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Angie’s December 2008 Tidbits
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“A joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful”
Hello Everyone! Welcome to another edition of Angie’s Tidbits! As most of you know I have recently been blessed with the gift of my first child- Dahlia Valentina. Thank you everyone for your support and prayers during this time. The past week or so has been a very busy one, but luckily I had so much time waiting for Dahlia to come that I was able to write most of this email then. I hope you enjoy this edition of Angie’s Tidbits. Please let me know of your thoughts, concerns and questions. Although I have been out of class, I have been thinking about all of you and I am getting ready to make for another fabulous year of dancing fun!
Angie’s December Tidbits Highlights Being Thankful Being Thankful- “A joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful” Dahlia’s Arrival: The Dancing Princess, Dahlia Valentina Acosta, is finally here!!! She was born on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 6:24 AM. She weighed 8 lbs and 8 oz. and was 20 inches long. I went into labor at 12:00 AM on Tuesday, Dec. 2 and was in labor for 30 hours before finally we had to come to the conclusion that she was not coming out on her own, leading me to have a C-Section. Although it was not the natural childbirth experience that I imagined and so hoped for, I am thankful that she is here and healthy. It will just take me a little longer to recover. In the spirit of recovery, I’ve been getting lots of help at home and have been able to recuperate a lot. Other than that, my husband Daniel and I have been spending every waking (and sleeping) hour getting to know her, feeding her, napping with her, playing with her, taking care of her, and all the other fun stuff. We are just totally in love! Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers and for all of the sweet and wonderful gifts that you gave us to help welcome Dahlia into this world. As soon as she gets a bit bigger and stronger, I hope to bring her to class so that everyone can meet her. In the meantime, check out these pics. Holiday Sessions Underway: With the birth of Dahlia, I am out of commission for the Holidays, but I do have my fabulous instructor team that has taken over my classes from Nov. 17 to Jan. 3. Thank you to all of you that have been going to class and have been so supportive of the instructors. They all wanted me to share with you how thankful they were to have you in class, especially since the Holidays are such a busy time of year. If you did not register ahead of time for the Holiday Sessions, that doesn’t mean you can’t go. Click here to purchase your class for the Holiday Session location of your choice. Tentative Schedule for 2009: I am so excited about the New Year! Not only will we be keeping our jamming going strong at all current locations, we will also be adding on several new class times and locations. You will learn about these new classes as you read this newsletter, but for a quick glance you can click here. Just FYI, on this schedule you will notice that my name is only listed as the lead instructor one time on the whole schedule. That does NOT mean that I am abandoning my classes. It just means that I will have to spread myself out between my classes, and I won’t be able to attend every class every week. That is why I have my instructor team in place to be the lead instructors, but I will still be coming to “play” with all of you throughout the week on a rotating basis. FREE Hit It Demo Class on Dec. 27: You spoke and we listened! On the survey, many of you indicated that you would love to try out the Hit It class that I proposed. So…We will be doing a FREE DEMO CLASS on Saturday, Dec. 27 at the St. John’s Outreach Center in Gastonia at 10:00 am with Queen City Dancing Queen instructor Lisa Burke. In a nutshell, the class fuses simple, feel-good dance moves with some TaeBo-like punches and kicks. (We already have a couple of songs in this style… See you Again by Miley Cyrus and U + UR hand by P!nk aka Fightin’ song). Click here to view printable PDF flyer. Class is open to the public so feel free to print out the flyer and pin it up or give it out in your work, church, neighborhood, etc. The plan is to then continue with this class on Saturday mornings at this location beginning January 10. FREE classes the week of Jan. 5-10: All QCDQ classes will be offered FREE of charge the week of Jan. 5-10! Whether you’ve never been to class, haven’t been in awhile or are a regular, we want you to come to class this week to start the New Year off with a BANG!! Classes are open to the public so make sure to tell everyone in your neighborhood, workplace, church and grocery store about the classes! Be sure to come early for class so you can purchase your class card if you haven’t done so already and grab your favorite spot. I expect these classes to be packed, which means it will be HOT, so make sure you bring water and towel. Click here to view the schedule. Beginning Moves class to start in January: Again, you spoke and we listened! On the survey, many of you also indicated that you would like a beginner level class. I always say that our classes are for all levels and you know that we always just encourage everyone to just keep moving and don’t worry about getting the steps perfectly. However, I do realize that there is value in a beginner class that focuses primarily on the basics of each of the moves that we do in class, and that is why I’ve created Beginning Moves. Basically, this class will include the same songs from our other classes, but all the moves will be focused on the most basic level of choreography. This class will be great for people who haven’t exercised in a long time and/or for people with “two left feet”. If it sounds like this is something that would be up your alley, I hope you’ll join Queen City Dancing Queen instructor Gina Moody on Tuesdays from 6:30-7:30 pm at Armstrong Gym in Gastonia. Please click here for the printable flyer. ARC in Gastonia is now officially a QCDQ location!: Those of you that attend both Gastonia classes know that paying for these classes was sometimes confusing especially for newcomers. This was because the Thursday ARC class has always been sponsored by the City of Gastonia, not by QCDQ. Well, the exciting news for the New Year is that this location is now under QCDQ’s sponsorship! This means that now when you buy your class card, you can use your classes at either location! Yeah! Click here to get you Dance Fanatic Class card now and receive extra savings! (FYI- Everything else about the class will remain the same- time/day/type of class) Earlier Thursday DanceOut! class in Belmont to begin in January: Many of you have mentioned to me in the past that the Thursday 7:40 pm DanceOut! class at the ARC is just too late for you. For this reason, when Dance Specialties in Belmont contacted me about opening up a Thursday DanceOut! class from 6:30-7:30 pm, I really had to consider this to be a potential solution to the problem. However, I was concerned that it would negatively affect the attendance of the current DanceOut! class at the ARC which is why I addressed this in the survey. The good news is that based on the results of the survey, there is enough interest to do both classes! Beginning on January 8, there will be a DanceOut! class offered on Thursdays from 6:30-7:30 pm at Dance Specialties in Belmont with Queen City Dancing Queen instructor Gina Moody. Click here to view a printable flyer. Class Cards for 2009 now on sale!!: Dance Fanatic Class Cards are now on sale for classes in the New Year. You can buy class cards in 5, 10 or 20 class increments. The new Dance Fanatic Cards are different than what we’ve used before in that now your card will reflect how many classes you have purchased and how many you have left, and they will be made of a durable plastic (to protect from accidental washes). The more classes you buy at a time, the less you pay per class AND the more FREE classes you can earn! And if you buy your card now, you can get an even better deal! Check out these ONLINE SPECIALS: ***Christmas Special***Still searching for the perfect gift for someone? Give the gift of FUN, FITNESS, and DANCE this year for Christmas. Buy any 2 class cards before December 23 and automatically receive 3 FREE class passes for any location. ***New Year’s Special***Get the New Year started right with QCDQ classes. Buy any 1 class package before January 3 and receive 1 FREE class pass for any location. Click here to take advantage of these online specials. New QCDQ shirts are coming!: Order your 2009 QCDQ shirt now until January 17. The new logo will read “QCDQ will move you”. As soon as the design is finalized, I will send out an email. Shirts will be available in 3 styles: T-shirt, BabyTee and Tank top. This time they will be available in Navy Blue only. To order your shirt, click here. Jam Crew shirts are also now available in pink and also GREEN with the NEW design, so if you are already part of the Jam Crew and need a new shirt then you can order a shirt by clicking here. Recruiting Jam Crew!!: Calling all Dance Fanatics who would like to earn even more FREE classes by becoming part of the JAM CREW!!! Jam Crew members are a very important part of the fabulousity of QCDQ classes. Just to name a few important things that Jam Crew does…Jam Crew members provide other class participants with different models of the moves that the instructor is doing. They embody the message "If you are moving, you are doing it right". Even though they are always JAMMIN’, they don't necessarily do everything high level and they aren’t always experts at the choreography. They show people the different levels that the moves can be done at. Jam Crew members also clap, hoot and holler before, during and after class, and sing loudly when at all possible. If this sounds like something that you would be interested in, click here for more information. Recruiting Instructors!: I am looking for more loyal participants who would like to start training to be QCDQ instructors! The current instructor team and I are teaching as many classes as our schedules will allow, but I know that you want more classes in more locations! So, we need more instructors to do that! Being an instructor is a big step from being a participant and even from being part of the JAM CREW, but with lots of training, a love for dance and the right attitude you can be a GREAT instructor. I will be holding day long instructor training workshop in late January/early February for interested individuals, but the real training doesn’t take place in only day. So if you are interested, let me know and we will start you on the training path! If you aren’t sure if you are ready, click here to read my list: TOP TEN SIGNS THAT YOU ARE READY TO BE AN INSTRUCTOR. Thank you for your feedback: Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to the Queen City Dancing Queen participant survey. Your feedback has been very useful in planning for 2009 and I hope you can see from this news this month that I’ve already taken your votes into consideration! Keep on the lookout for improvements and changes based on your suggestions throughout the year. I appreciate every comment that you took the time to make, and I will always strive to improve the quality of your experience with our classes in as many ways as possible. Other Tidbits of Interest: 1. Dancing and Singing Bird: This is the funniest thing ever. Check out this link for a good laugh courtesy of Dave S. http://www.members.shaw.ca/grandmafaiths/cockatoo.htm 2. Dancing for life: I love this little lady and her passion for dance even at 93 years of age. Check this out courtesy of my cousin Chuck. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4606161n%3fsource=search_video 3. New Year’s Eve Celebration: While we won’t be having class on New Year’s Eve, that doesn’t mean you have to go without dancing!! If you are looking for a good party with good music and lots of spicy latin dancing, you might want to check out this event, hosted by my friend Rodrigo Jimenez of Charlotte Salsa. http://charlottesalsadance.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=1 4. Good music is good for the heart: Cardiovascular researchers at the University of Maryland, found that just listening to good music is good for heart health. Just imagine the benefits of dancing to that music while you listen to it!!! Click here for the full story: http://www.simply4patients.co.uk/78912?itemId=4142143
Thank you everyone for taking the time to catch up on the latest in QCDQ news. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s! I hope to see you all very soon!
Big Hugs, Angie Angie Acosta
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