Dance Art Comps and I've finally done it!!!!!!!

Getting ready to dance Siegfried.

I had a very busy weekend just gone.  I had my first competition of the year and had been busy working on two new dances.
A new contemporary and a new demi-character.
I was so excited to debut them!!!!

I got a bit of a shock when seeing the size of the stage at the theatre which I have performed on so many times .......... it was so small .......... and I have grown soooo much.
I really had to concentrate on making my dances "smaller".

Stretching and warming up.

I was performing over three days, on Friday night I did my new contemporary dance " Running up that Hill".
The adjudicator commented "Beautiful flowing work showing good pathways...."
I was pleased with how I performed it for the first time and I was awarded 3rd Place.

Then I had my neo-classical "Cold" and was awarded 1st Place.
Wow, what a good first day!!!!

"James"  - La Sylphide Act II variation

It was bright and early to the theatre on Saturday morning, first my little friend Emma danced her demi-character which was so cute and then it was my turn to do my Krackowiak character dance.

It was so hard to dance this dance in such a small space.
I practice it in a large studio.
But I was really happy with it and was awarded 3rd Place.

Warming up for "Ameno"

My barefoot dance "Ameno" was next, I've been playing with the choreography for this a bit.
 Now I have three versions of this, and I like them all.
This time I danced version no.2 and got a Highly Commended (which is 5th Place).  Very pleased with that.

Siegfried

After having a break all afternoon, we came back for the evening session where I danced my lyrical and was in the Senior Championship dancing two variations

The variations I performed were "Siegfried" from Swan Lake, and "James" from La Sylphide Act II.
I always enjoy doing variations as they may be short but they are just full on.

I got Highly Commended for my lyrical and "Most Promising Senior Variation Dancer".  So cool!!!!

"Miss Hannigan"

It was back to the theatre and ready to perform by 8 am.  Oh boy was it so early.

To early in the morning especially as it was my birthday.

But I was very excited.  I was about to perform my new demi-character.

I had kept it a secret.  All anyone knew was that I was dancing en pointe.

My first time performing on stage, at a competition, en pointe!!!!!!!!

And I was performing as Miss Hannigan from "Annie".

The lovely Miss Hannigan :-)

It caused a bit of a stir and a lot of laughter as I like to do comedy demi-characters.
I had so much fun and it was over too soon.
But I had done it!!!!!!!!

I was awarded 1st Place.  I couldn't believe it.

Last up was my classical and I really enjoyed dancing that and I managed it fit it quite nicely on the stage.
I came 2nd Place for that.

I found out later that I also had won the Encouragement Special Award for 11 years and over.
A great way to end my birthday.

         **  Salem  **

Fun Practicing In A Kilt

Well it's off to Palmerston North tomorrow for the Palmerston North Dance Associations competitions tomorrow.
Salem had his last practice today going over all his dances that he will be doing and had some impromptu practice which is always lots of fun.

Over the last few weeks Salem has been practicing his James variation from La Sylphide Act II wearing a kilt.  It is a very heavy man's kilt, all wool tartan, very hot to dance in.

So Salem has gotten used to dancing in it and for the last couple of practices, he has been wearing the heavy woolen jacket as well.  Poor boy is covered in sweat after doing this short dance.

He will be performing this variation up at Palmerston North this weekend.
He has had a lot of fun dancing in the kilt, loves doing pirouettes and chaines in it!!!!!

Should be a great weekend competing against new people and making new friends.
Wish us luck!!!!

Wellington Summer School 2014 Part One

Repertoire Class.

Sorry for the long break between blog posts, we have been having some computer and internet issues which has been making life and blog posting difficult.  I'm hoping things are getting back to normal.....fingers crossed.

Peasant Pas de deux (1)

Salem had Summer School in January, a whole week of dance which was held at the New Zealand School of Dance.  He had such a good time.

It was a very early start for him, leaving our house at 6.15 every morning to get the bus, train and then another bus to get there at 8 am ready for the warm-up class.


The warm up was taken by a different teacher each morning.
There were a couple of morning he enjoyed and got nicely warmed up but others he was quite stiff afterwards.  He would have prefered doing the Zumba warm-ups which they did last year which definitely got you ready for your next class.

Peasant Pas de deux (2)

This year his teachers were:

Anita Hunziker for Contemporary
Pagan Dorgan for Jazz
Kerry Anne Gilberd for Repertoire
Anneliese Gilberd for Classical.

Salem with Kerry Anne Gilberd.

He didn't do the RAD class with Paula Hunt as he is no longer doing the RAD syllabus.
His favourite classes were Repertoire and Contemporary.
He really didn't like the jazz class as he thought that it didn't cater towards boys and did not like being told to "strut his stuff down the catwalk" and to be "beautiful", not what a teenage boy wants to hear.

Peasant Pas II

He had one other boy with him in his group this year, Jake, so at least he wasn't the only boy.
It was nice to meet him.

In the Repertoire class he got to do a different version of Peasant Pas II.  It was very different to his own version which he has been doing for comps.  Jonty was saying that it is the one that the Royal New Zealand Ballet does.

He also got to do the Peasant Pas de deux which he really enjoyed.  It's not very often, if ever that he gets to do a pas de deux.  He looked forward to Kerry Anne Gilberd's class every morning!!!!

Waiting at the bus stop at 6.15 in the morning.

I'm going to quit this post while I'm ahead and continue with par two later tonight as I've been losing my internet contection on and off.  Bad for uploading videos.  These videos are not on You Tube but I will be putting other ones up on there soon.

Competitions and Other Updates

DanceArt - Senior Variation Award Presentation

It has been a while since our last post, I've had some problems with my internet connection and have been losing a lot of stuff, so I am hoping all goes well now.

Since our last post Salem competed at the DanceArt Society Inc's 11th Annual Dance Festival on the 3rd - 5th May at the Little Theatre in Lower Hutt.
His 13th birthday was on the first day of the comps so he danced in the Senior Variation Championship.  He really enjoyed being able to do two variations instead of just the one.
He didn't get a placing but danced very well.
He also got Highly Commended for his other dances.

Practicing "Du Hast"

Next up was The Associated Ballet and Theatre Club Inc - Tap, Modern, Restricted Ballet Competitions which were held on the 17th - 19th May.
He only danced four dances and did very well.

Last minute practice of "Sh-Boom"

He received Very Highly Commended's and First Place for Bond on Bond in the Neo Classical 12 years and over class.
Salem was very excited as this was his first trophy that he had won.  The last person who had won the trophy hadn't returned it yet, so we are still waiting to receive it.

Looking dapper for "Bond on Bond"

Then there was the Wellington Region Dance Teachers Competition Society Inc - Queen's Birthday Festival on the 1st - 3rd June.
He danced eight dances, was going to be nine but we couldn't make it in time on the Sunday morning due to lack of public transport.  But I think eight was enough.

Ready for his Polish debut

He had done enough practice on his Polish character dance to feel ready to give it a go, so luckily we were able to make a last minute entry because someone else had pulled out of that class.
So I quickly got a costume together for him making use of some of his older brothers Polish costume from years ago.  I had to do a lot of alterations as Salem is a lot slimmer but I think he looked great for his Polish debut.

Having a "Proud Mary" moment.

Salem was given lots of nice comments about his Polish dance such as:
"Lovely light holoubets.  Great Hinge.  Very enjoyable!"
He was given a Commended which he was very happy with.

Article in the Kapiti News. A few facts slightly wrong but never mind. 

Salem was very fortunate to be awarded another Variety - The Children's Charity Gold Heart Scholarship this year.  We are so grateful for the help with Salem's dance expenses.
A big "THANK YOU" to Variety!!!!!

Salem has been having lots of fun with his lessons with Jonty and we are all very pleased with the progress Salem is making.  He has been pracicing doing classical and barefoot impromptu dances with Jonty watching to see if what he is doing is passable and Jonty has been quite impressed.
Salem's first impromptus at comps are coming up soon!!!!!!

Salem is also working on two more variations:
James' solo - La Sylphide Act II and
Sigfried's solo - Swan Lake Act III.

As James from La Sylphide

He has only just learnt Sigfried's solo on the weekend at the Boy's Ballet Class with the Royal New Zealand Ballet Education Program with Shannon Dawson.
Shannon is a great teacher and Salem really enjoyed the class.
So Salem is putting a few of his own little touches along with Jonty's help to the Sigfried variation.

We are still going up to the studio at the gym all the time for plenty of practice as it is competition time again.

Competitions coming up are:

Hutt Valley Performing Arts Competition Society - Ballet and Tap/Modern Dance Comps 12th - 16th July

The Dance Kapiti Competition Festival is on the 20th - 23rd July, held at Southwards Theatre, here in Paraparaumu.

Success At The Ribbon Festival Competition

Wellington Region Dance Teachers Competition Society Inc

Ribbon Festival

15th - 17th March 2013

Little Theatre, Lower Hutt

Back stage getting ready for the Restricted
Ballet Championship 

This weekend was very busy.
On Friday we made our way by buses and train to Lower Hutt for the Ribbon Festival.
We arrived quite early so hung around in the library reading some funny books.
The library was right next door to the Theatre.
Salem was a bit nervous about dancing that night as it was the first competition of the year.
The last one he was in was in October.
He wasn't expecting to win anything, just to have fun, but he did really well.

Alayna Ng

The adjudicator for the Ballet and Modern classes was Alayna Ng from the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
She has had a knee injury so she wasn't on tour with the RNZB so we were lucky to have her as adjudicator.

His first dance was his classical for the
Restricted Ballet Championship - Under 14 yrs.
He danced really well and was up against some stiff competition.
When all the competitors were lined up on the stage for the presentation, they were all given a bag of lollies which was really nice.
Then they started reading out the placings in reverse order, Salem's name hadn't been called out and they were up to the fist three placing, this was getting very exciting.
Third place - Elorah........Second was Georgia ....... First was Salem.
I could see the surprise on his face.
This was his first win.
Alayna put his sash on him and he was delighted.
I was very proud of my boy.

With his 1st place ballet Championship sash

He was so happy and excited when I went to the dressing room to help him into his next costume for the Junior Variation.
We forgot to take a photo of him with his sash in his classical costume so I took one of him with his sash in his variation costume.
He didn't get a placing for the variation but we didn't expect him to as he was competing against some very talented girls.

His reports for his dances contained good comments and pointers to make his performances better.
Some of his comments are:

Restricted Ballet Championship - Under 14 yrs.  First Place.
"You look very happy Salem, on stage.
I can see you're working your legs and feet very hard.
You showed off some good jumping strength, keep working hard on this."

Junior Ballet Variation
" You look good in white tights Salem.
Keep working hard on your jumps, really pushing hard off both legs to really get the power to get off the floor.
Good job."

Waiting to be called backstage for the
Junior Variation

We didn't get home that night until 12.30am due to lack of public transport.
Salem was very tired and we had to be back at the theatre at 8.30 Saturday morning, luckily we had a ride in with friends.
First up was the Restricted Jazz - 10yrs and over.
Salem was dancing Proud Mary in this.
This was to be his first jazz solo ever.
He was dancing against some very talented and older girls and was blown away when the results were announced..... he came third.
 We stayed and watched some of the other classes for a while then went off with friends for a pot of tea and something to eat.

The Junior Ballet Variation Award Presentation

That afternoon we were back  for him to do his classical dance again in the Restricted Classical Ballet Solo - 9 & under 13 yrs.
He danced very well again and as soon as he had finished I went and helped him get into his costume for the class that was up next.  Unfortunately due to the heat in the theatre, Salem had a bleeding nose so we had to do our best to stop it bleeding.
Luckily we were sucessful and stopped the bleeding.

He was doing his Du Hast dance in Contemporary/Modern Expressive - under 13 yrs. 
It was nice to see him do this dance on the stage.  It was very different compared to what the girls were dancing.
When he finished dancing he came and joined me to watch the others and wait for the results.
He got first place for the ballet and very highly commended for his contemporary.  A second place hadn't been awarded so in essence he was third.
He was absolutely thrilled.

Ready for his Proud Mary dance

After dinner it was back to the theatre again.
This time it was the Junior Modern Championship - under 13 years.

He was doing his contemporary Du Hast dance again.

He was very tired as it had been a very long day and a very late night last night.

But he danced very well again and all the other dancers were doing a jazz dance except for Elorah who did her Lyrical dance.  

Everyone danced really well.

After they had all danced, they were all up on stage again for their award ceremony.  

They were all given a bag of lollies again, Salem just loved that.

They said the placings in reverse order again, the first name up was Salem.  He came forth place.

He looked so happy and very surprised and was thrilled to get another sash.

He was a very happy boy.

We had a ride home so were home by 9.30pm.  Had a great nights sleep and we didn't have to be back at the theatre until 1pm the next day.

Salem with Elorah who placed 2nd

Restricted Jazz - 10yrs and over.  Third Place.
"Great song choice Salem!
It looked like you were enjoying yourself."

Restricted Classical Ballet Solo - 9 & under 13 yrs.  First Place.
"Your shoulders were better today but keep working hard on them.
Keep working hard.
Good Boy!"

Contemporary/Modern Expressive - under 13 yrs.   Very Highly Commended
"I think this is a great solo for you to keep working on and progress your skills."

Junior Modern Championship - under 13 years.  Forth Place.
"An improvement on this afternoon.
Keep up the good work on this."

We had a nice sleep in on Sunday morning, and we were lucky to have a ride in again.
First up was the Neo Classical - under 14 yrs.
Salem was doing his Bond on Bond dance for this.
We had a bit of a surprise to find that the ballet flooring was gone as it had to be taken up for the tap classes that were held in the morning.
Salem had to dance on a wooden floor which was slippery for him in his ballet shoes so it was a mad dash to the dressing room so I cold sand paper the soles of his ballet shoes and also wet them to stop him slipping on the wood floor.
I was in the audience watching him dance and he was doing a great job and he slipped and fell but he got straight up kept going without missing a beat.  He was so focused.
It was a quick change after that as he was in the next class, Modern Jazz Solo - 11 & under 13 yrs.
He was doing his Sh-Boom dance for this.
He was all ready to go but the theatre had gotten so hot that they had to have a ten minute break to open all the doors to cool the theatre and stage down.  It was so hot and humid.
I had to scratch up the soles of his jazz shoes as they were slippery on the wooden floor.
He danced well but didn't put as much energy into it as he was afraid of slipping again.

After watching the next two classes it was time for the last results and presentation of special awards.
They announced the results for the jazz but seemed to miss out the results for the neo classical.
Salem came second in the jazz, another surprise as his style of jazz is different to what the girls were doing.

He picked up his neo results when he got his ribbon and report for the jazz.
He was placed third for the neo even though he slipped over.  Well done Salem!!!!!
This was a very successful competition for him.
The next competitions after the Alana Haines Awards, he will be competing in the 13 years and over age groups.

Neo Classical - under 14 yrs.  Third place.
"Don't you look smart Salem!
A great action energy shown on the stage.
Nice tour.
Keep working hard.
Good Boy."

Modern Jazz Solo - 11 & under 13 yrs.  Second Place.
"It's all nice, neat and tidy.
Keep up the hard work."