A Quick Catch-up No.3 - The last one....Choreography and today's lessons.

On our way home tonight after classes.

Yay, Salem's tap shoes arrived this afternoon but of course after he had already left for today's lessons.  So I made sure that I got them to him before his tap class.  He was thrilled and they were a perfect fit.  Sorry I forgot to take a photo of him wearing them.

Today he had his Intermediate lesson, and then instead of going to the performance troupe's practice, he stayed at the studio and worked on his twelve competition dances.  Only one of the dances isn't his own choreography.  He has been a busy boy creating more of his own dances.

So far this term he has choreographed a contemporary dance - "In the Shadows", a demi-character - "Robin Hood" and a neo-classical - "Cold".  He has been doing Siegfried's variation from Swan Lake Act III for a while but felt it was too rigid so has done his own choreography for it which is really great.  It is part of his BTDA dance journal work to look at a ballet, he chose Swan Lake, study it, it's history, the story and look at the choreography and suggest changes.  Well, he wrote down the whole choreography of the variation which was taught to him by Shannon Dawson at one of the Boy's Ballet Classes with the Royal New Zealand Ballet.  Created his own version and wrote the whole choreography for that.  It was very impressive.

This is his new contemporary dance "In the Shadows", it is very different to his old contemporary dance "Du Hast" when he was with KDC.  He has worked on it a lot since this was filmed.

He didn't go to troupe practice as the others were working on their older dances as they are off to comps in two weeks time.
Yes, it's comp time again.  Salem will be doing six of of his solos and five impromptus.
And it will be his first time at comps out of the Wellington region.
We are off to the Palmerston North Dance Association's Restricted and Open Impromptu Competition which will be held at the Regent Theatre in Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North on Friday 28th - Sunday 30th March 2014.
He is dancing on all three days so we will be staying up there in a hotel and making it a bit of a holiday. Salem has never been to Palmerston North.
Looking forward to it!!!!!!!

A Quick Catch-up No.2 - Lessons, getting ready for exams

Salem and his Grade Ones
Photo from Waikanae Dance School

Salem's classes have been going well and he is working hard at getting ready for his BTDA Intermediate exams which will be in early June.  He has had a mock exam a little while ago and would have passed if it was a real one.  He has done a lot of work in his dance journal, Michelle his teacher is pleased with what he has done so far.  So it is all looking good.

He is still loving being teachers assistant for the Grade One Ballet class, he gets so much satisfaction and joy from doing the class.  He has been writing up exercises for the grade ones and preps which is part of his exam work.

Jacqui and Jonty have been suggesting that he take up tap for quite a while now so Salem is now doing a Grade Four Tap class, he has been having a lot of fun with this.  He has to stop doing it like a ballet dancer though :-)  He has his third lesson on Friday night (tomorrow) straight after his Jazz/Lyrical/Acro class.  Hopefully his tap shoes arrive tomorrow!!!!

Salem has been having contemporary lessons at Hayley Johnson's Academy of Dancing in Tawa.

He has been loving the classes and everyone is so friendly.  We have to catch the train there but it is worth it.

His contemporary is really progressing this year.

More up-dating tomorrow night.... it has turned out not to be a quick catch-up!!!!!

Dance Journal Entry No.4 - Russell Kerr

This is another entry in Salem's Dance Journal which is part of his British Dance Theatre Association's Intermediate exam.

Russell Kerr

Choreographer for

The Royal New Zealand Ballet's

Swan Lake

Russell Kerr is one of New Zealand's most famous ballet choreographers who is respected for his ability to tell stories through musical movement. He has made more than 65 dance works for companies including the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the Limbs Dance Company.

He is a choreographer, a teacher and mentor to generations of dancers, and has directed and produced works for companies including the Auckland Ballet Theatre, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Southern Ballet Theatre.

He was born in Auckland in 1930 and studied ballet in his teens with Kathleen Whitford.  In 1950 he went to Europe to train and he danced with the Jose Greco Spanish Company,  the Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, and the Ballet Rambert, then became a soloist with the London Festival Ballet.

He returned to New Zealand in 1957 and continued his dance career as a teacher, a choreographer and a producer.  He was the director of the Nettleton-Edwards-Kerr School of Ballet from 1959 to 1961.  In 1962, He took over from Poul Gnatt as the New Zealand Ballet's Artistic Director and led the company until 1968.

He staged full length ballets with live orchestras and international guest dancers, and he also created some modern ballets for the company's repertoire which included Concerto (1963), Mephisto (1964), and Peter and the Wolf (1962). Four of his ballets are in the current repertoire of the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

He was the director of the New Zealand Dance Centre from 1969 to 1977.  Then he was director of the Southern Ballet Theatre from 1978 to 1990. He was teaching, coaching, choreographing and producing their youth performance works till his retirement in 1990. Not that he really “retired”.

From 1992 to 2003 he was the Royal New Zealand Ballet's guest director for Petrouchka and did choreographies for Swan Lake, Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol.  And again was the guest director for Pretrochka in 2011.

With dancers of the Royal New Zealand Ballet

In 2005 he Created a new full-length ballet based upon the secret life of Hans Christian Anderson. He is still very busy even now. I was lucky enough a few years ago to meet him, chat with him and listen to him talk about how he choreographed Peter Pan for the RNZB.

He is an Icon Artist of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, was awarded the Queen's Service Medal (QSM) for Services to Ballet in 1986 and was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2000.

His work includes:
Hans Christian Andersen (2005)
Opus 17 for 71 (2004)
A Christmas Carol (2001)
Peter Pan (1999, 2010)
Swan Lake (1996)
Journey (1989)
Te Maia and the Sea-Devil 1987)
Terrible Tom (1985)
Salute (1983)
Scripting the Dreams (1982)
Prismatic Variations with Poul Gnatt (1959)

- Researched and written by Salem Foxx