Just like many front rows in the Sweet Adelines world, Canadian Showtime Chorus’s front row puts in the extra time, as required, to learn and perfect floor patterns, moves, and more importantly, blossom and grow into the attitude and character that pairs with our musical selections.  And sometimes, we are fortunate to get extra coaching!! And like that old classic from C&C Music Factory "Everybody dance now!!", everybody did indeed dance! (Earworm alert) The amazing Erin Howden was in the CSC Front Row house!!! 

As we prepare for our Louisville Kentucky performance in the Fall, we were fortunate to have Erin come work with the front row for a full afternoon in February (she then spent two additional nights with the whole chorus) - now that's many hours of dancing but we loved every minute of it!   

Erin had us run through our set a couple of times just to get a feel for where we were at, and then, she broke down each section of the song with a third of the front row at a time!  This provided an amazing opportunity for each front row member to get personal one on one feedback and guidance from one of the world's best! We're all better for it even though it can sometimes feel a bit scary being in that spotlight! It's what we sign up for though and definitely presents an opportunity to challenge ourselves.  

Erin helped us find and demonstrate more authenticity in our performance - she could just let us get away with making the correct move, but that wouldn't be half as fun, would it?! Erin asked us all to dig deep and really understand what and why we are singing what we’re singing!! It was a wonderful afternoon and each of our front row members truly appreciated the experience.  Some keywords from the afternoon - "Talk to me", "Say something" and “I don’t want to see choreography – I want to see authenticity”, “Activated bodies and activated emotions” 

Gotta love our amazing hobby! 

By: Nicole Wieczorek Durelle