Our first rehearsal...

We had our first rehearsal this afternoon where we practiced the dance Pata Pata. We were a large group and numbered about 35 with a few students away. We have approximately 45 students registered to participate.

Thanks to our many, and I mean many, parent volunteers who freely offered their time, Mrs. Grisbrook and Mrs. Cornwall. Everyone's dance skills exceeded my expectations!

Mrs. Cornwall provided the group with an unexpected treat of Timbits as we left the rehearsal.

We're planning to meet again next Tuesday to work on our next dance. In the meantime, if you have access to a computer and would like to practice Pata Pata, you can:

1. Click here to listen to the music. When prompted, you may want to save the music to your desktop so you can listen to it at your leisure. Windows Media Player is the program that plays this song the best.
2. Click here to display and print a copy of the steps for Pata Pata. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to see the directions. If you don't have this, you can download it for free by clicking here.

If you're following the written instructions for the dance, you may notice a slight difference in the footwork. I believe that the children were originally taught the "primary" version of the dance instead of the "printed" steps. Everyone knows it so well that with so few practices before the Folkfest date, I'm not going to "mess with" what everyone already knows and is familiar with.

I had fun and am looking forward to meeting everyone again at our next practice.