March was a fantastic month full of wonderful news.  The first blessing that March brought was our first grant!  I was the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Choreography.  It is a hugely exciting thing and I am so honored to have been selected.  This money will help us greatly as we embark upon an extremely busy summer.  We are now also fiscally sponsored by an organization called Fractured Atlas.  This allows any donations, money or otherwise, to be tax deductible.  Having an organization to sponsor us this way is a huge help while we are pursuing our 501c3 not for profit status.  It allows us to continue our work and fundraise in a more efficient way.  If you are interested in donating to DragonFly, please go to the "Support Us" section on our website.  You can donate by check or online with your credit card.  In the meantime, anyone interested in being a board member for our company please contact me through the website.  We are looking for art appreciators from all backgrounds interested in supporting and uplifting our organization. 

We are also excited to have new dancers!  DragonFly welcomes Brigid Myers, Lindsay Phebus, Charlene Gentles and Janet Parker.  Stay tuned, we will be posting their bios and pictures soon so that you can learn all about these wonderful artists.

Plans continue to unfold for the summer intensive.  Danica and I have already started to collaborate on choreography for the young dancers.  We're working on a dance that uses the image of water in many different states for the movement.  Rain, waves, ice, etc.  We've selected music and worked on phrasing the piece. 

"Dock Side Dance" is also coming together.  The performance is a free, outdoor event at the city docks in downtown Annapolis on Sunday June 14th at 1pm, made possible in part by the grant I received from MSAC.  It is a collaboration between DragonFly, guest artists Leah Wrobel and Stephanie Yezek as well as dancers from Studio 180.  The concert will include four works of modern dance as well as two aerial pieces.  We are hoping to make "Dock Side Dance" an annual event, so please come out and support DragonFly!

Last but certainly not least, we are doing a dance demonstration at Lululemon on Saturday May 9th at 12 noon.  We'll be debuting a new, collaborative piece called "Annamaya", a yoga inspired dance. 

We look forward to seeing you all at our upcoming events!  Remember that without your support, DragonFly would not exist.  Please consider making a donation to us, every dollar you can spare helps us get closer to our goals as well as pay the amazing dancers who work so hard to make our dreams come to life. 

This weekend, DragonFly kicked off (yes, pun intended because its Super Bowl Sunday) the season with a performance at the Virginia Dance Festival at James River High School in Richmond, VA.  We joined many studios, groups and companies in an eclectic performance that benefited the Children's Hospital Foundation.  We performed an abridged version of our duet, "Echo" and were met by a tremendous amount of positive feedback.  It was a challenge to shorten the piece into three minutes and feel like we were keeping the integrity of the choreography, but Danica and I are always up for some good, old fashioned problem solving.  We lovingly refer to the piece as our post-partum duet, seeing as it was the first piece she performed after giving birth to Simone and its the first piece that I performed after giving birth to Jacob. 

Next weekend, Danica travels to New York City to premiere her new solo "Credo: No Labels" at the Merce Cunnningham Studio in "Tri-Lab", and the following weekend I will be performing "Like a Peach" at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop with Tommy Parlon Dance Projects.  It feels like every month brings more and more opportunity for us to perform, and we are extremely excited about this season.  Soon we will be beginning to expand "Like a Peach" into a group piece as well as working on the rep piece for the intensive and learning Stephanie Yezek's quartet "In her Hands". 

Currently we are applying for fiscal sponsorship to help fund all of our upcoming projects.  Once we hear about that, any donations we might receive will be tax deductible (yay!!!).  It will go a long way toward helping DragonFly to become an established company in the regional dance scene.  We're constantly looking for new and interesting ways to fundraise for the company, so please shoot us an email if you have any suggestions. 

Other than that, DK Pilates continues to grow every day as Danica finds new clients to share her Pilates wisdom with and Dragonfly Yoga is growing as well.  I will not only be teaching on Tuesday evenings, but also on Sunday mornings at the Art Space in West Annapolis starting February 8th.  I will also being another month at the new Lululemon at the Annapolis Towne Center for February.  The best part is its FREE!!!  So don't miss out on your chance to move your body and perhaps shop for some pretty awesome clothes. 

A special thanks to Jessica Morgan for having us perform in the show this weekend, and a special thanks to Barbara Morse for her support. 

As we move closer to our 2009 performance season, we would like to welcome our newest artistic contributor Stephanie Yezek.  Stephanie is an amazing dancer/emerging choreographer and she brings to us her beautiful quartet "In Her Hands".  Originally performed by BosmaDance, the quartet is an excellent example of Stephanie's athletic, intelligent and sensitive style.  We are truly looking forward to learning the piece!

If you have checked out the "Performances" section of the website you will notice that we've added two shows to the list!  We are busy building our performance season, and hope to be adding more shows to the list soon.  Currently we are finalizing a Richmond, Va performance and we are working on a FREE outdoor performance in downtown Annapolis, MD next spring as well.  Stay tuned!!!

Danica has successfully opened her Pilates studio, located in her home in Glen Allen, Va. If you have any questions about Pilates or would like to book a session with her, please contact her at 804.658.1738 or at dkpilates@msn.com.  Danica is Master Pilates teacher trained in the original Joseph Pilates method, and works both on the apparatus as well as teaches mat classes.  In addition to her home studio, Danica is teaching at The Pilates Fitness Studio (near VCU and owned by Richmond dancer/choreographer Pam England), Core Pilates Richmond (mat classes) and is sharing the joy of modern dance with children and adults at the West End Academy of Dance. 

As the summer draws to a close, I look back and I am so proud of the work that we have begun.  I can't help but look into the future of DragonFly, and I see so much promise.  I feel like all of our efforts are falling gracefully into place, and I cannot help but get excited by all of the support we have for our projects.  We have new choreography, new dancers, new venues and new audiences to share our passions with; it is a very exciting time.  The website has been a great step in the right direction, and I am so proud that it's up and running and our relationship with our community is growing stronger everyday.  Lululemon and Anne Arundel Community College continue to be great resources, and we look forward to meeting and working with other local organizations as well.  Thank you to everyone who visits this blog and takes the time to check out our projects.  We truly wouldn't be on this path if it wasn't for you! 

So here I am, 29 weeks pregnant and super excited about the adventures DragonFly is about to embark upon.  Coming up first is a very exciting Yoga workshop at the Healing Path in Baltimore called "Meditation in Motion".  It will be a six week session exploring the connection between breath and movement and how to deepen that.  Personally I have always been fascinated by meditation, but have found it very difficult.  However, I find that movement can be very meditative when approached in the right way.  Focusing on the breath (which is one meditation technique), can truly clear the mind even while in the most vigorous practice. 

The next extremely exciting adventure is that Danica has received her Pilates equipment and is ready to open her doors for business!  She will be teaching privately out of her home in Glen Allen, Va.  So definitely stay tuned for more news from D.K. Pilates! 

The most exciting adventure we have coming up is the planning of our performance season, including a new project DragonFly II.  There will be a late winter/early spring performance in Richmond, Va which will include a collection of works by both Danica and I, as well as choreography by various DC and Richmond dance artists.  We are also looking into doing an outdoor performance in Annapolis in the spring.  Dragonfly II (although still just in the planning stages) will be a repertory class/workshop for advanced high school dancers in the Annapolis and surrounding areas who are considering pursuing either a college degree or a career in dance.  It will be a two or three week (we're leaning towards two) session where young dancers will take company class, rehearse choreography, participate in an educational outreach experience, participate in a fundraising experience and culminate in a performance alongside the professional company (DragonFly Dance Experiment).  My amazing boss/mentor Lynda Fitzgerald is generously helping us with the planning of this project and we look forward to having it finalized by the end of the summer. 

The pregnancy is going very well, the baby (and I) are growing everyday.  I am beginning to confront some of the difficulties of the third trimester, but thanks to yoga and our creative projects I am keeping busy and engaged.  We can't wait to welcome our little baby into our lives!  October is just around the corner.

Summer camp was AWESOME!  Let me repeat...awesome.  The Youth Dance Festival at Anne Arundel Community College is held every year around this time and it is directed by the incredible Lynda Fitzgerald.  We had many, many returning campers this year which really made for a special experience.  Their enthusiasm was absolutely infectious, and their open willingness to try anything new made quite an impression on all of the instructors.  The kids are divided into two groups by age, and spend the day alternating between classes.  It's definitely a marathon schedule, and they handled it like pros.  During the course of the two weeks they take Pilates, Modern, Ballet, African, and Hip Hop.  At the end of the day they have a special activity like Yoga, Partnering, Improv Games, T-shirt decorating, Nutrition, etc.  I had the privilege of working with the other instructors last year, and I was thrilled that we were able to work again together this year.  I think it makes it just that much more special when you have a group of people that you greatly respect and admire to surround yourself with.  I am happy to say that my modern classes went really well.  We covered a lot technique, and even got into creating their own choreography in duets and trios.  I was so proud of what they created and it was so inspiring that I cannot wait to get into the studio.  Like I had planned, I gave them some choreography from the solo I did for the MTC (Musical Theater Center) Faculty Concert that I plan on turning into a piece after the baby is born.  They did great with it, and it was really cool to see the movement on a big group of people. 

I have been fortunate this summer to have met Christa, the community leader from the new Lululemon in Annapolis.  She's not only been a really great person to hang out with, but she's being incredibly supportive of my work here in Annapolis.  For the month of July, I am teaching FREE public classes at the showroom downtown on Saturday mornings.  Today was the first, and it was great!  There were a lot of faces that I didn't know, which is always wonderful because I love meeting new students.  I'm constantly amazed at how broadly yoga can reach into the community.  I love teaching dance, but there is something very amazing about how yoga can really help people.  I've had students come into class with their shoulders tense and looking like their carrying the weight of the world.  When they leave, whether they realize it or not, I can physically see the stress melting away from them.  My friend Alice once told me that teaching yoga is a gift.  Truly it is!  Thanks Christa and Lululemon!

(Picture is of Megan 22 weeks pregnant) Most of you (who know us) are aware that last fall Danica welcomed a beautiful baby girl named Simone into her family.  While she was pregnant, we were able to create and rehearse our newest work Echo for our concert with CDNY last December (in addition to Echo, we also performed Whip It, Danica's humerous solo, and Covet my new duet performed with Kristi Schaffner).  It was an amazing experience, and only three months after giving birth, Danica and I performed the work and received wonderful feedback from our audience.  

This coming October, I am looking forward to becoming a mom as well!  We are expecting our first child on Oct. 19 (but don't hold me to it, babies tend to come a bit later in my family) and I am experiencing the joys and challenges of dancing while pregnant.  While it is true that I have had to make some modifications, I still feel fairly strong and well ballanced.  I attribute this to really digging into my yoga practice, and maintaining my regular ballet classes.  Turning and jumping are sort of out of the question at this point, however I look at that as more of a choreographic challenge than a physical limitation.  However, even though my body is in transition my mind is in creative OVERDRIVE!  I've got an idea for a new work based on my (and Danica's) experience growing up in a family of southern women.  I'm going to call it Like a Peach, and perform it to music by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant.  I've already begun a little choreography with a solo that I performed at the Musical Theater Center's Faculty Concert a few weeks ago and received excellent feedback from my colleagues and students. 

Next week starts the Anne Arundel Community College summer dance camp, and I am truly looking forward to teaching the kids Modern Dance.  Last year it was a fantastic experience, and I am excited to hear that many of our students are returning from the previous summer.  A lot of the choreography that ended up in Covet, I set on the kids and they did fabulously with it.  I'm hoping that I can set a few of my ideas for the new piece on them this year.

Other than that I am busy practicing for my final teaching project for my yoga teacher training and finishing my exam.  It's definitely a doosy of a test, but I am so grateful for the experience and the vast amount of knowledge I have received from the training.