Exams Soon and Old Dance Videos

It's not long now until exam time so I 've been doing lots of practice. 

I have my contemporary and two jazz exams, plus medal tests for jazz, ballet, contemporary and tap.

I was very sick on the weekend, couldn't get out of bed at all. I caught some bug that was going around, luckily it only lasted 48 hours but it meant I missed exam practice, the boys master class with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and going to see their latest production of A Midsummer Nights Dream.

I've been having a look through some videos of the old dance school productions I have been in. Some of them are so cute and some are just so funny. I will have to convert them all and put them up on You Tube.

Here is one I had already put up a while ago from 2009 when I was with Kapiti Dance Centre.
https://youtu.be/BgIAZRuq4c0

Colours of the Wind

And here's another old video that we just put up on You Tube, from 2010. 

It's of 6 dancers from the RNZB, they dance first and then it's us kids. I'm the skinny one dressed in black and wearing ballet shoes. Loved wearing my ballet shoes, now I prefer to dance in socks, no shoes.

This was part of The Nutcracker season, and I was lucky enough to have one of the children's parts in The Nutcracker. It was such a great experience and I knew then that I wanted a career as a ballet dancer.
https://youtu.be/-eEqBXT3zbc

Ballet at Te Papa 2010

I hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane

Salem

Dance Journal Entry No. 3

Salem's Dance Journal

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Jazz Exams

When I was at Summer School at the New Zealand School of Dance in January, one of the classes was jazz.  I had not done jazz since I had finished doing Grade 2.  This class was a lot of fun so I thought I would do jazz again.

So this year I did Grade 5 NZAMD Jazz.  Jazz has more sharper moves than ballet but sometimes I slip back into ballet habits.  When I am practicing jazz up at the studio at th gym, Mum says "This is jazz, not ballet!!".  This makes me laugh.

On Thursday the 26th September I did my Grade 5 Jazz exam at KDC.  There were four of us in our exam group.  There was Hannah, Ainslie and Florance.

Our examiner was Mrs Patten.  She was very nice and made the exam very easy.

The next day I did my Intermediate Bronze Jazz Medal Award.  I had to do my jazz exam dance.  This time I was in a bigger exam group with my friend Bethany.  Our parents were allowed to watch us this time.  It was nice to have an audience.

Mrs Patten was very friendly and talked to us about our dancing and gave us tips too.  She presented us with our medals.

I got Distinction (95% +) for Grade 5 Jazz exam.  And I got Excellence Plus (highest mark) for my Intermediate Bronze Jazz Medal Award.

Jazz and Contemporary Exams Then Acrobatics

Acrobatic practice

On Friday Salem had his NZAMD Contemporary exam along with his Jazz and Contemporary Medal tests.
This took up all morning with a break in between each one.
So we went to get him a snack at each break at a cafe just down the road, The Jolly Rodger, a very nice little cafe with really nice staff.

Receiving his jazz medal.

Exam day is always a cafe day and he needed to keep his energy up.

The examiner was very nice and Salem said she had good chats with them, was really friendly.
She also got through the exams very quickly and was ahead of the allocated time.

Ready for some contemporary.

Salem was pleased with his dancing and had fun doing the exams.
The medal tests were great because parents get to watch, so of course I watched and he danced very well.
Just have to wait for his results now.

Receiving his contemporary medal.

On Friday evening he had his last Lyrical/Jazz/Acrobatic class in Waikanae and had so much fun as they did a whole lot of acrobatics.

It's bendy boy!!!!

He ended up getting a really bad headache from doing hand stands up against the wall which he had never done before and was a bit nervous about it.  And he wasn't used to being up-side-down.

He learnt a few things and was ready to challenge himself and has been practicing the acrobatics at the end of his practice sessions at the gym.  He leaves doing the handstands until the end and is not getting the headache any more.

He has been working hard and is learning which muscles to use and is so happy at being able to achieve things he didn't think he could do so soon.

Waikanae Dance School is having an Acrobatic Workshop on Thursday morning and is really looking forward to going.

Krakowiak Costume Arrives and Today's Jazz Exam

Krakowiak Costume

On Wednesday evening we had a lovely surprise waiting for us.....
the long awaited Krakowiak costume from Poland.

We had been watching it's progress through tracking with the postal service and it seemed to have stayed in Sydney, Australia for over a week.

Looks great at the back too.

But it was finally here and we were so pleased, it was really well made and of very high quality.
The kaftan and hat were made from a very nice wool fabric so it will stand up to a lot of dancing.

It was well worth getting the costume from Poland.
Take a look at their website:  www.perfekt.krakow.pl

Salem is thrilled with his new costume.

Needless to say, Salem tried it on straight away and looked so good in it.

For the competitions on Labour Weekend (25th - 28th October) we will have to borrow a proper pair of character boots.  I will get him his own pair made next year after the summer holidays as his feet usually grow a bit then and of course no more comps this year after these ones.

We added the feathers to his hat.

I had ordered the hat without the peacock feathers, which they usually come with, as I didn't want any hassles with it getting into the country.  So we added our own ones.

Now he has to practice his dance with all his costume on so he can get used to it before the comps.

Warming up before his exam.

Today Salem had his Grade 5 NZAMD Jazz exam.
He was very pleased with how he had danced and said that the examiner was very nice.

After that, we had some lunch and then it was off to the gym for some dance practice.
Mainly concentrating on his contemporary syllabus stuff as he has his contemporary exam tomorrow morning.

Very pleased with himself afterwards.

So it is up early tomorrow to get ready for his contemporary exam and his jazz medal test and contemporary medal test.

Then later he has his Lyrical/Jazz/Acrobatics class at Waikanae Dance School.
He is a busy boy ...... but he loves it!!!!!