The Genee Dance Challenge - Wellington

Bond on Bond

This weekend we were busy with the Genee Dance Challenge.
It was held over Saturday and Sunday at the New Zealand School of Dance.

On Saturday each group had a class in Studio 4 with Christine Gunn.
Salem was in Group One which was made up of Grades 4 and 5.
It was a large group of 18 dancers, with 3 of this group being boys.
The boys were Salem (of course), Daniel and Issak.
Salem really enjoyed the class.

Then they each had a rehearsal of their dance seperately in another studio with Shannon Dawson (Royal New Zealand Ballet Educator).  He helped them with their entrances and spacing, etc.

Then on Sunday it was a real early trip into Wellington for a warm-up class at 9.15am.  It takes us a long time to get there so we had to leave home at 6.45am.

The adjudicators for today were Ms Turid Revfeim - Ballet Mistress for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Mr Peter Boyes Dip.Arch.Tech., A.I.Chor.

Salem was dancer No.8 and he really danced well.
He did his neo-classical "Bond on Bond" dance and did it with a lot of confidence.
He had put in a lot of practice for this.
He was then able to come and watch all the other dancers after he had performed.
There was a very high standard of dancing.
Two dancers were chosen from each level, there were four levels, to go on to the final.
Salem was thrilled that his friend Lokyee Szeto was chosen from his level.

It was very well organised and everything ran to time.
A great way to spend the day, watching some great ballet!!!!!!!

Great News

Great news, Salem has a part in the upcoming Royal New Zealand Ballet's "Giselle".
It opens on the 7th November here in Wellington, with shows til the 11th before moving on to the next city.
Salem was thrilled to be asked again.
Rehearsals for him start next week with costume fitting on Tuesday.

Tomorrow it is off into Wellington to the New Zealand School of Dance for the first day of the Genee Challenge.
There will be a class first and then solo rehearsals.
Then on Sunday there will be a warm-up class before the solo performances.
Salem's practices for this have been going well.
It's an early night tonight.

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.

No Luck in Star Search Final

Friday was the finals for the Coastlands Star Search.

Salem was up against five other performers - 3 singers, 1 keyboard player and a hip hop dancer.

Salem danced really well and even had a few of his "Senior Fans" come and watch him too.

Everyone performed well.

First and third place went to singers and second place went to the hip hop act who was another boy dancer.

It's funny how the only dancers that got through to the finals were boys.

All of Salem's fans said he should have had a placing but it is a fact that no matter how good a ballet dancer you are, hip hop is more popular with the general public, and he was up against some stiff competition.

So thank you to everyone who was supporting Salem.

And a big Congratulations to the winner and place getters.  Well done.

Back at the gym

Afterwards Grandma treated us to another hot chocolate.  A big thank you for that.
And then it was off to Grade School.

We had a good session at the gym yesterday as Salem is having to go over his classical dance for the Associated Ballet & Theatre Club Inc's 44th Annual Dancing Competitions this coming weekend.
It is being held at the Little Theatre in Lower Hutt on the 20th - 22nd October.
Salem is performing on Saturday night.  He is only doing one dance.

And he had to go over his Bond on Bond dance in preparation for the Genee Dance Challenge Wellington Regional Competition which is being held at the New Zealand School of Dance on Sunday 28th October.
I'll tell you more about that later.

Today it is back to normal lessons as the school holidays have finished.