In 2009 the Caper kids embarked upon their first ever overseas performance. It all started in the January 2007 newsletter where Kate and Beth announced their intention to have the Caper kids perform at Disneyland California. Two years and three months later the Caper kids landed at LAX ready to "party in the USA". We had students ranging from Tiny Tots to Seniors who with their loyal fans (mums, dads, siblings and some grandparents) made our tour group of 200 a force to be reckoned with! Please enjoy the slideshow below and scroll down the page for more gossip from the tour!

THE JOURNEY

There were several different flights our group took to the USA, but we had all arrived by lunch-time on Tuesday 7 April. We kicked off the tour with no delay, many hitting Downtown Disney straight away plus a group of students attending a workshop that afternoon! The bus ride was a flurry of excitement as all the kids traded stories about their journey so far… it was so cool to be on the bus with all of our friends in a different country! The workshop was held at the world famous Millennium Dance Centre and it was focused on turns technique. We were all like kids in a candy store looking at all the photos and autographs of celebrities who had trained or rehearsed there (Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson were among our favourites!). On the way back to the hotel we saw the Hollywood sign for the first time (we saw it several times after that!) Miss Megan and Miss Amanda struggled with jet lag and were able to sleep on the bus despite all the noise from Miss Kate, Miss Beth and the students!

GOOFY'S BREAKFAST

The next morning was the first group activity scheduled for everyone on the tour – breakfast with Goofy at the Disneyland Hotel! We all walked to the restaurant en masse in uniform from our hotel and stopped for lots of photos on the way. Apart from the fact we almost had the whole restaurant to ourselves, we were entertained by the presence of Pluto, Princess Jasmine, Balou, Chip (… or was it Dale?), the Mad Hatter and of course, Goofy. Lots of the food was delicious (made to order omelettes and pancakes in the shape of Mickey ears!) and all the yummy breakfast staples such as bacon and eggs were enjoyed by all. However lots of the ‘breakfast’ food was a real eye-opener like the peanut butter and jelly pizza… and yes, some of us did try it (yuck!) Not everyone had the stomach for so much sugar at 9am in the morning but all the cupcakes, ice-cream, etc did not seem to be a problem for a lot of our students and their brothers and sisters! Breakfast was interrupted from time to time by The breakfast was actually a personal highlight for Miss Kate and Miss Beth who list it as one of their favourite events of the trip… certainly much better than the costume changes backstage at Disneyland… more on that later!

DANCE WORKSHOPS AND MASTER CLASSES

One highlight of the tour was the opportunity for our students to attend workshops and master classes in Los Angeles with some of America’s top dance professionals. Students took classes at The Edge, Millennium Dance Complex, Disneyland’s "Magic Music Days" workshop and MKR Dance Productions. The students had a ball and the American teachers were thrilled with what was to them, a novelty of teaching Australian kids. On all of our "official tours of duty" the students were strictly in uniform (among other things it made it easier not to lose them!) Each workshop and master class was different in their own way and were all very worthwhile for our students’ development as performers. The students had a ball at MKR as it was a ‘real’ dance studio for kids. It was fun to see all their trophies and photos how they decorated their studio. The time there was particularly valuable as we had a few students nail their illusion turns! We will always remember the Disneyland master class for the secret that was revealed at the end!

EASTER CELEBRATIONS

What is more exciting that travelling with your dance friends and performing at Disneyland? Travelling with your dance friends and performing at Disneyland AND celebrating Easter! As our trip coincided with the Easter holidays we arranged an Easter hat parade at our hotel. Early Easter morning all the Caper kids and their siblings congregated at the hotel’s conference room to showcase our hats. We are sure we had the whole range of Mickey ears in the room at that time. Miss Beth was in charge as Miss Kate accidentally slept right through it all! It was great to see how students had their Mickey ears personalised and the became the must have fashion accessory of the tour… even more so than mickey ear sunglasses! Whilst we were ‘parading’ the Easter Bunny was in fact delivering literally hundreds of eggs to our hotel and hid them all! After the parade was finished the kids got their egg hunting tools (baskets) and set off to find their way to chocolate heaven. It was actually the excitement and noise of this event that eventually woke Miss Kate from her slumber as the Easter bunny had left lots of eggs hear her room!

HOLLYWOOD AND MORE!

Apart from spending countless hours exploring the theme parks, we had a day touring the Hollywood area. One of our stops was at the famed Rodeo Drive (pretty sure we all left sans shopping bags!) Who did we all see there enjoying an alfresco meal but none other than Rod Stewart and his wife Penny Lancaster!

In the eight day adventure we also managed to fit in a trip to Universal Studios, an excursion to the Baseball (go the Anaheim Angels!) and a trip to downtown LA to see Mamma Mia. Many of us found time to do some serious outlet shopping (all the Caper kids can boast a complete Gap wardrobe and brand new Nikes! The Caper mums certainly did their bit to stimulate the US economy when we visited the discount dance supplies shop!

THE PEFORMANCE

We have yet to mention the single most defining event of the trip… and the reason it was planned in the first place… the performances at Disneyland and California Adventure Park! Before we describe the performances, let us give you some background. As "Aussies" in America we made the theme of our 30-minute performance a contemporary Australian theme. The entire soundtrack featured modern Australian artists and we incorporated pre-recorded voice overs which shared information on Australia with our America audiences. We had begun rehearsals in January and rehearsed several times a week in Term 1. Each student featured in either the opening or closing routine and our 60 performers then performed one of six additional routines – each student therefore had to learn two routines and perform in two different costumes. At Caper we love costumes and we receive great feedback for the standard of our students’ grooming. However the challenge for us at Disneyland was the costume changes…60 kids, 120 changes, in 30 minutes, 4 adults… somebody call the Guinness Book of World Records! We spent much time liasing with parents about labelling costumes and being prepared with pre-bobby pinning, pre-safety pinning, pre-velcro doting and pre-hollywood taping. We also had dress rehearsals whilst in Australia so by the time we left for the USA we were in fact a well oiled machine.

On our performance day we met the students in the hotel lobby and they looked so gorgeous in their uniforms and all the girls with their hair in braids. We all walked to Disneyland Park together and even saw some ducklings along the way (how Disney is that!) We were led to the performers entrance and quickly got settled in our dressing room. We took our ‘official’ photo in our tracksuits and the students warmed up and tried to get rid of their jitters! We then took one of Disneyland’s secret passages to the backstage area which was teeny tiny. We did not know how there would be any room to do these costume changes. Then another setback… our very new and very professional tour bags all looked exactly the same… how were we going to tell who’s bag was who’s in themidst of a costume change!

In any case, all we can tell you is the music started playing, the audience started cheering and the Caper kids starting dancing. The 30 minutes were a blur of ‘where’s my bag’, ‘I can’t find my sock’, ‘who’s got a spare bobby pin’ and ‘boys – get out of the dressing room!’ The students did their final bow and we felt like we had run a marathon! However to feel the joy from the parents and grandparents faces and to see the pride build in our students was wonderful! It was so rewarding to be able to facilitate this experience for our Caper families – one that will be forever be a treasured memory.

A couple of days later we repeated the show again at the Neighbouring California Adventure Park. It was so great that we did this as one performance would not have been enough. The second show went just as well as the first and it was definitely a bitter sweet feeling when it was all over. The students will have to hang up their green and gold "Caper Kids Australia" costume which we all loved so much.

The experience of travelling in a group was fantastic and to see the friendships blossom between students, their siblings and parents was a bonus. Much time was spent by the kids hanging out at the hotel pool and games room and there were also lots of group dinners shared between families. The tour culminated in the Farewell Dinner held at Naples Restaurant in Downtown Disney. All the performers received a medal from Miss Kate and Miss Beth commemorating their achievements in the USA and we were treated to one of Miss Beth’s photo presentations (thank you to the Findlay and the Serra families for donating your photos!) We were very touched and grateful all the positive feedback we received from parents that night.

MORE CAPER ADVENTURES

The next day the group began dispersing – some were going back to Sydney and others had plans to visit different locations (Hawaii, Mexican Riviera cruises) The destination for most Caper families was Las Vegas! With so many people going, we arranged for buses to transport us to our next playground (two busloads full!) The scenery travelling towards the dessert was fascinating and we ‘stop, revived, survived’ at where else… a factory outlet centre! Miss Kate would have spent the next few days in the Coach outlet store had she not sprinted to get to the bus on time. With our credit cards well worn we arrived at Las Vegas in the afternoon and began our separate holidays.

So in spite of a Swine Flu pandemic of 2009, we all made it back from the USA tour in one piece! We hope you enjoyed our account of this wonderful event in Caper’s history. Please check our Photo Gallery for all the photos. Whilst there is a lot on information here they say a "picture tells a thousand words"!