News

Dancers go to work in business-themed show

Posted June 08, 2011 12:00 am

By Jessie Frank AMA Dance & Music School submission

The Bellhops, sponsored by the Chicago OHare Marriott, will perform in this weekends dance show, All in a Days Work in Park Ridge. The girls are all residents of Park Ridge, Des Plaines and Mount Prospect. Top row, left to right, are Carolyn Mazurek, Annie Schrieffer, Peyton Turner, Kendall Frank, Ann Marie Frank, Natalie Schiltz, Allie Nemmer, Megan Bricks, Amy Schroeder and Jessie Frank. Middle row, from left to right, are Corinne Bellot, Margaret Rogowski, Katy Harms, Ashley Adams, Sarah Gleason, Katie Mueller, Haley Mech., Kaylie Kleutgen, Maggie Bono and Emily Hansen. Bottom row, from left to right, are Julia Uhlig, Annabel Bochat, Grace Hanrahan, Paige Kleutge, Sophia Rouse and Erin Straka. Photo courtesy of AMA Dance & Music School

AMA Dance & Music School’s decision to theme their annual production around local businesses was an easy one.

“We wanted to involve the community in a way that pays tribute and directs attention to them,” said Ann Marie Frank, who owns and directs the Des Plaines school.

This year’s show will be performed at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 11-12, at Maine East High School, 2601 W. Dempster, in Park Ridge.

Titled, “All in a Day’s Work,” the show is sponsored by more than 46 different local businesses and each routine is themed around its particular sponsor.

The Chicago O’Hare Marriott sponsored a routine where 28 dancers come out on luggage carts dressed as bellhops, and dancers come out of the luggage. Home Helpers, an in-home senior care company in Roselle, sponsors a routine that has the performers tap dancing with walkers.

And Park Ridge dentist Dr. Suzanne Bono sponsored a routine where half the kids are little girls sleeping on pillows and the other half are tooth fairies.

Within the show, AMA takes the time to dedicate routines to the U.S. troops, libraries, and police and fire departments. There even will be eight AMA parents who are actual firefighters performing in the show.

“It really is a family show. We have over 30 AMA parents performing. They love being involved with their children,” Frank said.

AMA parents — who come from as far away as Bartlett, Naperville and Highland Park to bring their children to the dance classes — agree that Frank has a gift for making AMA’s students shine onstage.

Inspired by Broadway musicals her parents took her to at a very young age, Frank said, “We realize most of our students will not go on to be Broadway stars. However, our goal is to give them an experience that makes them feel like one now,” she said.

Tickets are $15 in advance, or $20 at the door. Call (847) 727-7066 to purchase them.

Allison Pape, of Park Ridge, and Alexis Anagnopoulos, of Des Plaines, will dance in the Heigh-Ho ... Its Off to Work We Go! Photo courtesy of AMA Dance & Music School

Sandy Hancock, of Bartlett, and her two children, Kelly and Sean, are among the nine mother-and-child pairings in the Jailhouse Rock routine. Photo courtesy of AMA Dance & Music School

The tooth fairies, sponsored by a Park Ridge dentist, will dance at this weekends dance show at Maine East High School. Dancers are, standing, left to right, Ava Schmeltz of Park Ridge, Emily Pape of Park Ridge, and Claudine Bellot of Des Plaines. Seated, left to right, are Valerie Etzweiler of Des Plaines, Olivia Bitcon of Des Plaines, and Tess Wastyn of Des Plaines. Photo courtesy of AMA Dance & Music School

Keegan Atkocaitis of Chicago will dance with his dad Dewey, a Chicago firefighter.

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