1. Cecchetti students are strongly urged to attend the workshop to be held at DanceStation on February 8 and 9. Schedules will be handed out ASAP.

2. As usual, DanceStation will present three shows in the spring. The Judgement of Paris is the ballet for our more advanced students. A Child’s Garden of Verses is our theme for less experienced dancers.

3. A costume deposit of $35 is due in February for all students. The balance (?, but I will do my best to hold it down) will be due in April. Please mark you check COSTUME DEPOSIT.

4. January’s Dancers of the Month, Laura Skibinski and Brooke Whitney, are on view in the lobby. For our February Dancer of the Month, we are proud to present Sara Hesse. Sara is the daughter of Terri and Scott Hesse of O’Fallon and has been a student at DanceStation from the age of three. She is a third grader at Hinchcliffe school. Sara Commended her Grade I exam last March, and will be presented for her Grade II exam this year. She is also a serious gymnast, and competes in level V at Midwest Twisters. She is a very hard worker, and has a lovely style and a fabulous arabesque! Congratulations Sara.

1. The juice in the refrigerator is purchased by DanceStation (ie me) and profits are intended for State Street Dance Company. However, at the moment there are no profits, as the honor system is not working. I do no think that anyone intends to steal juice, but "borrowing" has gone haywire. Please do not take juice unless you pay for it right then.

2. In cold weather students may wear sweatshirts the fit snugly or dance sweaters. Anything hanging over the wrist or below the hip line is too big.

3. If O’Fallon District 90 closes because of bad weather, there will be no classes at DanceStation.

4. Please come in to the studio to pick up younger children. They will not be allowed out alone.

Ben Mielke's classical ballet training didn't help his balance when he joined the navy.
   He never got his sea legs, even after spending much of his six-year enlistment aboard a destroyer.
   ...but his dancing legs never left him, even if practicing ballet was all but impossible at sea.
   ...Lack of practice didn't bother Lisbeth Brown, the director of DanceStation in O'Fallon. When she found out her former student would be living on terra firma once again, she enlisted him into her branch of service -- as the lead male role in "La Sylphide," a ballet her dancers will perform Saturday in Collinsville.
   The 6-foot-tall 24-year-old has been slowly working his way back into shape since early May, learning his part, getting his beats and pirouettes back and lifting his partners, Heather McGinley, who will dance the Sylph, and Lauren Peranich, who will dance Effie...
    While Ben's memory is ripe with the moves and leaps he once did, his body has been a bit slower in following what he sees in his mind, he said.
   "The second day I got back I was in class," he said of his determination to be prepared for his role. "It's something I've really missed. I hadn't been dancing for six years, even though I was in shape according to the navy. ...I'm pretty happy with how far I've come."

O'FALLON - O'Fallon dance teacher Lisbeth Brown, director of the DanceStation, is trying something different for her studio's spring recital this year.
    A company comprised of 65 of her students is scheduled to give a full-dress performance of the ballet "Coppelia" Saturday evening in O'Fallon.
   "This is the first time we're doing a full-length ballet for our recital," Brown said. "I think it's kind of an unusual thing, especially in this area," she added. "However, ballet has always been the most important thing at DanceStation."
    "Coppelia," which has been referred to as the "last Romantic ballet," premiered in 1870. The score, which is famous for including several folk dances, came from French composer Leo Delibes (1836-1891).
    Brown said the ballet tells a story that is loosely based on one of the "Tales of Hoffman," by 19th-Century German author E.TA. Hoffman. Another of Hoffman's tales, Brown added, was used for Tchaikovsky's famous ballet "The Nutcracker."

   The story, which is set in a rustic European village, tells of a romantic entanglement between a boy named Franz, a; girl named Swanhilda, and an enchanted doll named Coppelia.
    The principle roles in the DanceStation production of "Coppelia" will be danced by 17-year-old Annie Wilkes and 19-year-old Richard McAmish, both of O'Fallon.
    Wilkes is a National Merit Scholar in the present graduating class of O'Fallon Township High School, and will attend Northwestern University in the fall.
    McAmish is a freshman at the University of Iowa, majoring in dance.
    Brown said that she adapted the choreography for the forthcoming performance of "Coppelia" from a production by the Royal Ballet of London.
    Brown, who grew up in O'Fallon and graduated from O'Fallon Township High School in 1963, has been the director of DanceStation for the last 16 years.

After a summer of dancing, Heather McGinley brought home the Cecchetti Council of America's top scholarship, a full tuition and board prize for next year's summer workshop at Hope College, Mich.
She attended this year's workshop with the help from Greater St. Louis Committee of the Cecchetti Council of America. Heather is the daughter of Ed and Marcia McGinley, of O'Fallon. During the year, most of her dancing takes place at DanceStation in O'Fallon under the direction of Lisbeth Brown. Heather is a sophomore at OTHS. After school, instead of heading for the soccer fields, the tennis courts, or pompon practice, Heather heads for the studio. She is preparing for her Advanced Cecchettti exam in classical ballet, for which she will be presented in March, 1999, along with Annie Wilkes (Miss O'Fallon 1998). The difficulty of the exam requires two to three hourse of practice at least five days a week. Earlier this summer Heather attended the American Ballet Theater summer school at the University of Alabama. In January she appeared with the Grand Ballets Canadiens in their December production of the Nutcracker. Because auditions are the scariest part of a dancer's life, in the coming year Heather says she wants to get to every audition her parents are willing to take her to, just for the experience.

In ballet schools all over the world young girls dream of being chosen for the part of Clara in the Nutcracker ballet. This year, Lauren Peranich of O'Fallon saw her dream come true; she wil play the part of Clara at the Fox Theater in the Missouri State Ballet's annual production of the Nutcracker.
Lauren is a student at DanceStation in O'Fallon where she is also a member of the State Street Dance Company. She is at the studio either in class or at rehearsal four or five times a week, and she practices every day at home.

Lisbeth Brown, DanceStation's director, said, "Lauren is an extraordinary talent. I wish I could take credit for how lovely she is on stage, but I can't. That comes from her. From me she can get technique and some ideas about style -- but Lauren's aura is her own."
    Lauren is 11 years old and has been a student at DanceStation for three years. Before that, she spent two years as a student at the Van Metre School of Dance in Tennesse. Lauren is the daughter of Bob and Terry Peranich.
    Two other DanceStation students will also appear in this year's Nutcracker at the Fox. Dina Ballard, 12, will appear in the party scene and Ashley Herzog, 9, will appear as a soldier in the battle with the mouse king. Dina is the Daughter of Tina Ballard of O'Fallon. She has danced for three years at DanceStation, where she is also a member of the State Street Dance Company. Brown said "Dina stands out in class. She has a wonderful sense of line and carries herself like a ballerina."
    Ashley is the daughter of Craig and Marcella Herzog of Caseyville, and is in her fourth year at DanceStation. "Ashley works and works and works. She has an enormous determination and energy, and her love of dance shows in every move."
    All three girls attended the Missouri State Ballet Summer School in St. Louis and were chosen for their parts by audition.

(Collinsville Herald. December 14, 1996. Article by Alene Hill)
    For those who look forward every Christmas season to the story of the enchanted Nutcracker danced to the stirring music of Tchaikovsky, the Missouri State Ballet production this year will inlcude some local talent.
     Ashley Herzog, the nine-year-old daughter of Craig and Marcella Herzog and a student at DanceStation in O'Fallon will appear as a soldier in battle with the mouse king.
    "There were 175 who tried out; I was very happy being chosen," she said. Ashley, who lives in Caseyville, is a home school student and is taught, along with her three brothers, by her mother.
    This is her fourth year studying dance with Lisbeth Brown, director of DanceStation where she attends class four or five times a week.
    Instead of taking the past summer months off, she attended Missouri State Ballet Summer school, an experience she said she enjoyed and plans to repeat next year.
    With the rehearsal schedule now under way, she said, this performance wil be slightly different from her previous experiences. First, she said, is the size of the Fox Theater stage, formidable for any young artist.
    And there's the size of the audience, most of whom she has "never seen."
    "I've danced a few times at my church, Faith Family Church in Swansea," she said. "And I've been in recitals. But I've never been on a big stage where I don't know a lot of the audience.
    "When you're in a recital, you know most of the other dancers' parents, but I won't know most of these people."
    It's all worth the trouble to be able to dance in one of the most beloved ballets ever performed.
    "I have the movie and I always wanted to dance in it," she said. "I guess it is really like an early Christmas present."
    And who knows, she said, there is always a possibility she'll someday be performing the ballet as a member of a professional dance company.

For as long as many O'Fallonites can remember, the venerable, grey-brick building next to the Schwarz Furniture warehouse has been Foy's West End Tavern. Before that, some folks recall, it was a bakery. Ines Foy, former owner of the building, says that it was originally built as a boarding house for miners.
    This spring the building will have a bew look - and a new purpose. It will be a dance studio. Lisbeth Brown, owner and director of DanceStation (now at 102 W. State St., O'Fallon) bought the building in December. It is being redesigned and renovated by the Fulford Construction Co. In April, it will become DanceStation's permanent home.
    "I love the studio I'm in now," said Brown. "It's been an ideal location. But it isn't big enough, and it isn't mine. Our enrollment has gone from 80 to 180 in three years. We've added an aerobics program which is catching on fast. Most classes have been closed since October, and we have a waiting list of over 40 children. We need room to grow. O'Fallon has shown it's interest in dance. I figured it was time to commit myself to a building of my own."
    Turning a tavern into a dance studio was quite a challenge. The interior spcae was redesigned by Environs of Collinsville according to Ms. Brown's specifications. Walls had to be knocked down and staircases moved. There will be a large studio and a spacious waiting room and dressing room downstairs. Upstairs will be a second studio, an office, a large storage room and a practice room. There is a large parking lot to the west of the building, and a potentially attractive garden behind the building. The outside fo the building will get a fresh coat of paint and a new name.
    The school's present name - DanceStation - was suggested by the fact that its present location was, for a year, the O'Fallon bus station. "So someone suggested we name the new studio Lis's Barre and Drille," said Brown. "But I think we'll stick to DanceStation."

February 1	Spring Semester begins.
February 8 & 9	Cecchetti Workshop (at Dancestation)
February 22	Mock Exams
February 22-27	Watch days
February 28-March 2	Cecchetti Exams
April 17-21	Spring Break
May 30	Dress Rehearsal for The Judgement of Paris (PM)
May 31	Dress Rehearsals for A Child’s Garden of Verses and performance for the Judgement of Paris.
June 6	Picture day (by Photographique, at DanceStation)
June 7	2:30 and 6:30 performances for A Child’s Garden of Verses.