Thanks to Recital Video Grandmother Gets to See Granddaughter Dance

What’s more fun than seeing small girls in tutus dance?  It’s truly a delight, whether you know any of the dancers or not.  If one of those tiny tutu-ed miracles is your daughter or granddaughter, the pleasure is magnified a thousand-fold.  For several years now, we’ve had the privilege of producing the annual recital video for Sway Dance Center, but this year’s recital gave us the opportunity to do something very special – something that reminded us why we do this at all. 

Sway Dance Center

Sway Dance Center, in North Richardson, offers premium dance training to all kinds of dancers, whether the goal is to make dance a profession or just to dance for the pure joy of it. Sway’s classes include Jazz, Tap, Ballet and Hip Hop classes for anyone from three-year-olds to adults.  At Sway, dance is about more than steps and pointe.  Their goal is to “focus…on character and discipline to improve the overall well-being of our students through positive reinforcement.”   They  assume “every student is capable of achieving their goals as a dancer” and their job is to “provide a nurturing atmosphere and a dance education that will last a lifetime!”  That’s the kind of organization we love to work with.

Production Time

The production of a LeniCam video takes time, because the raw video and audio must be edited and mixed to create the Hollywood-like quality our customers expect.  We tell our clients we’ll be delivering their finished video in 6-8 weeks, but we’re amused by how many call us immediately after their event and ask how soon we’ll be through.  What seemed reasonable beforehand becomes unbearable afterwards.

A Different Kind of Call

This year, after Sway’s annual May recital, we got a different kind of call.  This call came from the father of one of the tiny dancers.  The dancer’s grandmother had not been able to attend the recital, because she was dying from cancer.  The prognosis was not good and if the recital video wasn’t available until 6-8 weeks had passed, this grandmother would never see her precious granddaughter’s performance.  Was there anything we could do?

This request touched the heart of our founder and producer, John Lenihan.  He started this company because he understood the profound emotional impact of milestone moments.  Preserving and sharing memories is our primary mission.

As much as our producer wanted to move up the time of delivery, he knew he couldn’t scrimp on the amount of time and effort devoted to the Sway recital video.  After all, Sway Dance Center is one of our most important clients and all of their dancers expect and deserve our very best.

As we discussed the situation with the caller we realized this dad didn’t care about seeing the whole video.  He just wanted to show the segment highlighting his daughter to his mother, while he still could.  John was able to provide the father with excerpts from the raw footage which included his daughter.  We sent the excerpts just in time.

After we took care of this special request, production of the Sway Dance Recital Video continued.  The complete video was available on schedule and we’re very proud of it.  As part of our services to Sway, we even assist with the sale and delivery of videos, which allows Sway to focus on dance.

What milestone moment is coming up in your life?  A wedding, birthday, anniversary, mitzvah, sporting event, recital or even a funeral?  Whatever your milestone, even business milestones, LeniCam Video Productions wants to help you preserve your memories and share them with others.

Senior Follies!  Show Girls and Show Tunes!

The Spectacular Senior Follies at Richardson’s Eisemann Center

Who says young folks get to have all the fun? Ned Startzel and The Spectacular Senior Follies certainly don’t believe it’s true.  These young-at-heart senior citizens have only retired from their 9-5 jobs, not life. You can see them do their stuff this weekend at the Eisemann Theater in Richardson, TX.

How It Began

Ned Starzel was retired and one of his favorite things to do each day was read the newspaper.  One day he read an article about Mark Carroll, a popular pianist here in the DFW Metroplex, in the Senior Section and felt a call to action.  In the article, Mark has shared a wish he’d been cherishing – a talent showcase for senior citizens in the area.

Ned shared the same dream.  Though he’d pursued a typical professional career for most of his life, back in Pennsylvania, during his college days, he was active in theatrical productions, musical composition and performing.  The performance bug had never really died.

So Ned called Mark.  Mark agreed with Ned that something needed to be done, but Mark was just too busy right then to pursue the project.  Ned understood, but wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily.  Two years later Ned contacted Mark again.  The rest is history – a great history.

Seven Year of Excellence

The Spectacular Senior Follies were featured in a recent article in Celebration Magazine.  Here are some some excerpts from the article about the Follies:

• “Cast members are from Broadway, Las Vegas and local theater and dance groups, including The Tap Dazzlers and Class Act Tap Company and features many other surprise guests.”
• “[Ned Starzel], the oldest performer in the Follies at 97, was a vaudeville performer as a kid.”
• “Also in the cast are Dallas’ favorite storyteller, Rose-Mary Rumbley, Jackie Troup Miller, whose fame started as a tap dancer from the golden days of MGM musicals, vocalist and showstopper, Lillie Madison, along with dancer Joe Cutaia, and many of your Follies favorites, including a visit from the Follies’ own Marilyn Monroe from Hollywood.”
• “[T]he Follies is directed and choreographed by Broadway Tony winner, Michael Serrecchia.”
• “The Follies artistic director, Dee Anne Meece, started out as a jingle singer for many national companies and later was featured in many equity theater musical roles.”
• “Andy Michlin, musical director, has worked with show business giants like Tom Jones, Lisa Minnelli and Linda Carter. Andy was also a member of the New Christie Minstrels.”

As you can see, this is not your grandmother’s local talent show.  Lenicam Video Productions, your Dallas Events Videographer, is pleased to be a part of the production this year, recording the Saturday performances for a souvenir video DVD.  Tickets are still available just click here.