We’ve driven over 4,200 miles and done 11 shows over two and a half weeks.
It’s been a wonderful tour! It’s so amazing to hear the audience laugh and to hold their breath as we sing a moving song.
We have been the inaugural concert of the new after-Covid season for these Community Concert Associations. People are so excited, though still cautious, about coming out and feeling the music.
They are appreciative and they comment on how perfect our show is as the opener – with all the humor, beautiful uplifting moments, personable, and relatable. Everyone feels they are a part of it as we perform songs that trigger memories in everyone.
Last night, as I was setting up the CDs for sale, a high school kid stopped by. He said he would have loved to come to the show, but he was in a show himself and had to rehearse at the same time. He looked at our poster and said, ‘I love comedy. It’s the best!’
I agreed with him and looked at the poster he was referring to. I guess to a kid, we do look a bit comical LOL. Or, he really had a great sense of humor…
We’ve driven over 4,200 miles and done 11 shows over two and a half weeks.
It’s been a wonderful tour! It’s so amazing to hear the audience laugh and to hold their breath as we sing a moving song.
We have been the inaugural concert of the new after-Covid season for these Community Concert Associations. People are so excited, though still cautious, about coming out and feeling the music.
They are appreciative and they comment on how perfect our show is as the opener – with all the humor, beautiful uplifting moments, personable, and relatable. Everyone feels they are a part of it as we perform songs that trigger memories in everyone.
Last night, as I was setting up the CDs for sale, a high school kid stopped by. He said he would have loved to come to the show, but he was in a show himself and had to rehearse at the same time. He looked at our poster and said, ‘I love comedy. It’s the best!’
I agreed with him and looked at the poster he was referring to. I guess to a kid, we do look a bit comical LOL. Or, he really had a great sense of humor…
In any case, I really appreciated this kid who was so excited about his rehearsal. Again, the arts are a powerful tool of expression and communication (especially for young people).
I wanted to write to you about something else today, though:
Acting on a dream, or something that is on your ‘bucket’ list but can’t seem to take priority.
So, sometime during those 18 months of staying at home and not touring, I found my old tap shoes. They are the same ones I bought when I came to America to study musical theatre.
Holding them in my hands, I recalled how excited I was when I learned the basics, and then the simple combinations. I could feel the exhilarating joy of that one show, some 25 years ago, when I danced in the chorus line with a dozen other dancers.
I sat down on the floor of my closet to buckle them onto my feet, remembering how much I loved watching Shirley Temple, or Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, when I was a little girl growing up in Croatia. We didn’t have tap dancing classes in Croatia, so there was no way to learn it until I came to New York in 1992.
I spent endless hours in dance studios on Broadway, practicing and daydreaming of someday being good enough to dance.
But there was never an opportunity. I really wasn’t good enough to be cast as a tap dancer. I had other strengths as a performer that took me on a different path.
But a little bit of that dream never left my heart.
I walked out of the closet and tapped on the tiles of the bathroom floor. The little clicks made me smile… and made me tear up a little bit. I scratched the tiles!
I would never be able to tap dance again, I thought. I just don’t have a place for it.
In any case, I really appreciated this kid who was so excited about his rehearsal. Again, the arts are a powerful tool of expression and communication (especially for young people).
I wanted to write to you about something else today, though:
Acting on a dream, or something that is on your ‘bucket’ list but can’t seem to take priority.
So, sometime during those 18 months of staying at home and not touring, I found my old tap shoes. They are the same ones I bought when I came to America to study musical theatre.
Holding them in my hands, I recalled how excited I was when I learned the basics, and then the simple combinations. I could feel the exhilarating joy of that one show, some 25 years ago, when I danced in the chorus line with a dozen other dancers.
I sat down on the floor of my closet to buckle them onto my feet, remembering how much I loved watching Shirley Temple, or Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, when I was a little girl growing up in Croatia. We didn’t have tap dancing classes in Croatia, so there was no way to learn it until I came to New York in 1992.
I spent endless hours in dance studios on Broadway, practicing and daydreaming of someday being good enough to dance.
But there was never an opportunity. I really wasn’t good enough to be cast as a tap dancer. I had other strengths as a performer that took me on a different path.
But a little bit of that dream never left my heart.
I walked out of the closet and tapped on the tiles of the bathroom floor. The little clicks made me smile… and made me tear up a little bit. I scratched the tiles!
I would never be able to tap dance again, I thought. I just don’t have a place for it.
But the sadness that this thought brought up let me know that I wasn’t ready to give it up just yet.
Instead of waiting for the opportunity to come to me…
Instead of waiting for some time when I’d be able to practice again, get really good, and THEN dance…
I decided that I was going to just make it happen.
I decided right then, standing in my tap shoes in my bathroom, that the next show I do, I’d do a little routine!
So, for the past 11 concerts, I come out each night and I dance.
The sweet sounds I make with small metal plates attached to the soles of my shoes aren’t perfect or really that impressive. But my heart makes up for it. It fills up the room with that awesome energy of a fulfilled dream – one that was almost abandoned.
And as I finish, I ask the audience: “What is something you’ve been wanting to do, but keep putting off because you’re afraid that it’s not going to be perfect, or exactly like you dreamed it up?”
I invite them to pull the pieces of their dream out of the storage boxes – or compartments in their hearts – and live them out.
Even if it’s just a tiny piece of the dream. You never know how much it will bless you and how someone else will witness your joy.
What is your version of ‘tap shoes’?
But the sadness that this thought brought up let me know that I wasn’t ready to give it up just yet.
Instead of waiting for the opportunity to come to me…
Instead of waiting for some time when I’d be able to practice again, get really good, and THEN dance…
I decided that I was going to just make it happen.
I decided right then, standing in my tap shoes in my bathroom, that the next show I do, I’d do a little routine!
So, for the past 11 concerts, I come out each night and I dance.
The sweet sounds I make with small metal plates attached to the soles of my shoes aren’t perfect or really that impressive. But my heart makes up for it. It fills up the room with that awesome energy of a fulfilled dream – one that was almost abandoned.
And as I finish, I ask the audience: “What is something you’ve been wanting to do, but keep putting off because you’re afraid that it’s not going to be perfect, or exactly like you dreamed it up?”
I invite them to pull the pieces of their dream out of the storage boxes – or compartments in their hearts – and live them out.
Even if it’s just a tiny piece of the dream. You never know how much it will bless you and how someone else will witness your joy.
What is your version of ‘tap shoes’?
Videos from the tour
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AND live your dream life.
Get weekly emails, exclusive content. special offers and
event updates directly to your inbox.