Dance Student Trips - College Dance trip continued

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Being a tour escort for student performing groups can be one of the most rewarding experiences.  Having “escorted” many student groups for Peak Performance Tours, no two tours are alike and every now and then there’s that unique performance tour that makes you smile just thinking about it!  Earlier this year I had such an experience with the  internationally known Texas A & M Aggie Wranglers, a western style dance group that performs dance movements from the two-step to acrobatic like lifts, “Aggie” as they call themselves was meeting me for the last leg of their 5 day Eastern U.S. trip – 1 ½ days in NYC.   Driving from Baltimore, they were meeting me at  at Ellen’s Stardust Café in NYC. 

Almost 1.5 hours late due to a serious of vicious rain downpours the East Coast had seen all Spring,  Aggie arrived with smiles on their faces, cowboy hats in tow ready to chow down and watch the “dancers” at Ellen’s.  At one point, 2 of our guys were ready to jump on the tables and join in the dance routine.  Had it not been for our timed tickets to the Top of the Rock  to view the magnificent skyline of NYC,  Ellen’s might have seen some heel stomping and hat throwing.  More on the hats in a moment.

After breakfast the next morning we headed to the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island National Park for a performance at the Ellis Island Wall of Honor.  Upon our arrival and much to our dismay, the performance area had suffered some damage from the rainstorm of the night before. Fear not though! After working out the logistics with the Park authorities (not an easy feat I might add but that’s what we Peak escorts do), Aggie was able to perform in the front section of the visitor’s center  but the surface was grass!! According to Aggie, no worries and off they went to warm-up.  About 30 seconds into the routine a ferry docked full with passengers who cheered in amazement as the group did their flips, turns and acrobatic like throws without missing a beat.   Everyone was in awe! 

Now about the hats.  After dinner at HB Burger in Times Square, we were walking to our Broadway show Wicked.   All of our guys wore their cowboy hats and if you’ve not been to Times Square, there are large screen monitors that capture people as they walk by a certain area so you can see yourself.  So as Aggie walked by the monitor all you could see were a sea of Aggie Wrangler Cowboy hats – it looked like a commercial and people started hooting and hollering for fun.  We even had someone approach us to say hello – they were an Aggie Alum!

The last day of the trip brought the dancers to the Middle School for Marketing and Legal Studies in Brooklyn for a morning performance and dance clinic to a packed theater of middle school students.  Students and teachers alike were mesmerized, clapping and cheering throughout the performance and in support of those students who volunteered to come up on stage and get a lesson.  At the conclusion of the lesson, all the Aggies lined up on stage to take questions.  Although shy at first, questions started to pour in – have you ever fallen, how long did it take you to learn the steps, have you ever been to Philadelphia and my favorite, keeping in mind Aggie dancers are couples, do you have to date someone on the team to be on the team?!   I’ll blog the answer after our Aggie trip this year!

Off to LaGuardia airport to get the Aggie’s on the plane back to Texas.  A Peak Performance Tour to remember for sure – oh, and yes, I’m smiling as I write this!