A long overdue second America update.

Truthfully the second part of the tour went so fast that I didn’t actually have an hour to sit down and tell you all the fabulous things we were doing. On top of that I was juggling keeping Lucinda and Patrick (and Heath!) entertained in a city that isn’t really child friendly! We were lucky though, staying so close to Times Square and to Central Park that each day we could walk the pram up to the park and go to what Lucinda started terming as ‘Her favourite park’ which was a huge children’s playground that had big slides, swings and a fort that when the temperature got high enough released water turning it into a big splashing fun park. She loved it. She also conquered her fear of swings, a big step for our adventure.

Anyway enough parks and onto the shows. We saw a great number of shows whilst in NY and the dance mums who were new to the city soon caught on to my ‘Broadway for Broke People’ philosophy and were out there getting discount tickets each night to see all of the great things on offer. As a group we saw ‘School of Rock’ the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and if you think no one could do Jack Black’s role justice then you haven’t met Alex Brightman, he was sensational! Sierra Boggess (of Phantom fame) was awesome in the role of the Principal and love interest and don’t even get me started on the talent of the kids involved, just amazing!! We all had a great time, sticking it to the man!! In addition to this I saw the following

• American in Paris (winner of the best choreography at last years Tony’s)
• Something Rotten (my favourite, very funny show, and we got the original Broadway cast, woo)
• Shuffle Along (The best tap dancing I have ever seen!)
• She Loves me (Jane Krakowski and Zachary Levi)
• Hamilton (The talk of the town, the biggest thing to hit broadway since forever and the show that will win everything at the Tonys this year)
• Fun Home (winner of last years Tony for Best Musical)
• Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (the cleverest play I have ever seen)
• The Color Purple (revival with Jennifer Hudson, those voices were incredible)
• On Your Feet (The story of Gloria Estefan, come shake your body let me do that conga!)
• Beautiful (The Carole King musical)

And I could have seen more but I did have to see my husband and children at some stage! A shout out to my patient husband and cousin Emily who allowed me to run off to shows at 7.45pm each night! Some of the shows other saw included Finding Neverland, Tuck Everlasting, Wicked and Jersey Boys.

In the day time we went to so many great classes. At Broadway Dance Centre we took Contemporary Jazz and Theater Jazz. At Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre studios we took African Jazz and Contemporary. The African Jazz class was with live drumming, so awesome. Check out the footage from these classes on our Instagram account or on our Facebook page. So much fun.

Tours! We had 3 tours in New York City. The first was of the worlds most famous stage, Radio City Music Hall. We got to stand on stage (and jete across it!) which is something I have never done before despite having been on the tour before. We got to stand in the board room of the directors, a room in which famous actors like Judy Garland sat and drank champagne before performing onstage. We saw the dressing rooms, the costume wardrobes and everything in between. We met a live Rockette, and she got to tell us about life as a professional performer before posing for photos with the students. It was a great day!

The next day we had a tour of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater studios, the biggest dance studios in the world. 8 floors of studios in the centre of Hell’s Kitchen a suburb just up from midtown. Big, breezy studios with big windows, gym room,board room, on site theatre, shop and cafe, it was incredible, I had been there before to take class but never had the chance to see all of the spaces in which the company rehearses, amazing. We were close enough to the Lincoln Centre to pop up there for lunch that day, the Lincoln Centre is home to the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, the School of American Ballet and the Julliard school.

The final tour we had was of Disney’s New Amsterdam Theatre where Aladdin is currently playing. It was home to Mary Poppins before this and originally the Lion King. It was on 42nd St, so we all got to walk down 42nd st together! The tour was excellent and we even got the chance to try on costumes from Disney shows such as Aida, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King and Mary Poppins.

And there was so much more but I think you get the hang of it… we had a great time!!! We also did great shopping, ate together, walked the streets of NY together and had the best time. I can’t wait for the next time we head to the big apple!!

Thinking of joining us in 2020… you’d be crazy not to, start saving, dancers start doing those chores and building on that savings!