Connection Performing Company Info

Learn about our Connection Performing Company! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Rhythm Pod, the podcast from Rhythm Dance Center for Rhythm Dance Center. We're here to bring you studio updates, tips from our teachers, and fun chats about everything happening in our rhythm community.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

RhythmPod will be your go-to source to stay inspired and connected. We can't wait to share all the rhythm fun. Hi everyone, welcome to the Connection Company Informational Podcast. Thanks so much for listening today, and also for your interest in our Connection Performing Company. Connection is a very, very popular company for lots of dancers at Rhythm, and we are always so, so proud of all that they accomplished each season. So for today, we're gonna be giving you some more details and information on what a Connection Performing Company dancer looks like, what it's all about, what the requirements are, what the expectations are, the financials, and so much more. So make sure that once you listen to everything, remember that you can submit your questions, anything that we don't go over, you can submit those questions via our QA form, and we will answer those on our March 30th podcast. You can also email us at any time at rdcauditions at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Hi guys, uh, this is Becca, and we are going to talk, or I'm gonna talk to you about the just the description of Connection so you will know what our Connection company looks like. Connection is a dynamic, high-energy performing company made up of talented dancers selected through auditions. Representing Rhythm Dance Center at talent competitions, conventions, and community performances, these dancers bring enthusiasm, style, and fun to every stage they step on. There are four age groups: many, junior, teen, and senior. The ages range from eight to eighteen. Known for their engaging performances and vibrant stage presence, Connection consistently delivers routines that impress and inspire. While this company offers a more flexible commitment level, dedication and teamwork remain at its core, ensuring that every dancer continues to grow, shine, and uphold the excellence of Connection. Beyond the stage, the bonds formed within Connection between dancers and faculty create a supportive and inspiring environment where friendships flourish, making this company a truly special part of the Rhythm Dance Center experience. That makes me want to be in connection. Right. Well, you can audition. You're gonna find out all the info, Danny. You can audition for it. All right, so we're gonna Actually, you might be a little out of the age. I may be out of the age range. You've aged out, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

This year takes a whole nother whole nother level there. Okay. Oh, we're gonna uh just kind of break things down with what connection involves. So, number one, it's uh being a part of connection is choosing dance as a priority over other extracurricular activities. That being said, there are different commitment levels within connection. So the minimum requirements for connection is being at the studio two days per week, taking classes in jazz, ballet, and hip-hop, and then one additional class with our connection director, Vera. During that class, she works on whatever she feels needs to be worked on at the time. It could be cleaning or rehearsing routines, team building technique, anything that she really wants to work on. And that class is built into your weekly schedule being on one of those two days that you're required to be there. Beyond the required minimum, there is also an opportunity for dancers to audition for the Connection Tap Company and the Contemporary Companies as well. Um, all age groups are eligible to audition for TAP, but right now only junior, teen, and senior level dancers are eligible to audition for contemporary company. And that's something that they can't even audition for until after they've made connection to begin with. Um so when I said choosing dance is a priority over other activities, I mean that across the board. But obviously, the more committed you are and the more you add, if you add tap and you have contemporary, it gets harder to work other activities into your schedule. If you're doing the minimum, you could likely do another activity, whether it's, you know, soccer or whatever you choose to be. But the moral of the story is when it comes down to a conflict, dance has to come first, if especially if it is a performance weekend or a rehearsal weekend that connection might have. Should your dancer be invited to the tap company or audition later and be part of the contemporary companies, your classes could likely be on additional days. I feel like we try our best to get at least one of them on one of the days you're already there, but there is a possibility, depending on where you end up, that you could have to have uh come multiple days for those classes.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, I feel like the more you are involved in and connection, like if you are in tap and contemporary, or maybe you take an additional class and something else, you likely would be at the studio three days a week. You're adding it. It's possible too, but if they're there for two, it'll be two full, very full days. Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Um, they will have attendance to three competitions and one convention. Um, so there will be a total of four weekends that are absolutely non-negotiable. There are others. We have the year-end show and all of that, but those are those are the big, big weekends that they are gonna have to commit to.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Yeah, we always say like with dance, like it's not like with, you know, like a softball or basketball where you're gonna have multiple games over multiple weekends and maybe multiple games on one weekend. For dance, these are scheduled well, way far in advance, and there are four four weekends that you have to have to have on, because that's it. There's four events.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

You'll have you'll have the schedule very early on in the year. We have a full parent meeting at the where we give you all the dates. So those get locked into your calendar and those are fully committed. Um and speaking of those competitions, most of the time they're two days. Um, but it's very rare that the connection dancers have to be there both of those days. But just know that once those those dates come out, they're on your calendar and locked in.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

And I think that this, like we said, the schedule, like for those four weekends, you're gonna have to block out the entire weekend. Even though you won't know. And then about a week ahead, about a week ahead of that event, you will get the your schedule with a call sheet. And a call sheet just tells you when you're dancing and what time you're required to be there. And that's when you know, like a lot of times you may have to be like we just had a con uh competition last weekend, and you know, they were there at maybe 10 that morning and they were done by 3. 2:30 or 3. And it was only one day. Um, I think the minis had to come an extra day on Saturday for a few hours.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

But it can be as minimal as that, or you you could be there from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m., just depending on the case.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Yeah, it just depends on the schedule, how big the competition is, and there's no way for us to predict that at all. Like every single week. Literally, every everyone is different, so you really do just have to block those weekends out. And then, you know, about a week ahead of time, you'll find out what that's going to be. Uh, also, the competitions and conventions are all local in the Atlanta area. Again, that being said, like this past weekend, we were at the Clayton County Performing Arts Center. That is very local-ish. You know, getting through downtown Atlanta is always fun. But they are in the held in the Atlanta area. The connection dancers do not have to travel for any of those events. Uh, they at the competitions they will perform one jazz routine, one hip hop routine all together with their specific connection company. And then we do a big production number with all the companies, and that's really fun. And then if they're in TAP or contemporary company, they obviously would be in those pieces as well if they are in those companies. They also have the opportunity to take with uh guest artists or teachers that come to Rhythm Dance Center to work um for us and with our edge dancers. And usually that is for the connection dancers, I would say it's usually one, maybe two opportunities per year. Usually it's hip hop. Kevin Maher is a hip hop choreographer that's been coming to rhythm for forever. And we always have all of the companies take um one class with him, or maybe for the older connection dancers, they would have the opportunity to um take with additional ones if their schedule allows. We also have um weekend rehearsals for connection because it's really hard to get everything done just in that class time. We try very hard to get those out as soon as possible, as early as possible, so you can block that out. However, sometimes we do need to add those, you know, a little more last minute.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

And I think also the more you do again, the more rehearsals there are. So if you're doing tap company and/or contemporary company, that's gonna add a weekend or two. And when I said weekend rehearsals, I mean like two hours.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yes, it's like two hours on a Saturday. It's not like they're there at rhythm the whole weekend. Uh but you'll find those out like I said, as soon as we have them um set on the schedule, you're gonna find out about those. For connection tap company, we also have the tap the map workshop. That this workshop is an amazing tap uh convention that comes into rhythm with lots of great tap teachers. And they've been coming to rhythm, I think, for 20 years now. And um crazy. Yeah, and so the tap company is required. If your dancer takes tap, there's always the option for them to participate. They would just have to have approval from their tap teacher, but that is a really fun event. Uh, also, connection is required to attend the connection summer intensive. Those dates are July 20th through the 23rd for this summer, the uh summer of 2026. These are pretty full days. Um, and that schedule comes out, it'll come out like early in the summer, but uh you can count on it being pretty full days. And this is the only summer commitment that your dancer has for connection. So it is fully required. There are no exceptions. There's not another camp you can make up in. So those dates are you really have to be available to be here for that. It's the kickoff to the connection season. So it's really important that those dancers here are here and attend. The connection dancers also participate in our holiday show, which is held in December. We usually do um the connection dancers usually do one, sometimes two, sometimes three routines, just depending on how many they can get finished. They always are gonna have one finished um for that show. It's a really fun show. And they also participate in our year-in shows. They're usually required to be in two of those year-end shows. A lot of times, connection dancers are in morbid if they take any additional classes that are not connection. They may have to be at more than two shows. We also have a connection company parent meeting. This is held in mid-September. In this meeting, you're gonna get a handbook and you're gonna learn all about all the things. We're gonna give you as many dates as possible by this meeting. And honestly, many times the dates are emailed out sooner. Like the competitions, which thankfully are really starting to get their dates out sooner, where they used to all come out in September. They now start coming out over the summer, and some have even started coming out now. So we work really hard to try to put this schedule together for you as soon as we can. As soon as we know it, Vera is gonna email those out if you uh have a dancer that is participating in connection. But the absolute latest by our parent meeting, you're gonna know all your competition and convention dates and show dates. And then also we try to get out as many weekend rehearsals on the calendar as well so that you can go ahead and block those out. Like we said, sometimes rehearsals are added, but we do work hard to get you as much as we can ahead of time.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Um, so by now you should have listened to the original podcast about auditions that talk about all the details in the process. Um, so to give you a little more context as to how the connection callback will work, we're gonna go through just a few of those things. Um, number one, just remembering it's a no-stress environment. We try our best to keep everything as positive as possible, much like a normal classroom experience. That's the goal for everybody involved. Um, the very first thing that we do when the dancers come in, they'll they'll sign in and they'll get their numbers, they'll pin them on, um, they'll come in and we will sit them down and talk with them. We'll talk to the dancers about what to expect throughout the entire audition process. And we usually do that at the end of the callback as well. We'll sit them down and discuss what they can expect following dance.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

And they can ask us questions as well. And they and they do, you know, if they have questions, they can always ask them.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

As far as the dance part goes, they're gonna need to practice the jazz combo that they learned in part one as they are going to perform it again for us. That's gonna be the first thing that they do, the first dance thing that they do when they come to the callback. Um, remember, whatever combo that they learn for their age group in part one is that exact same combo that they're gonna do the callbacks, no matter which callback they come to. We talked about this in the other podcast.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Um But this is a very, it's a very big question because it happens to multiple dancers every year.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

If we ask them to come to multiple callbacks, because we're not sure which age range we want to put them in, they only need to do the comp jazz combo that they learned the first day. They do not need to worry about learning anything else. They will just perform that combo, and there is a very strong possibility there will be many other kids in that same position.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Now, I will say this let's say they are invited to the junior connection callback and the teen connection callback. They're only gonna have to do one jazz combo, but in their Dropbox, they may have, they're probably gonna have to learn the junior connection hip hop combo and the teen connection hip hop combo. Right. And those will likely be two different combos. So make sure that when you find out your callback number and you look, like we talked about, you look, you find your number or numbers, and then you make sure that you look in those drop boxes to learn the combos you need to know for the callback. Jazz is always going to be the same, that same one you learned. But if you come to two callbacks, you're gonna have to learn all the things that are in those drop boxes.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Um, at the callback, they will learn a ballet combo on the spot. That'll be the second thing most likely that they'll do. If they are auditioning for connection tap company, they'll learn a tap combo on the spot. And you'll let us know if they're planning to audition for tap company on your audition form.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Usually also for the tap audition, we we start with jazz and then they're gonna in the callback, we start with jazz, and they're gonna do ballet, and then they're gonna do hip hop. And then after that, we will sit down, we'll talk to everybody, and then we will excuse everyone that is not auditioning for tap. And then we just keep the dancers that are auditioning for tap. Um, make sure your dancer knows that they're auditioning for tap. A lot of times the click, but the dancers don't actually miss them. So make sure. And then also as a reminder, if they are auditioning for tap company, they need to have tap shoes at that audition. We talked about that as well in the audition um podcast. But just make sure they have tap shoes. If they are auditioning for connection, contemporary company, that audition is gonna take place in early May, and they don't even need to worry about that at all. They are going to be eligible to audition for this company if they are invited to connection. And the info for this audition will be included in their connection invitation email. So let's say your dancer makes junior connection, you're gonna find out you're gonna be invited to junior connection. It's gonna also have in that packet, it's gonna say if your dancer is interested in the connection junior connection contemporary company, they will need to audition on this date. And I believe it's maybe May 7th. May 7th. So, but that is in your packet. So, and you will also get that information in your email about anything you need to know about that. Okay, so at the main callback audition, they're gonna do everything in small groups. They don't have to do anything by themselves. There's no solo or anything like that. So they're gonna do everything in in small groups. We also have assistants there that can kind of, you know, they can kind of watch out of the corner of their eye if they need a little help. The only thing that they do alone is they do introduce themselves at the beginning of the audition. And if anyone has auditioned at rhythm before, this is a long-standing rhythm tradition where they line up, they dance, improv out to the center, they come, we're sitting at the table in the front of the room, they come and they say their name and their age and where they go to school, and they sell us a fun fact. So that's we talk to the kids about that. This is nothing that they need to plan ahead of time. They just, even though they do plan ahead, um, but that's the only thing they have to do by themselves. It goes by. It takes like three seconds. And I think also one really big thing to remember is that we are not looking for perfection. I do think that the higher the level company you're auditioning for, the more proficient of a dancer you need to be. But we are really looking for potential. We're looking for great energy, great performance skills. We're looking for a dancer that's going to work hard, have great focus, and basically be really eager to learn and improve. So it's a it's a whole package. We're not just zeroing in on one specific trick or flexibility. Because our companies are so well-rounded, it is a little bit of all of those things like wrapped up into one that we're looking for.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

All right. So now we're gonna jump into the financial commitment of connection. I know a lot of times that plays a big factor in whether you, your dancer, may be able to audition or not. Um, so for the required minimums of connection, you're looking at just for their company cost, not tuition, you're looking at approximately$2,000, 1950-ish to$2000 for those minimums. So that's for um them competing their jazz routine, their hip-hop routine, and their production. If they are in tap company or end up in contemporary company, you're looking at upwards to$3,000 or a little bit more, just depending on the cost of the costumes and such. Um those numbers include their company costumes for all of their routines, the competition entry fees, the convention fee that they'll have for the one convention they go to, and the choreography fees, which goes to the teachers that they're, you know, their choreographers. These are paid in installments across the season. I believe there's four or four, four or five different installments throughout the season, um, with a final balance being due in mid-March for connections. So you could kind of judge about two to three thousand dollars, um, two thousand being low end with the minimum requirements, and then three thousand or a little more depending if they are in tap andor contemporary company. Um, tuition is completely on top of that. That is for their dance classes that they have every single week. And you can be look at anywhere from 260 to 460, depending again on their what level they're participating in, the commitment level. If it's the minimum, you're looking at the lower end. If they're taking everything and then adding extra classes, um, which a lot of them do, you're looking at the 460 range. So that's what you can kind of expect from the financial side of things.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Okay. And then in closing, just a few things. Make sure that you discuss with your dancer the importance of commitment and a desire to be a part of this dance company. You shouldn't be auditioning for fun. You should be auditioning because you really, really want to be a part of connection or whatever company that you're trying out for. Also, I think it's really important that you have a family conversation about the commitments as well, because it is a big commitment and everybody needs to be on board uh with you know all of with all the parts of it. So make sure that it's something that works for your family and for your dancer. Also, just to know, we don't have a set number of dancers that we take for connection. It's really different every year, or we also don't have a set number of years that a dancer participates. Like you don't have to be in mini connection for three years before you move to junior connection. You don't have to be in junior connection two or three years. It's it's really different for every single dancer. And every single year. Every single year. It really just depends on what is the makeup of the group. And also, our connection companies have always been pretty large. So you can expect 20-something, right? Usually, like maybe every now and then we've had one that has 17 or 18. But most of the time, the connection companies are pretty big and in the 20s. Uh, also who goes where? It usually depends on the number of dancers, obviously trying out, but also the number of dancers graduating, and because it's a big trickle-down effect. Like this year, we have, I think, 14 connection grads, which is honestly completely insane and also very cool. So 14 dancers are leaving rhythm. They are moving on, they're going on to the next chapter.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Half of senior connection.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

So obviously, obviously, there's going to be some big movement. There's going to be a big group moving to teen. There's going to be a big group moving to junior, a big group moving to senior. So, that being said, we we could have a lot of spots um this year. So, just keep that in mind. Um, connection is our most popular performing company, mainly because there are lots of options. It works for many schedules, and the time and financial commitments are not as demanding as some of the other companies. Our connection kids are amazing. They're well-rounded, they're hardworking. And honestly, many of these dancers are dancers that have time in their schedule to work as our assistants in classes and also even progress on to teachers at rhythm after they've, you know, been an assistant for so many years and moved up through the levels of connection. So, you know, it's really there's some really great opportunities for these dancers. We're very excited to see all the dancers that are auditioning this season, and we cannot wait to get started.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yes. Thank you so much for listening to us. And please remember to reach out to us and fill out that QA form with any further questions you might have. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.