Blue Pointe Shoes and a Medal

Having a quick practice

Salem did very well at the Associated Ballet & Theatre Club Inc's 44th Annual Dancing Competitions yesterday.
It was held at the Little Theatre in Lower Hutt so we had a long journey to get there.
He wasn't dancing until after 6.30pm so we had a nice afternoon in Wellington before getting the bus out to the Hutt.
Salem competed in the Classical 12 yr olds against lots of very good experienced dancers and all were girls.
Salem was placed 3rd.
He couldn't believe it when he got his report and it contained a medal.
It is the first medal he has won at competitions and he is extremely pleased with himself.
And of course I am very proud of him as usual.

Some of the comments on his report are:

"What lovely long legs you have Salem.
You dance very musically.
Some strong jumps and tours shown."

It's great to see his hard work rewarded.
Salem got on well with the girls and will be seeing some of them next weekend for the Genee Dance Challenge.
He has practice for that as well as a Grade 5 class tomorrow evening at his dance school, even though it is a public holiday.

Salem and his blue pointe shoes

On Friday Salem wore his pointe shoes in class for the first time.
The girls liked the colour of the shoes and helped him with tying up his ribbons as he had never had to do this before.
He had his Intermediate Foundation class and while the girls wore their usual ballet slippers, Salem wore his pointe shoes for the whole class.
He did really well and said that a lot of the barre exercises are actually easier when wearing the pointe shoes.
His feet felt funny but soon felt normal after class.

The class really helped break his pointe shoes in.
He had been wearing them at home with socks over the top of them to break them in and even went to sleep with them on in bed.
I had to take them off him in the middle of the night to give his feet a break from them.
It's funny watching him wearing his pointe shoes while he is making up one of his model WWII fighter planes.
He is very excited about wearing them.