day or so. I will also post the stories on my just4tap blog. Aside from that I am really happy to be home and excited to start class today.

Some reminders: Calendar Pictures are DUE!!!!! email me if you have a question or need more time. We will work something out. There is still lots of spots left. You have time to take any photo that has to do with Danceregister and send it in for the contest. Why not get a picture to us while there is still time?!?!?!?!

Race to 1000: Still doing well….just about 850. Since we all go back to class this week, please remember to invite your friends to join.

Pictures of Holland: If you visit my profile, you can see all the photos from performing in Holland…visit my profile to check out the Dogs in Holland pictures now!

O.K. all - Off to class…funny huh? Performing in Holland on Saturday, teaching local tap classes on Monday…Crazy life, loving every minute of it!

Tap w/u Soon,

Anthony

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