I think that I have mentioned before that our ward and stake were involved in a Regional Dance Festival for our Church. There were 5 stakes involved and there were around 1300 youth! The youth have been practicing since last fall and have all worked really hard on their dances. We were last involved in one back in 2006, so it's been awhile. They really are great experiences for these youth to work hard and learn something new and then be able to share it with others--even their friends and community. They had 4 performances. One on the evening of June 13th, and then three on the following day. It was a long weekend, but I know the youth (most of them) had a great time.
The theme of the festival was from a conference talk from April 2012 from President Monson entitled, "Believe, Obey, Endure". This is a quote from the talk:
"The world around you is not equipped to provide the help you need to make it through this often-treacherous journey. So many in our society today seem to have slipped from the moorings of safety and drifted from the harbor of peace.
Permissiveness, immorality, pornography, drugs, the power of peer pressure—all these and more—cause many to be tossed about on a sea of sin and crushed on the jagged reefs of lost opportunities, forfeited blessings, and shattered dreams.
Is there a way to safety? Is there an escape from threatened destruction? The answer is a resounding yes! I counsel you to look to the lighthouse of the Lord. I have said it before; I will say it again: there is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what the lighthouse of the Lord can rescue. It beckons through the storms of life. It calls, “This way to safety. This way to home.” It sends forth signals of light easily seen and never failing. If followed, those signals will guide you back to your heavenly home."
The next pictures are from when we watched the performance on Friday night. This was when we were waiting for it to start.
All the youth running into the auditorium for their opening number. They learned a dance for the opening number, one for the closing number and then one more depending on their ward and stake and age group. The opening number was "Good Time" by Owl City and Carly Rae Jeppson.
Performing the opening number. They only had half of the kids run in for the first part of the song because that group had to run out and get ready for the first dance. (Maggie was in that group) As they were running out, the rest of the group was running in to finish performing to that song.
I went there on Saturday and helped volunteer. I got to watch them as they ran out of the gym to change into their costumes for their next song. This is them running out.
Dressed for their Cotton-eyed Joe song and ready to run back in. The youth in our stake that were in 8th grade and up performed this one.
A view from the floor on one of the Saturday performances
The next few pictures are from the Friday night performances and I was able to get some close ups of Maggie dancing.
Maggie had such a great time during the whole dance festival experience.
Maggie's not in this one, but there are girls from our ward in this one doing "the lift".
These are pictures from some of the other dances.
the Charleston
Jailhouse Rock
These 2 pictures are from the African dance
Latin Dance
This is the Asian dance that the Beehive girls did from our stake.
a cha-cha number.
There were some dances that you had to audition for and this one was one of them.
All the missionaries in the area came out and sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth".
Russian dance
Then a cool Bollywood dance. I love this picture that someone took.
An Irish dance that was audition only
A Viennese waltz that was really beautiful. You also had to audition for this one.
This was the Ninja/Capoeira dance that the deacons from our stake performed.
Then a square dance
A waltz
a swing dance
then a really cool "lights" dance. There were 4 guys who danced in the complete dark with lights on black suits.
Someone with a really good camera took these pictures. I couldn't get mine to take pictures without being all blurry.
like this...
Here's another cool shot.
This is what their suits looked like.
Then all the youth came back out to sing a song and then perform their closing number which was "Firework" by Katie Perry.
still singing. They had one of the youth (a young lady) sing the main parts of the song called, "Come Take your Place" and the rest of the youth sang the chorus.
someone got a close up of Maggie at the closing number.
at the end of the last dance.
This is a great shot of all the youth at the end.
June 14th
Behind the scenes
Pictures taken in between performances while I was volunteering.
This is most of the kids from our ward that participated.
Maggie and her friends Emma, Makaela and Shay
This was waiting for the signal to run in for the opening number. Maggie didn't want me to take a picture, so she turned her back to me. Little stinker.
I snuck one when she wasn't looking.
One of the whole stake
Our ward girls
the youth from our ward in the Cotton-Eyed Joe
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After they had dinner and before their last performance, we gathered together as a stake for a quick testimony meeting. The whole performance was at a high school, so we were gathered in the wrestling room. And yes, it did stink pretty bad.
When it was over, we sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth". It was a neat meeting and a great way to go into the last performance. These youth are so amazing! I was so glad that Maggie had an opportunity to participate in the dance festival this year and that I could have a small part in it too. I hope they are able to do it again while Lydia is in Young Women's because it is such a neat experience.
