Ballet Boy is Back

We are back after having a few technical difficulties and ready to do regular posts again.
Salem has been busy with his dancing all summer only taking a few days break.
Last week he attended Summer School which was held at the New Zealand School of Dance.
He had classes from 8 o'clock in the morning and finished at 4.15 in the afternoon.  That was Monday til Friday.

He had six classes every day starting with the Zumba warm up which he didn't really enjoy but he still did it.
It really wasn't his thing.
He also had Jazz with Ange McKellar which he really enjoyed.  He liked it so much that he decided to go back to doing jazz which he hasn't done for 1 3/4 years.
Then there was the Classical class with Nicole Ransley, he liked that class but really enjoyed the Repertoire class with Shannon Dawson.  Shannon is such a good teacher.
Next up was the Intermediate Foundation Syllabus class with his old teacher from Wellington Dance Academy, Helen Calman, followed by Contemporary with Geordan Wilcox to finish off the day.

His favourite classes were the Jazz and Repertoire classes followed by the Classical.

It is sooooo nice not to have to get up so early everyday to get into Wellington in time for the classes.

On Monday he went and had a contemporary class with the Wellington Freelancers with Sacha Copeland at Thistle Hall.  He really enjoys doing these classes with adults and learns so much.  This class taught him about using space and using your body for percussion and improvisation.
What impressed him was doing some of the exercises with his eyes closed, he really got to feel the music.
We are now using that in our sessions at the studio at the gym.

The last two days Salem has been going to the Summer School that his dance school, Kapiti Dance Centre, is running this week at their new studio.  He has been helping with the littlies which he really likes doing.

This runs from Monday til Friday 9 am to 12 noon so he will be helping out for the rest of the week.

After this we have lunch then it's off to the gym for a practice session.

We have been working on all his competition dances, improvisation for his contemporary, and some jazz thrown in for good measure.

I was going to include some videos but I still can't upload them.

I'll try again tomorrow on my oldest son's computer.

A Contemporary Class and a Video

Thistle Hall

On Wednesday morning we went into Wellington for another class with the Freelance Dance Community.
This time it was a Contemporary/ Improvisation class with Marisol Vargas.
Salem really enjoyed this class and Marisol was a great teacher.
Marisol is from Chile and even though her english wasn't 100%, Salem still was able to understand what she was saying and really learnt a lot.

Marisol Vargas

Seeing experienced dancers in the class made things easier for him and gave him more confidence in what he was doing.
The improvisation was challenging for him but he joined in with it all and made a real effort.
This was great as it is something we are working on for him.
It is giving him more tools/ ideas as he is wanting to enter in the Contemporary Impromptu section in competitions this year.
Thank you Marisol for the great class and the lovely things you had to say about Salem's dancing.

And a big thank you Alan for sending us the link to the You Tube clip above.
It is great to see a male ballet dancer dance en pointe so well.
Salem just loves this clip.

I've been trying to upload some videos of Salem dancing which we recorded today but it is just not happening.  I will try again another time, hopefully we will be lucky.

Salem practiced today at the studio at the gym but had a few falls as the floor was very slippery today.
It is a yoga studio so doesn't have a dance floor.  Lots of space and mirrors though.
He was very determined to continue on with practicing but when he landed hard on his wrist and sprained it, I said that was enough.  So it was off to get an ice pack.
I put arnica cream on his wrist when we got home.
His wrist was feeling better when he went to bed tonight.

Dancing Through the Holidays

Even though it is the summer holidays and Salem's dance school is closed until February, Salem is still doing plenty of dancing.  He wants to keep up his fitness for Summer School which is coming up soon.
If he doesn't dance, he gets too bouncy at home!!!!  But don't worry, he has had rest days too.

Since the last post, Salem has had some one on one time with Louis Solino and has learnt heaps.
Louis takes him through a floor barre and then his been doing a little ballet and a whole lot of contemporary.
Salem loves how Louis explains things to him and shows him how things are done.
They have worked on a old choreography that was done for Louis and have spent time working on Salem's "Du Hast" dance, changing bits of the choreography that Salem hasn't been happy with and making things flow more smoothly.  Salem has really enjoyed doing this and is confident to change the choreography by himself which he has done in his practices since then.
The dance is looking so much better.

This morning he attended another class of Louis's at Thistle Hall with the Wellington Freelance Dance Community.  It was a floor barre and a contemporary class.
He really enjoyed this and Louis taught everyone a great choreography.
I watched and it looked fantastic.
Salem worked hard and he kept up with all the adults in the class.

Afterwards we went for a cup of tea and something to eat at the St James and while there said hello to a few of the RNZ Ballet's dancers and had a catch up with Jonte.

Then it was a visit to the Hobson Street Park to have a bit of a play and a splash in the pond to cool down.
While splashing around in the pond, Salem decided to do some of his contemporary exercises in the water.
He had to do the exercises slowly so he didn't slip over, and it was quite windy, great for cooling off.
You can see one of his exercises in the video above.

It's the Holidays and Exam Results

Merry Christmas Everyone and Best Wishes for 2013!!!!!!! 


Salem has had a great Christmas but has still kept up his dancing even though his dance school is having a break until after the summer holidays.
He has been practicing up at the gym five days a week as he has a few things he wants to work on and to keep his fitness up for Summer School which is held at The New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington.
Summer School is held over five days with dancing from 8 am til after 4 pm.
He's going to be exhausted as we have to travel in by train and bus.

At the moment Salem is working on the Peasant pas de deux second male variation  from Giselle Act I.
He has got some great ideas from the video below of David McAllister from the Australian Ballet's production of Giselle from 1990.
His teacher will be choreographing a more appropriate version for his level.

Last week Salem did a floor barre class with Louis Solino at Thistle Hall in Upper Cuba Street in Wellington with the Freelance Dance Community.  It was a class with all adults but he did fine.
He really enjoyed the class, Louis is such a good teacher and Salem said it was the best ab workout he has ever done.

Then on the 22nd we were able to pick up his RAD Ballet exam results.
He got Distinction for both his Grade 5 exam and the Solo Performance Award exam.
He was really pleased with himself as he was worried that he made some mistakes during the Grade 5 exam.
Well done Salem!!!!!

So it was back to the gym today, luckily the weather has cooled down a lot today so it was a lot more pleasant for him.

Having Fun Now Exams Have Finished

Exams are all over and done with for the year and this is the last week for lessons at Kapiti Dance Centre.
Monday's New Grade 6 class was heaps of fun, it wasn't too serious at all.
Miss Pond choreographed all this new stuff for us to have a fun class and we all kept mucking up and then laughing lots.

Up at the gym, Mum has been getting me to do lots of different things.
I'm working on my Intermediate Foundation stuff and polishing up my competition dances.
We aren't being too serious with this either.
I wore my "Bah Humbug" hat to practice.
I have to keep my fitness up for Summer School in January.

So I have normal classes today and tomorrow and then on Friday we have the dance school's Christmas Party and Prize Giving.
The parties are always heaps of fun!!!!!!!!

Yesterday's RAD Ballet Exams

Getting ready for the Grade 5 exam

RAD Grade 5 Exam

More practice

Yesterday's exams went well, only a few little mistakes and the new white ballet shoes were a little slippery on the dance floor.
Let's hope the examiner didn't notice.
It was an early start to a Sunday, we had to be at the studio at 8 in the morning with the exam at 9 am.
It's a relief that the exams are over now so Salem can have a bit more fun with his dance practices and not have to go over exam stuff so much now.

Waiting to go into the exam

RAD Performance Award Exam

Dressed for the Neo-classical dance

The performance award exams were a bit more fun and Salem was not nervous about these at all.
He just went in and enjoyed himself without the pressure of the graded exam.
Plus he was more awake for them as his exam was at 4 pm.

Ready for the classical dance

He went in with two other class mates and they had to do three dances in total each, one at a time.
As soon as they had danced a dance, they could go out of the room and have a quick change for the next dance that they were doing.

And a different cummerbund for the character dance

Salem's changes were very easy, putting on a jacket for his second dance and then changing his cummerbund for the third and final dance.
Can't wait for his results!!!!!

Ballet Shoe Emergency

Let's try on a pair of ballet shoes.

Salem's RAD Ballet exams are on Sunday so I painted his white ballet shoes with the proper leather shoe paint.
His ballet shoes were looking worse for wear and all the colour was worn off in big patches.
So I painted his shoes according to the instructions on Tuesday night.
Wednesday afternoon I checked the shoes and took the paper out of them that I used to keep them in shape and the paint cracked...... they cracked a lot!!!!!
No good for class let alone his exams.

Not quite the right fit.

So today as Salem had no ballet classes, we caught the train into Wellington to by him a new pair of ballet shoes.

We don't have any dance wear shops out here in Kapiti.

So it was off to our favourite shop Gubb's.

Success!!!!!

Salem had to try on quite a few pairs of shoes to get the right fit.
He has quite narrow feet and luckily they had an older pair of Paul Wright ballet shoes which was a perfect fit and a better quality leather.  The newer pairs have very different leather and a slightly different coloured white.
It ended up being a size smaller than his last pair which was a Bloch pair (an old pair of his brothers).
But we have a pair which will be worn in tomorrow, Salem can walk about the house with them on and we are going up to the gym tomorrow for a last practice before his exams.
The day off dancing today did him a lot of good and he is more relaxed.
We went to the Wellington Botanic Gardens and he took lots of photos with his film camera and he had a great time hanging out with the ducks and pigeons.
A good mental health day ;^)