Like any masterpiece, many elements come together to make Christmas Joy each year. Among them, sacrifices and struggles, as well as laughter and wonderful memories. Christmas Joy is made of long Saturday rehearsals, late nights at the theater, plastered hair, millions of bobby pins, new make-up remover, marley burns, blisters, and sore muscles. Christmas Joy is made of Secret Sisters, body slamming front and center on opening night, using the “Amen” skirts as blankets, “Swimming” backstage before the second half, and laughing up at storm in the dressing room.
To me, this show means so many things. It means a new form of dedication each year, diligence, and rediscovering my passion for dance. It means life, bringing Him praise, and the purest form of joy I have ever experienced. Christmas Joy means the weekly reminder of the true meaning of Christmas, company prayer, and His love for us. To me, Christmas Joy means the highlight of my year.
My favorite part of our show, and the biggest thing I look forward to every year is the ‘He Was’ slideshow. No amount of meaningful songs, beautifully orchestrated choreography, or dances I am in will ever amount to the meaning of that slide show to me. The words in the ‘He Was’ slide show are the reason I do Christmas Joy. They’re the reason I live.
I have been looking forward to my senior year of Christmas Joy for as long as I can remember. The most challenging part of my senior year has been knowing that my fellow seniors, Julie Daffron and Emma Grazier, won’t be joining me in my final performance. I never thought that I’d be facing my senior year of Christmas Joy without them by my side during the finale or walking upstage at the end of ‘I Believe’ hand in hand. Those girls are some of the best people I have had the chance to meet, and will always mean more to me than they know. I wouldn’t know them without this beautiful production and the studio, and I cannot say thank you enough for the opportunity to meet them. Julie and Emma, please know that I love you and will be dancing my final show for you two. SENIOR PRIDE.
I think about Christmas Joy a lot in my life; how proud I am to be a part of it, how much I’m going to miss it, how much the cast and crew members mean to me, how I will show my kids the DVD every Christmas and take them to the National Hispanic Cultural Center to see it live. Christmas Joy has been such a big part of my life ,and will continue to be.

Written by Shanoah Ulibarri, Senior Dancer

I found this one especially moving. And as we head into our final weeks of rehearsal before our shows, I thought it a fitting time to share this story with you…

Wendy,
Just wanted to thank you for the beautiful performance yesterday of Christmas Joy….I had never seen it before and I took my son, who is a dance enthusiast and my 83 yr. old grandmother. Her husband passed away 2 years ago and she still has not yet been able to move forward with her life or her happiness. When he was alive, they would always enjoy various dance productions and concerts and since he passed, she has not wanted to leave the house much, wanting to stay in and brood. 

I convinced her to attend Christmas Joy with me and as soon as the first number ended, I looked over to see tears streaming down her face. She looked so peaceful and happy, despite the tears, and had a smile on her face.

At intermission, she told me how all of the fond memories had been flooding back as she watched the dancers and listened to the music. She said that the performance was like a gift to her from my grandfather and she was so grateful to be able to experience the show. She said that for the first time in two years, she felt alive inside and was so grateful. She realized again how much God loves her. 

I too am grateful for you and all of the dancers who worked so hard to put on such an amazing performance. I had tears watching some of the parts, relating to Mary as a mother of a son. Thank you so much for your efforts. You have no idea how the show has touched the lives of those in your audience. I am forever grateful for the way that God used you and the show to breathe life back into my grandmother and show her His love for her.

As a powerful follow-up to this note, just this week I received this update:

My grandmother is now hosting a ladies’ Bible study at her house each week and has started attending church again as well. She truly is alive again and it has been remarkable to see the transformation in her from last year to today. Thanks you again! We will be back to see the show again this year and she is sooo looking forward to it! Please know that you are not just dancing but sharing the love of Jesus with your audience. The word of God never comes back void and you can be certain that He is using you and this show in BIG ways! 

My love to all of you, as we make our final preparations to this show we love so much,

Wendy Miner

To be a dancer requires strength of body and mind. While many people would automatically assume that the strength of your body, arms, legs and feet is most essential, being mentally strong is equally important. This past summer I attended American Ballet Theater’s (ABT) Summer Intensive program in Irvine, California. The experience was amazing, and I learned so much about myself as both a dancer and a person.

When you attend a workshop such as ABT, it really is eye-opening. You get to see how everyone around the country dances, and watching the other dancers in the room taught me a lot. I saw how everyone brought something different to the table, whether it be beautiful port de bras or a stunning pirouette. It was so neat getting to pick out the things I thought were lovely and try to apply them to my own dancing. Being with all these focused dancers really forced me to stay focused.

While I had a lot of fun at this workshop, it was also full of new challenges that I’d never faced before. One of those was preparing a nine minute excerpt from Act II of the ballet La Sylphide, as well as a choreography piece in just three weeks! The two pieces were completely opposite in performance quality. In the excerpt from La Sylphide, we had to act as sylphs, soft, airy and ethereal. Our choreography piece was much more lively. It was filled with fast balancés, soutenu turns and intricate partnering. Both were challenging, but in very different ways!

The Performers’ summer workshop was essential in preparing myself for ABT. If I hadn’t gotten the opportunity to work with guest teachers I wouldn’t have been able to adapt as easily in different environments. When you have a guest teacher, you are expected to modify aspects of your technique to suit that teacher’s style, and you are expected to do it quickly.

When asked what the best part of this workshop was, I really cannot pick just one event. So many amazing things happened in just the course of three weeks. The performance is an obvious favorite moment of mine. Being able to dance onstage and recognize how much I had changed and grown was amazing.

(Photo of Lindsay, center, is from the ABT Summer Intensive performance.)

This month several girls, including myself, had the opportunity to work with Ms. Lynn Cox, who, along with Karen Alwin, created Christmas Joy. She introduced us to her style of teaching as well as blessing us with new choreography for Christmas Joy’s audience favorite, The Little Drummer Boy. She blessed us in every single way and we deeply appreciate her for coming to the dance studio to teach.

I think the thing we all liked most about Ms. Lynn was that she was gentle and kind to us, yet she was able to tell us what she expected. Every one of us received a correction from her. She told us in class as well as rehearsal that we needed to expect excellence from ourselves in order to become a great dancer. I believe this means that we need to not only believe that we can do it, but push ourselves in order to do great things.

The choreography we were given is different than the original dance because we are able to use more emotion when we dance. It’s also more challenging, especially for the corps dancers. It requires much more arm movement than we are used to. During the middle of the dance, your arms get extremely tired and you feel like stopping. It was also challenging because we were asked to do the dance over and over again! It put our stamina to the test as well as our strength and ability to make it look weightless.

The best thing about the choreography that is seen throughout the dance is the maturity of the dance, yet there is that innocence. The dance is challenging and advanced for such young dancers, yet there are moments when a simple turning over of the wrists or even a bow can show the innocence in the dance. The thought of children dancing for their Lord, giving their gift of dance to the baby Jesus while the Drummer Boy is playing his drum is a beautiful thought.

(Photo: Little Drummer Boy circa 2006)

Last month I had the pleasure of watching eight Performers’ girls dance my choreography to the Sons of Korah’s Psalm 147b. It felt so normal being back in the studio at Alwin’s again, although it’s been seven years since I was a Performer and trained at Alwin School of the Dance. I am not doing what I planned to be when I left to train with Boston Ballet seven years ago. But looking back I cannot regret the way life led me. I wouldn’t have matured in ways I have and learned the things I did if I did not have the experiences I did. It took me this long to heed God’s call on my life to use my gifts to give Him glory.  Seeing their joyous faces and beautiful bodies perform the piece was an excellent reminder that it’s not about me. It’s not about them, either; and it’s not about the girls I chose for solo work. It’s about the Lord.

God has been so merciful and faithful to chase after me and draw me back to Him. He has given my dancing back to me when I wanted to run away from it because of painful experiences. He has been so good. This is why I create dance – in gratitude and amazement of God’s goodness and majesty. His faithfulness to me is repeated over and over again as I trust him more and more. His immeasurable beauty I see in the consistencies and magnificence of nature, in the sunset, in the stars at night, in the high mountain peaks covered with snow and the massive ocean foaming and whipping with waves, in the human form in graceful dance or powerful movement. I agree with the psalmist who attempts to proclaim the Lord’s magnificence and contrast our insufficient, futile efforts to impress him. The God of the universe! What do we have to offer him?! nothing but our trust in Him:

“His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.” (Psalm 147:10-11)

I was reading one of Joshua Harris’ books that I found on the shelf at home, and he was talking about God’s gift of freedom from past sexual sin, or sin of any sort, by getting perspective of the cross. It’s relevant to Psalm 147 when trying to understand what it meant to Jesus Christ to die for us, and why he deserves our praise. The Lord over all the universe, the part of the Trinity that helped God the Father design creation and fashion people in his own image (Colossians 1:17), Jesus Christ came not only to live a perfect life among sinners, but to die a sinner’s death as a perfect, blameless man, experiencing the weight of the sins of all the peoples of the world who ever lived and would live. While in agony on the cross, he was rejected not only by those he loved and was dying for, but by his own father in heaven. That baffles me – to have such great love that he could lay down his life for people who revile him, while his all-powerful father hid His face from him. Left alone in the world to bear the sins of the world – Christ experienced loneliness and separation from God, the state that we were in before he redeemed us.

“He feels dirty. Human wickedness has starts to crawl upon his spotless being – the living excrement from our souls. The apple of the Father’s eye turns brown with rot. His father!

“He must face his father like this!

“From heaven the father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross.” (When Boy Meets Girl. Harris, J. p. 177)

The story doesn’t end here though. Christ conquered death; he died and was buried, rose on the third day and ascended into heaven,  and is seated in glory with his Father in heaven. The Father was well-pleased with his Son’s sacrifice. When we look to him, the Father considers his son’s sacrifice rather than our sins. Jesus is in heaven sitting at the right hand of God the Father ruling over the earth. At the throne of his heavenly Father he makes intercession for us. (Isaiah 53:12) That is cause to praise him!

Psalm 147b talks about the God’s might and power as reasons we should extol him; it says the Lord delights in those who fear his name. (vs. 11) Our hope is in his steadfast love – that his love has saved us. We cannot gain his favor or approval – it is already paid for, done. stamped. approved. The Psalmist urges the people of Zion to “extol the Lord” and “praise God Jerusalem.” (vs. 12) We are the ones who will be in Zion one day because of God’s promise. The psalmist goes on to talk about how the Lord strengthens the fortress (gates) of the city, and “blesses your children within you” (vs. 13) He “grants us peace and satisfies us with the finest of wheat.” (vs. 14) His Word commands the universe. He speaks his Word and the ice melts. He keeps all his promises.

Because Christ boldly endured the cross we boldly praise him. I felt the need to express boldness and confidence in the choreography for this psalm. I also wanted to show some frailty, the contrast of our form, without it looking like interpretive dance. That is where the distinctly feminine style comes in. While Latin style dances are typically associated with being macho for the men and flirtatious for the women, I think adding a little of the flamenco style movement accentuated the piece because of its boldness and power, and femininity with the skirts. The music also had Latin/Spanish guitar influence, and I let the music inspire the movement. I can seldom pull movement out of thin air. Rather, the music becomes the blood in my veins that creates the dance. For so long I stifled the creative process because I wanted to pursue my dream, not God’s dream for me. In His goodness He is showing me that I please Him with my gift even when it is not me performing. I am doubly blessed to transfer this gift to so many wonderful young girls and multiply the praises we lift up to the Lord through their worshipful bodies and lovely hearts.

Thank you to Wendy Miner and the Performers for this opportunity. I am looking forward to our next creation together!

~Rebecca Krumel, August 7, 2011

Workshop is also refreshing because there are new, relatively unbiased teachers to impress. Surprisingly, ballerinas are very competitive. Although we will not admit it, we are all looking to see who held a balance the longest, who did the most turns, and whose leg is the highest. When a new teacher comes in, not knowing any of us, it is a chance to be noticed.  Consequently, we all work a little harder, stretch a little longer, chat a little less, and sweat a lot more.

Not only do we want to work harder, but let’s face it, some of the teachers are intimidating! How is it that our legs can stretch higher in a guest teacher’s class? Those who think ballet is inferior to other sports have obviously never been in a workshop class where sweat is literally dripping from our foreheads to the floor. I believe that much of ballet is mental, so when we’re scared out of our leotards, our performance improves.  The Performers’ Workshop is unique because we have world-class teachers come to Albuquerque to teach us in our own studio.

Aside from workshop strengthening our dancing, it also strengthens our friendships. In my opinion, dancers that know each other will be more likely to work well together. This becomes important later in the year when we dance as a corps. There’s something about sweating, suffering, and eating together for three weeks that can bring people together.

The Performers Workshop is extremely beneficial to the company as a whole, as well as each dancer individually. The guest teachers push us to work harder and expose us to new styles, making us stronger, well-rounded dancers. It is an opportunity that many dancers our age do not have, and it is truly a rewarding experience.

Written by Melanie McNett, Company Dancer and pictured here in Project Jazz.

For us dancers, Project Jazz comes at a time in the year when we aren’t doing much else. The weekly rehearsals begin fairly close to the time when Christmas Joy rehearsals are over. By now, we know that having any sort of life outside of dance on Saturdays is slightly unrealistic. But because each rehearsal is also so much fun, no one minds giving up a good portion of their day!

The dances themselves are unforgettable, literally! I think it is safe to say that every dancer that has been through the ranks still remembers Swing Set Part A. Even the younger dancers that haven’t been in some of the upper level dances still know the “HUH!” in Sunset or the “step bal change, point, look!” sequence of steps from You Turn Me. Each company member looks forward to the casting of Project Jazz, knowing that whatever dances she is put in will be enjoyable not only to dance, but also to watch.

For the audience, Project Jazz is a time to “get away”, so to speak. The audience gets to “travel” to Africa and the Tropics, in less than an hour! Although I cannot be certain, I believe that we inspire the kids in the audience when they come to watch. Going on a field trip in elementary school is fun by itself, but seeing girls, some even their own age, dancing on the stage is sure to be inspiring. Based on the letters we receive after the show, the kids really enjoy it. They all seem to enjoy the upbeat, energy filled dances such as Pocket Full of Sunshine and You Turn Me the best. Swing Set is another crowd favorite; the kids love seeing people their own age. And even though we hope to inspire the audience with each performance, it is safe to say that they actually inspire us.

The energy that the kids in the audience have during each dance is definitely an inspiration. When the kids clap and ooh and ahh during our dances, we fall in love all over again with what we do. It is not often that the audience gets to be very engaged at a dance show. All too often, the people in the audience behave as though they are “at the bal-ehh” (yes, please read that in a snooty British accent!) so the refreshment of an active audience is awesome to us dancers. For me, my favorite part of the shows was when the flashlights in You Turn Me first went on and a collective “WOAH!” went up throughout the building. The excitement from the audience can be felt from the stage and it makes each dancer smile just a little bigger and perform just a little better.

Project Jazz is a great show that everyone loves. I know that I am already looking forward to next year; hearing the “everybody loves the sunshine!” theme that we all associate to Project Jazz.

Written by Cassidy McKee, Company Dancer and pictured below in Tribal

Starting my second season as Artistic Director, my vision for our company is to continue to retain all the positive aspects that have built us to such a quality dance company in New Mexico, while also ushering us into a new era. Part of my vision for our company is to increase our repertoire and performing opportunities for our dancers. Another part is to support and help to grow the resumes of our alumni by giving them teaching and/or choreographic experience. Yet another part is to increase our presence in the arts community in New Mexico, to grow our supportive audience and to forge mutually beneficial relationships with other local dance companies.

In starting this blog, I hope to let both our company itself as well as those who support us learn more about who our dancers are, what we’re about and all the great things we’re stepping into.

Wendy Miner
Artistic Director