B L O G

Our NEW Performance Plan!

We are so excited to be starting the fall 2024 semester—a new semester with new plans!  I (Jordan) would like to talk a little bit about the story behind our changes to our performance this semester. 

Several weeks ago, I started trying to make arrangements for our Christmas performance location.  I really wanted to get things set way ahead of time, so I could send out Fall information with a set performance date, as soon as I could!  However, things just didn’t fall into place.  After a couple weeks, it was starting to worry me, because July was coming up fast, and I didn’t know when I would be able to send out fall info.  I kept praying the Lord would give us a place, just like He miraculously did for our May concert, and I felt like He wanted me to just wait.  So, I decided to stop looking and stressing, and just focus on preparing for dance camp. As I worked on preparations for that, an idea started forming in my head, one that was completely different and new.  I decided to think and pray on it, and after dance camp was over, to talk with my family and see what they thought of it, because I really wasn’t all too sure about it myself!

So, we did our first Set Apart Girls summer camp.  I didn’t know too much about how a dance camp is normally done, but there was one thing I knew I definitely wanted to do with it, something that I had seen with CMA, the group I had danced with for many years in Colorado.  I had seen pictures of a dance camp of theirs, and the performance they did at the end of the camp was at a nursing home!  I loved that idea, so that is what we did with our summer camp last week!  We had a wonderful, super fun week of dancing and learning, and then on Saturday we performed our dances at Polaris Rehabilitation and Care Center here in Cheyenne.  The girls did an amazing job with their dances, and after we had all danced, we spent time talking and praying with the residents.  It was an amazing and beautiful thing to see and be a part of.  The residents were so touched by the dances, and even more by talking with and receiving flowers from the girls.  Afterwards, the thought in my mind was, “Wow. I really want to do this again.”

The same thought was running through the minds of my mom and my sister Elisha, who teaches with me.  The next day, as we were talking about everything that had happened the day before, Elisha brought up the Christmas concert and our dilemma with not finding the right place.   “You know how we can’t seem to find a place to have our concert? Well….what if we aren’t supposed to have a normal concert at all…” 

I instantly got excited. She proceeded to tell me about her and my mom’s idea.  She didn’t know it, but it was exactly the same idea I had been thinking about for the last couple of weeks, but hadn’t told anyone about yet!  I really felt that this was what the Lord wanted us to do. 

So, this semester, our performance is going to look a little different.  We are going to have several small performances instead of one big one, all at nursing homes here in Cheyenne.  Because these places don’t have large auditoriums and nice seating, before each performance, we will have a sort of “pre-performance concert” at my church (where we will be dressing and getting ready before heading over to the nursing home) for parents and families to come and watch the dances the girls will be doing.

I really feel like this is what the Lord is calling Set Apart Girls to do.  When Jesus came into this world, He went to the ones who felt like outcasts, the ones who felt forgotten and hopeless.  He came into the darkest places and brought hope and Light.  The people in these nursing homes and rehab centers feel alone and forgotten. So many of them are hopeless and depressed.  My pastor told me on Saturday as we were setting up at Polaris, that he knew this place well.  “It is the saddest place on earth,” he said. “So if there is any place to dance, it is here.”

If there is any place that needs to hear and see the message of hope from our dances, it is here.  If there is anyone that needs to feel the love of Jesus, it is these people. 

I am so excited to move into this next year, and I can’t wait to see what God is going to do.