We think there are many things to celebrate about dance other than who has the most perfect leaps or turns.  So during the 2004-2005 dance year, we established a new practice of presenting "Teacher's Choice Awards" to students following each competition.  Our aim was not to recognize those who earned the highest scores, but those who embodied what we most want to see out of our dancers -- things like tremendous effort during a workshop, great spirit and support of their fellow dancers at a competition, or anything special that made us take note.  We're proud of this award and what it means to our students.

In 2005 our studio undertook another new program whose impact we couldn't fully imagine at the time.  Beginning with a competition in Richmond, VA in February, our dancers began awarding "Awesome Dancer" buttons to students from other dance studios as a means of sharing goodwill throughout the dance community.  A special website (www.DanceButton.com) was established to log the reactions of the button givers and recipients, and during the first year our dance buttons reach students in more than a dozen states.

From Portsmouth, VA, to Richmond, VA, to Baltimore, MD, to New York, NY, our dancers again excelled in dance competitions and workshops.  Our students have developed a real affinity in recent years for competitions held in conjunction with dance workshops, where they are exposed to a wide variety of dance style and teaching technique -- all of which add to their own abilities.

For our 29th annual recital, our students took us on a dancing tour of New York -- featuring some of the greatest music from and about New York, including many Broadway classics.  It was a wonderful show, but a show that, for the first time in 29 years was missing something, or rather, someone.  One seat in the audience remained empty at Showtime 2005, as my mother, Ruth Collins, passed away just two weeks prior to the show.  Along with my dad, she made a lasting mark on the studio and left us all with plenty to remember and smile about.  We dedicated Showtime 2005 as a celebration of her life.

And the show does go on...  Just one week following our recital, our dancers were off to Hershey, Pennsylvania, where they were featured performers at Hershey Park.  A week later, Allison Meyer and Megan Savary began a month-long tour with Dance Caravan, and later in the summer a number of our students took part in the Destination Broadway camp, where they received instruction from performers such as Idina Menzel.

Is it any wonder that one year seems to run into the next and suddenly we find ourselves on the verge of our 30th year of dance?  What a wild and wonderful journey it has been!

That was 2005 at Chris Collins Dance Studio.