by Natascha | Mar 20, 2014 | Ballet, Broomfield Children's Photography, Broomfield Colorado Family Photography, Broomfield Community Spotlight, Broomfield Companies for Mothers, Children, Community, Community Spotlight, Resources for Children, Resources for Mothers
th installment of Community Spotlight is here and this week we are featuring Danse Etoile Ballet located in Broomfield, Colorado
As previous ballet dancers ourselves, we at Natasha Lee Studios are beyond excited to feature a great local company, Danse Etoile Ballet, that puts on amazing performances that cater to both the art lover and families.
To get to know more about Danse Etoile Ballet we talked with founder and owner, Marie-Jose Payannet.
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Photo Credit: Photo provided by Marie Jose[/caption]
Can you tell us about Danse Etoile Ballet?
Danse Etoile Ballet is a non-profit dance organization founded by Marie-Jose Payannet. Dedicated to offering artists of all ages a place to refine their talent and an opportunity to perform. Since its first performance in January of 2005, Danse Etoile has produced original story ballets ranging from the classical to the contemporary and folk styles.
How did DanseEtoile Ballet get its start?
Incorporated in 2004 in service in 2005 for our first performances at the Dance is for everybody and the dairy center . We didn’t have a studio and rehearsed everywhere sometimes 9pm at night, Sundays, without heat…. Our first class was on an indoor soccer field.
When you were practicing on soccer fields and without heat did you think that you would ever be where you are today?
I had no idea. I was just focused on teaching and rehearsing the best I could for our first performance. One day at the time with a vision.
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Photo Credit: Macht[/caption]
How would you describe the mission of Danse Etoile Ballet?
Danse Etoile Ballet is dedicated to producing quality artistic performances, programs, and instruction, which will foster access to, and appreciation of dance and theater for new audiences.
What type of classes does Danse Etoile Ballet offer for different ages and skill sets?
By maintaining small class sizes, dancers of all ages are given individual attention and guidance tailored to their specific needs. The family atmosphere at Danse Etoile provides a healthy environment where dancers feel comfortable to push themselves out of their comfort zones and reach new levels of success.
The performance opportunities given to our dancers are un-paralleled to any other company. Dancers are not only expected to be technical in their art, but also be professional in their performance
Why is ballet an important skill to learn?
It is not ballet by itself. It is the all aspect of professional training in a safe, family like environment where students can strive to be their best, learn a hard physical discipline, learn a team effort as well as to be mentally strong when challenged, learn to perform in front of difference audiences and at different venues, volunteer, understand the importance of Arts in the community. Ballet is also a great way to stay in shape and not being bored as it gets challenging very quickly.
Interested in becoming a performer, or getting your children involved? Checkout their summer sessions that are now enrolling!
How does Danse Etoile Ballet positively affect the community?
Danse Etoile Ballet strives to produce three full-length performances every season. These performances are funded through local and national grants as well as local businesses.
Each performance consist of three to four shows, held over a period of two days. Each show attracts an audience ranging from 150 to 400 people from Boulder, Broomfield and Denver counties.
We feel that it is important for our community to be involved in the arts. Every performance we provide discounted and free tickets to organizations like the Girl Scouts, retirement communities, and other local non-profits. By sponsoring a performance, you enable us to continue allowing dance as well as the arts, to be accessible to our community.
As well as producing full-length performances, we participate in community events such as the Boulder Creek Festival, Dance is for Everybody and the Broomfield Days. The company also performs in several schools as part of our outreach program. By sponsoring a season you are aiding us in our effort to educate the community on the importance of the arts.
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Photo Credit: Provided by Dance Etoile[/caption]
Can you tell us a little more about your kid-friendly/family performances? What should a family expect at a show?
All the performances we produced are fun to watch for everyone at different levels. They are colorful, unique, great music and choreography, often with a touch of humor, very lively. The theater is small and you can see well from everywhere, the kids can come and meet with the dancers and be inspired to dance. It is somewhat intimate and you get really caught up in the performance. And the ticket price is cheap so even low income families can enjoy it.
At Natascha Lee Studios we love that Danse Etoile Ballet has performances that are catered to families and young audiences – it is amazing to get to expose kids to the arts, especially in this capacity of talent and entertainment value!
To learn more about Danse Etoile Ballet, click here to visit them online
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by Natascha | Mar 3, 2014 | Broomfield Colorado Family Photography, Broomfield Community Spotlight, Broomfield Companies for Mothers, Colorado, Community Spotlight, Resources for Children, Uncategorized
newborn and children sessions outside with our Broomfield Spring sessions starting to book now! While we all have a little cabin fever this week, let’s take a look at Game Only Sports. It’s the perfect spot to be active regardless of weather -which can be a challenge in our beautiful Colorado with the weather changing so much daily! Read on for the fourth installment in our Community Spotlight series. 🙂
Game Only Sports, located in Broomfield, Colorado is truly a one-of-a-kind place for children, parents, groups and parties to have an exciting and positive experience playing soccer and volleyball without any pressure. Taking practice and pressure out of the equation you are able to come together to play pick-up games- where the focus is having fun!
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Picture provided Ryan Aweida, Owner of GO Sports[/caption]
Q: How did you decide to open Game Only Sports? –Any inspirations?
A: I was providing traditional training sessions for kids from the time I was 13 years old. In March of 2010, I finished my last game of the winter with a deep breath. I pledged to never run another drill. I was sick of seeing kids get better, but see the body language screaming to me that they were going to be “burnt out” at way too young of an age. My mom asked me, if you don’t do traditional sessions, what would you do? The answer was simple. I would give the kids a chance to play! I wanted to give the kids a chance to scrimmage. That is what they wanted to do anyway. What was wrong with letting the kids enjoy playing the game in a controlled environment? We spent a couple months preparing to organize the logistics for the Perfect Pick Up Game.
Q: What is the most challenging thing about owning/running Game Only Sports?
A: The most challenging part about owning and running Game Only Sports is helping our customers understand why we do things in our unique manner. We are different from the norm since we don’t allow any coaching. It can be hard for parents to watch their kids make their own decisions. It is common for parents to want to prevent their kids from failing, but we create an environment where the kids can play without the fear of failure.
Q: What is the mission of Game Only Sports?
A: Game Only Sports is creating a new way to play sports. We give players the chance to play for FUN!
Q: What makes Game Only Sports standout?
A: Game Only Sports stands out because there are no other places in the country that does what we do. There are pick up games, but when you combine our flexible scheduling with our positive environment, we are truly one of a kind. We give our players a chance to play games when they want to without the big commitments and we put a staff member on the field to run the game from a player’s perspective.
Ryan commenting on his favorite moment at GO so far:
“I remember an Age 12-13 Game with some really good players. There was one young girl that had never played before. Every time the other players would pass her the ball, she would lose it. Anywhere else I had played soccer, this would lead to her never getting the opportunity again. But the other kids continued to feed her the ball. Not only did they keep passing to her, but when she finally kicked the ball in the right direction, two of her teammates told her “Good Job!” As you can imagine, she got really excited and her confidence was boosted. She ended up scoring goals having the hour of her life.”
What an inspirational story!
Q: Who can participate in Game Only Sports? Do you need to be a skilled player?
A: We believe it is important to have three characteristics to achieve our mission of FUN – Inclusiveness, empowerment and healthy competition. To achieve inclusion, we want to give anyone the chance to play sports. No skills or experience is necessary. We have the ability to make this happen because we pick the teams. Even though there will be players of different levels, we get to spread them out into relatively even teams. We have all ages and levels from Age 6-7 to Adults.
How fun would it be to participate in these pick-up games, host a party or a team-building event? Such a perfect place for an active and fun birthday party for your sports lover!
Q: Who is your average participant? Do they compete in sports outside of GO?
A: Our average participant is a soccer player with some experience coming from outside training like a local soccer club. However, we are looking for more players who don’t have that experience. We are the perfect environment and format for kids that play other sports or even no organized sports! We truly believe in our mission to give everyone a chance to have fun playing sports.
GO also has an awesome mentoring program for kids 10 and over to take on and help a younger players by motivating them and supporting them in their playing!
Q: How does Game Only Sports positively affect the community?
A: Game Only Sports has a GO Give Back Program. The goal of this program is to give back to the community in any way we can. We have a program to give any player a chance to play, regardless of their ability to pay. We also participate in a variety of community service projects, including adopt-an-area and helping a variety of non-profit organizations.
Looking to learn more about Game Only Sports? Visit them online, Save your spot for a pick-up game, or Email Ryan at ryan@gameonlysports.com
Do you have or know any small businesses that would like to be featured here? Email us at CommunitySpotlight @ NataschaLeeStudios.com
We offer newborn, children and family photography to families in Lafayette, Westminster, Highland, Denver, Golden, Louisville, Broomfield, and Boulder.
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by Natascha | Jan 23, 2014 | Broomfield Community Spotlight, Broomfield Companies for Mothers, Children, Community Spotlight, Local Broomfield Business, Resources for Children
Hello! This is Brittany, Natascha’s assistant, and we are so excited to introduce Broomfield Community Spotlight, a new series showcasing small, local businesses in our Broomfield, Colorado community.
Driven by passion, small business owners fearlessly take on the risks associated with working for themselves. In this series we’ll take an intimate look into the lives of these small business owners to see why they are doing what they are – and the impact that they hope to have (and have already had) on our local Broomfield community.
We are thrilled to introduce Lost Lagoon Books, owned by Gail Sawchuk in Broomfield.
Lost Lagoon Books is based out of Broomfield, CO and specializes in selling Usborne Publishing Books. Usborne’s are known for their ability to both educate and entertain young readers- winning the Children’s Publisher of the Year 2012-2013. Usborne has a strong mission of providing education to our children, while embracing family values to have a positive impact on their lives. As an advocate for childhood literacy, Gail started a non-profit, Heroes and Dragon Slayers. Heroes and Dragon Slayers partners with many local community agencies to provide free books and literacy training to those who are at-risk to encourage a love of reading and education at an early age.
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Gail Sawchuk of Lost Lagoon Books in Broomfield, Colorado[/caption]
“Lost Lagoon is dedicated to providing books, tools and resources to parents, teachers, schools, nonprofits, mentors, counselors etc.
It is our goal that all children develop into resilient and independent adults with strong characters”
-Gail Sawchuk
Q: Tell me about Lost Lagoon Books.
A: I sell children’s books and promote literacy as an independent consultant with a publishing company called Usborne Books & More.
Q: How did you decide to get into this business?
A: I was looking for an opportunity where I could be my own boss. Set my own hours so I could spend time with my boys who are 5 ½ and 4. Make my own decisions and be able to be creative. All of my career has been focused on children and families. I know how vital it is for children to learn to read so they can be successful in school and life but unfortunately, too many do not. Plus, I love children’s books and find so much value in the time I spend reading with my children. Usborne provides a connection of all of this for me.
Q: What is your favorite part of owning Lost Lagoon Books?
A: The flexibility and creativity. I love being able to schedule my time so that I can be with my kids. I enjoy exploring all the possibilities and finding the ones that best meet my skills and passions.
Q: What prepared you to take on the challenge of owning a small business?
A: Prior to this, I was Executive Director of a non-profit called Parenting Place. That experience provided me with a lot of the skills I needed. However, there I had an amazing staff to help run the day to day operations and programs. Doing this on my own does present challenges. I think the most important lessons I have learned is to start simple with what has been proven to work for others and then when those pieces are working smoothly you can add some creativity and personal flair. It is a constant evaluation of what is working and finding ways to build confidence rather than be discouraged by setbacks.
Q: How do Lost Lagoon Books and Usborne positively affect the community?
A: Illiteracy is a huge problem in our country. Nearly 2/3 of fourth graders cannot read at grade level. By providing free books to schools and children I am providing access to books they may not have had.
The books are interactive and educational. They inspire a love of reading and learning and give parents tools to engage with their children in that process. Through Home Shows I can talk with parents about the importance of reading to their children and share some of the ways they can get involved with fighting illiteracy with their own children and in the community.
Q: In the New Year, where do you see your business heading?
A: I see my business growing. I am looking for enthusiastic people to join my team. There are so many things I want to do bring more books to the schools and children who need them the most but I can only do so much on my own. One piece I plan to focus on more is partnering with local businesses to support their community schools. I would also like to work with local literacy programs to support the amazing work they are doing.
Contact Gail via: Lost Lagoon website, or Facebook or her blog with tips and tricks for nurturing a love of books in your family! Every online order helps to support and provide books to a young mothers club in Longmont to spread the knowledge of the importance of reading to children and the impact of literacy can have on children’s futures.
Do you have or know any small businesses that would like to be featured here?
Email us at CommunitySpotlight @ NataschaLeeStudios.com
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Photo Credit: Photo provided by Marie Jose[/caption]
Photo Credit: Provided by Dance Etoile[/caption]
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