Hello everyone!
We hope that your family is settled into the routine of the new school year and that your children are enjoying their dance classes here at MHSB. It is hard to believe that we are approaching the holiday season already and we are sure you are all looking forward to some relaxing time with your family. (We know there will be some chaotic time as well, but we are trying to focus on the positive!)

As usual it has been a busy start to the year, and even now things are not calming down as we gear up for the annual Open House classes beginning on December 6th. For those of you who are new to MHSB, the Open House classes are held during regular class time, but are open for family and friends to observe the progress the students have made since September. You are welcome to speak to the teacher at the end of the class with any concerns or comments regarding your child’s progress and report card. The dates for these classes are listed on the inside of this newsletter.

By now, you will have received your child’s individual and group photos. Remember that re-prints are available directly through our photographer Katherine Aczel at 416 701 1702.

Last year we said goodbye to one of our wonderful teachers Lea Creswell. A couple years back Lea opened her own dance school in the Beaches. She continued to teach for MHSB but decided that this year she needed to give her full attention to Creswell Dance Academy. However, her attention will soon be focused on a new addition to her family as she and her partner Tom expect their first child in late December. We are eagerly awaiting this event and will keep you posted.

Also expecting is Briana Ryans. Many of you will remember her as she taught at MHSB for several years. Her school in Guelph is doing very well and we wish her the very best as she and Kevin welcome their baby in February.

This summer we welcomed back Lisa Hrycajkiw to the office. She and her husband Andrew were in the Ukraine last year for several months adopting a little girl named Sophia who is now 2 ½ . It won’t be long until Sophia will be dancing alongside her mommy!

We are thrilled to have Ulrika Englund back teaching this year after her maternity leave. Baby Astrid just turned one – and is doing very well.

And to finish up the baby news: our resident IT man and a very big part of the inner workings of MHSB administration, Mike Wolfe, is expecting his second child in late December.

As many of you have heard, Lindsay Roden, ex- MHSB student and now much loved MHSB teacher – recently became engaged to John Maggiacomo. We are all thrilled for them both and wish them a lifetime of happiness together.

MHSB would like to welcome Nicola Pantin to the teaching staff. Nicole comes to us with a wealth of performing and teaching experience and is teaching the senior jazz classes on Monday nights. As well she will be choreographing the Senior Company Jazz piece in the new year. We are excited to have her on board!

Thank you for being part of our MHSB season – wishing you and your family a memorable and relaxing holiday.

What a wonderful beginning to The Junior and Senior Company this year! It started off with both groups participating in the Hip Hop genre. Many thanks go to Wilson Wong for his energetic Junior Hip Hop Company piece, and to Apolonia Valesques for her intricate Senior Hip Hop Company routine.

Earlier in our dance season, a group of Senior and Junior Company members were invited to attend the taping of the choreography round of "So You Think You Can Dance Canada". It was a memorable day filled with amazing and inspiring dance. Perhaps we will be watching one of MHSB’s dancers in the competition one day!

The Senior Hip Hop Company had the opportunity to perform their dance in front of 20,000 fans at The Toronto Argonauts Football Game in October. Their performance was loaded with energy and very professionally danced. We were extremely proud of them. A special thank you goes out to all The Martha Hicks School of Ballet families who came out to support the dancers on this wonderful evening!! Also, within The Senior Hip Hop Company we had a competition to see who could sell the most tickets to the game, the number to reach or beat was SIXTEEN! Claire Toole and Lauren McDougall were the two winners of this competition. Thank you both once again, for all your hard work!

November 21 marked the first day of Session Two for both The Junior and Senior Companies. The Juniors are participating in the Jazz Company session and are working with the very talented Siona Jackson on a classical piece. The Senior Company are working on their Ballet Company session. Wilson Wong, a longstanding MHSB teacher, has choreographed a very challenging contemporary piece for them. We look forward to seeing these pieces in upcoming performances.

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing all of you in 2010.

This is one of the reasons why I love company…
Last month, performing at the Argos game was such a blast: from hanging out in the green room; to practicing on the huge field; to having our own meet and greet with the Argos cheerleaders. It was so much fun, and the greatest experience to be part of something so big – we had 30 000 fans watching us! There is nothing like the feeling of running as fast as you can onto the field to give your best performance for television. Company gives us the chance to perform places we would never normally be able to perform, and the opportunity to meet tons of great people. I will always remember how much fun I had on that day!
-- Jaclyn Engelberg

Our regular reception hours at 2345 Yonge St. East Side will continue until Monday December 21st.

From Tuesday December 22rd to Sunday January 3rd the reception will be closed for the Winter Holidays.

Regular reception hours resume on Monday January 4th.

DECEMBER 2009
Sunday Dec. 6th to Saturday Dec. 12th
Open house classes.
Tuesday Dec.22nd to Sunday Jan 3rd
Winter Holidays: No Classes;
The school is closed.

JANUARY 2010
Monday Jan. 4th
All classes resume.

FEBRUARY 2010
Monday February 15th
Family Day: No classes.

MARCH 2010
Tuesday Mar. 9th to Friday Mar. 19th
Spring Break: No classes;
The school is closed.
Classes resume Saturday Mar. 20th.

APRIL 2010
Saturday April 3rd
No classes for Junior School ONLY.
Middle and Senior Schools have classes as usual.
Sunday April 4th
No classes; the school is closed.
Monday April 5th
No classes for Junior School or Senior School. Middle School classes only.

Mark your child’s Open House class in December on your calendar. Family and friends are welcome to attend these special dance classes. Bring your cameras!

Sunday Dec. 6th Open House for all Sunday classes
Monday Dec. 7th Open House for all Monday classes
Tuesday Dec. 8th Open House for all Tuesday classes
Wednesday Dec. 9th Open House for all Wednesday classes
Thursday Dec. 10th Open House for all Thursday classes
Friday Dec. 11th Open House for all Friday classes
Saturday Dec. 12th Open House for all Saturday classes

All DVDs have been delivered to your child’s class. If you missed that class then you can stop by our 2345 Yonge St. East Side location to collect your copy. Enjoy re-living these wonderful performances!

Included in the attachment to this email is a Progress Report completed by your child’s teacher for each class that they attend. We do not critique our youngest dancers, those enrolled in the Pre Ballet, Pre-Primary, Pre-Jazz, Pre-Hip Hop, Pre-Tap, and Primary 1 levels. However, if you would like to discuss your child’s progress, you may talk with his or her teacher at their Open House class or over the phone. If you would like to speak to a teacher, please call the studio and we will be happy to pass your phone number on to them. MHSB does not give out staff phone numbers.

There are various styles of reports based on the various dance forms offered at MHSB. Students are graded in several categories. Students will receive one of five possible marks: needs improvement, satisfactory, good, very good and excellent. The criteria needed to obtain an “excellent” in each category are listed in the MHSB Handbook, 6th edition (pg. 15 & 16).

Please be aware that a “needs improvement” mark should not be taken as a negative comment, but rather as an observation that a particular area of dance requires some extra attention. It is our goal to be both encouraging and informative, and we trust you will receive all comments and grades with that understanding.

Don’t forget that MHSB can host your child’s next birthday party! You can choose a hip hop, jazz or ballet theme for children as young as 5. An MHSB teacher, assistant and party coordinator will oversee the event from beginning to end and will teach a fun dance routine to the birthday child and their guests. We are now happy to provide costumes for the little “show” at the end of the party, so the children will have a truly theatrical experience! Call the office and speak to Katarina to book your next party.

A detailed Personalized Schedule is included in the attachment to this email. It provides you with all the information that you will need until mid April 2010. The information that you will need beyond this point will be sent to you in early April.

By mail, in early February 2010, you will receive information about our SUMMER 2010 PROGRAMS. Last summer we changed the age groups slightly to accommodate the demand for younger campers. Therefore, the age groups are now 4-5, 6-8 and 8-10.

This past summer was a wonderful success. A special thank you to everyone who was a part of the fun! Don’t miss the opportunity to dance the summer away - register early for Summer 2010

MHSB is once again proud to be offering two lovely fine art prints for sale at our main location at 2345 Yonge Street. "Waltz of the Flowers" and "Snow Queen" have been reproduced from Rajka Kupesic's paintings done for "The Nutcracker", written by Karen Kain, former Principal Dancer with the National Ballet of Canada. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Children's Wish Foundation - an organization whose primary goal is to grant wishes to children with high-risk life-threatening diseases.

MHSB is carrying a very limited number of these prints and will now be selling them at the special rate of $10 each. Framing is not included.

These prints make a beautiful gift for the ballerina in your family , and at the same time they help to support this most worthwhile cause.

Make-up classes are available and encouraged when your child misses their regularly scheduled class. Please refer to the studio schedule for times and days. Our 2009-2010 schedule has evolved many times so you may not have an up-to-date copy. If you need to attend a make-up class, please look at the schedule online (there is an up-to-date version on our website), collect a new schedule at our main location, or call the school and we will be happy to mail you one!

Please remember that if your child is a student in one of the last classes of the day, please arrive on time to collect them. If you are late, a teacher has to stay with your child. after 10 minutes, your account will be charged $1 per 2 minutes. We regret to adopt this policy, but there have been many times a teacher has had to wait for parents to pick up their children. Thank you for your cooperation with this matter

The LOST & FOUND at both Yonge St. locations will be emptied of all of its contents and donated to Goodwill once a month!

Contact Lisa Hrycajkiw regarding outstanding accounts at 416.484.4731 ext. 223.

As you may know, MHSB has thousands of beautiful costumes that are stored on the premises. We are able to rent these out to various groups for a reasonable fee, If your skating group or theatre group etc is looking for an economical way to costume your participants, please contact us in the office and we would be happy to show you our inventory.

When not in use, our studio space is available for rental; we would love our studios to be filled with creative energy at all times! Limited evening and weekend hours are available, but during the daytime we are quite flexible. If interested please contact Katarina Tyson at 416.484.4731 ext. 224.