The End of the Holidays

The Summer holidays have now ended and all the kids have gone back to school.
Salem starts back at Kapiti Dance Centre tomorrow for his Intermediate Foundation class.
During the KDC summer school Salem helped the younger kids to paint the two murals pictured here.
The kids enjoyed painting them and they are to be put up in the new studios.
In the meantime they were used as a backdrop for the "Teddy Bear's Picnic" at Southwards, Paraparaumu last weekend.  It was nice that the kids work was seen by the wider community.

Salem enjoyed the rest of the week helping with the littlies.
Then this week it was practices as usual and getting dances ready for the first lot of competitions for the year, the Ribbon Festival, at the Little Theatre in Lower Hutt which is on the 15th - 17th March.
The "Sh-Boom" dance has gone from a contemporary dance to a jazz dance and Salem changed the choreography himself.  He has also got another jazz dance organised as well to Elvis's "Proud Mary".  Looks very good.

Maria Dabrowska

On Monday Salem went to Thistle Hall for a contemporary class with Maria Dabrowska.
It was a very challenging class and Salem took it in his stride and really enjoyed it.
He enjoyed having to really work hard and work things out.
Maria said that Salem moves really well.

Then on Wednesday Louis Solino had a floor barre and modern class at Thistle Hall so we went along to that.  It was good to do a class with Louis again as it had been a few weeks now since Salem has had a class with him.  Salem likes doing the floor barre as it really helps him with his turn-out.
Salem has a one-on-one class with Louis tomorrow before his ballet class.
Salem's looking forward to it all.
Back to all his classes starting on Monday.

Kapiti Dance Centre Concert 2012

Jabberwocky, the Carpenter, Doormouse, Cheshire Cat and Dodo Bird

Kapiti Dance Centre Presents......

Alice  -  Grease  -  La Bayadere
Southward Theatre 25th August 2012
Two shows on Saturday at 2pm and 7pm

Salem's dance school had their concert on the weekend.  A lot of hard work and effort went into it.
I watched the evening show and it went really well.  Everyone enjoyed it.  The kids were brilliant.

At rehearsals

This term everyone was practising their dances during class time but over the last two weeks it was full on rehearsals for hours at a time, it was practically every day.  Then there were the rehearsals at the theatre every afternoon/evening. It was very tiring.  I made sure I had made dinner to take with us as when we did get home it was time for Salem to go to bed.

At the side stage door

Salem was the only boy in the whole concert so he had a dressing room to himself.  Apparently there are a couple of boys in the junior hip hop class but they weren't in the concert.  It's a shame more boys aren't involved.

Waiting to go on stage

But the girls in Salem's ballet class were next door so he was able to chat to them.  And they made sure that he now when it was time to get ready to go on stage which was nice.

The Jabberwocky

Salem's ballet class were characters from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and had to create/design their own costumes.  They came up with some really good ideas.

The back of Salem's costume, see his tail.

We used his old unitard from a previous concert (3 years ago) and made the wings from sequined fabric so he was very sparkly.  I painted the elastic and a pair of his ballet shoes green to match his unitard.   I made him a tail and had sewn triangles of the sequined fabric to match the wings.  I found a blue glittery mask in one of the "el cheapo" shops for $2 which was perfect.  I just had to trim it up a bit as it covered up too much of his face.

The Jabberwocky and the Walrus

Now a Jabberwocky has to have scaley skin so we used patterned fishnet tights for his legs and arms which worked very well and when we bought the two pairs they were half priced so this costume was very economical.

The Jabberwocky

The Jabberywocky costume looked very good from in the audience, he really stood out.  All the girls' costumes looked great too.  They did brilliantly in the concert and played their characters well.
The littlies that were on for Alice were so cute and all the costumes were lovely and bright.  Lots of beautiful flowers and butterflies etc...

Hanging around in the dressing room in his La Bayadere costume

La Bayadere was done by the senior classes and the grade fours.  All the girls were in tutus and Salem in his classical competition costume with a black leotard.  He was surrounded on stage by heaps of girls in tutus but he stood out again as his waistcoat was very sparkley with the red glittery pattern in the fabric.  It looked great from the audience.  Again, everyone danced very well and was well received by the audience.

Ready to go on stage

Salem was a very happy but tired and sleepy boy when we got home and had a good sleep in on Sunday.
Monday, it was back to getting some dance practice in at the gym and then half a private lesson and two classes in the  afternoon and evening.
Contemporary exams are coming up very soon and then it's his RAD ballet exam at the end of November.

My Last Cinderella Performance

Salem with Brendon Bradshaw

I'm finally getting to type this out.  We have been so busy with rehearsals for my dance school's (Kapiti Dance Centre) show.  The last two rehearsals have been up at Southwards Theatre.  It is a full dress rehearsal this afternoon and evening.  Then it is two shows tomorrow, one at 2pm and the second at 7pm.
It has been very tiring, especially when you have to wait around a lot.  Should be fun tomorrow though!!!

Ballet Diaries - Cinderella
by Salem
My Last Cinderella Performance  11th August 2012
It was quite sad waking up today thinking that this is the last time that I will be performing in Cinderella.
But I was excited as well as today I will be actually watching the whole show in the audience before my performance.

Bronte Kelly and Abigail Boyle

It was very interesting watching the other casts' page boys at the matinee.  I could see how I would look to the audience, but I smile more :-)
I thought the show was really good, Bronte Kelly was Cinderella this time and she looked lovely and the Prince was Brendon Bradshaw, he was a great Prince.
It was great to see everything come together after just seeing bits in rehearsals and from the side of the stage.

Lucy Green in Cinderella's lovely tutu

Some of my favourite bits were watching Cinderella in here beautiful tutu, it really did twinkle like thousands of fairy lights, seeing Jonte play the Royal Shoemaker with all the other shoemakers working hard to make a copy of Cinderella's shoe, the Silly Sister and her very silly dance, she showed her knickers and was very funny.  And to top it all off was when all the rose petals fell down on Cinderella and the Prince at the end.  There were so many bits that I liked!!!!!

At the Wellington Botanic Gardens

After the show, we had a bit of time on our hands so we went for a walk through the Wellington Botanic Gardens.  It was nice to have some fresh air and look at the flowers.  We also walked through the old graveyard, it was full of beautiful and very perfumed spring flowers.

In the loading bay looking into the moving trucks

It was back to the theatre and the big trucks were there to load all the ballet sets, props, costumes etc in after the show.  I wondered if I could stow away in the back of one of the trucks so I could go on tour.

Next to the huge moving truck

Wow, my last performance, I felt a bit sad again that it will be all over for me after this performance.  I bumped into Joseph and Helio when I was in the dressing room so I had my photo taken with them.  They were about to change costumes.  They are in my dressing room too, but on the other side of the partition wall.

With  Joseph Skelton and Helio Lima

I had to play around with Daniel's make-up again.  I got rid of some streaks in his foundation.  We played cards again to occupy ourselves, then we went downstairs to backstage.  Me and Jonte sat together again.
Then it was my last time on stage.  It all went well as usual.  I didn't really want to go off stage.
It was back up to the dressing room, I took off my costume and put everything in to the washing basket and put away my hat and shoes tidily.

Saying good-bye to Lindsay

We had a chat with Lindsay on the way out and had a big hug.  Then it was off to the railway station, caught the train home and flopped into bed.  I was tired, happy and a little sad.  Until the next time.............

Start of a new term so back to classes

Contemporary Medal Exam 2010

It was back to ballet, stretch and strength and contemporary classes this week as it was the end of the school holidays and into the new term.

There is the usual syllabus lessons for the RAD exams next term in October, getting ready for his Contemporary NZAMD exam and medal test .....and.... The Kapiti Dance Centre's Concert on the 25th August.
Plus there is Cinderella, the rehearsals and performances.

Letting off some steam, having some fun.

And of course there is the practices and workouts at the gym, it's always hard on the first week of term so he had a bit of fun on the swiss ball today.

He had his private lesson for his classical dance today and went over technique.
We were hoping to do his classical dance at the Rosewood Competitions in Lower Hutt on the 27th to 29th July but it conflicts with his Cinderella rehearsals which is a pity. He was looking forward to it as he was going to compete against his friend Byron, who is also in Cinderella, so both the boys will have to miss out.  But on the bright side, he can still do his contemporary dance which is scheduled for late Saturday 28th July sometime around 4pm.

Kapiti Dance Festival or The Kapiti Comps

Rehearsing for Sh-Boom.

What a long weekend it has been.  The Comps are still going now as I am writing this.  Thank goodness we only had three dances.  Others are there all weekend with sooooo many more.  There is so much waiting around, but at least you can go and watch the other dancers perform.

Sh-Boom, the group contemporary dance went well and they came second.  They looked really good on stage and you couldn't even tell that there were a few of the girls missing.

Du Hast - Contemporary Costume

The next morning Salem had his contemporary solo which is to Rammsteins "Du Hast" which made a nice change to all the "girly" music that the girls were dancing to.  I don't know what the judge made of it.

Salem and Caleb

Salem got a commended marking with the comments of "You have a good sense of line and a good sense of energy.  A promising performer."
That's not too bad considering that because of being nervous about being judged, Salem's mind went blank about his dance near the start so was basically doing an impromptu dance and not even his contemporary teacher noticed.  He managed to do the proper finish though.  I thought he did so well.  It also cured him of his nerves.

Kannan, Salem and Tegan

His classical dance went brilliantly and he was relaxed and confident.  His teacher was pleased with his performance and we got so many lovely comments afterwards from people we didn't even know.  And of course from people we did know :-)
Salem looks so grown up now.

Ready for his Classical Dance

He got another commended and the comments of "You have a strong presence on stage.  Nicely turned out legs and feet."

He was up against very tough competition, his friends and well seasoned competitors.

It was a very good experience for him and he can't wait until the next competitions.

Comps, Costumes and Practicing

Salem and the girls in Russian Winter -  Kapiti Comps 2010

I've been doing a lot of hand sewing for Salem's costumes to get ready for tomorrow and Monday.
I've had to put new elastic in his leggings so that they are tight enough and don't fall down.  And had to take in his old waist coat he wore in Russian Winter to make to more fitted and took off the buttons.
It's looking quite cool now.

Contemporary

He had another brilliant practice at the gym this afternoon and is really going to enjoy himself at the comps (Kapiti Dance Festival).
I'll let you know how he does with the group contemporary dance tomorrow.

Kapiti Dance Festival and Practices are going well

Salem had  rehearsals for his group contemporary dance yesterday at Kapiti Dance Centre.  I think having a break from his usual dance practice did him good as he had a really good practice today and is feeling very confident.  And having cake and a cup of tea at Over the Tea Cups tea shop is always good for the soul.  He did everything perfectly, got all the timing sorted and smiled the whole time.
Roll on the comps!!!!

Record field for dance festival

TALIA CARLISLE

A record number of dancers will perform this weekend for the 27th annual Dance Kapiti festival at Southward Theatre.

Colourful costumes and tutus will feature throughout the four-day festival starting on Saturday.

A record 722 items will be performed, featuring 145 individual dancers as well as groups.

Dancers will represent Judith Fuge Dance School, Kapiti Dance Centre and Praiz Studios in Kapiti, as well as studios from Wellington, Napier, Hastings, Hawera and Palmerston North.

Students will showcase a range of dance styles over four days, including ballet, lyrical, character, contemporary, jazz and hip-hop.

Kapiti Ballet Society spokeswoman Valerie Andrews said the festival was a great way to while away a couple of hours while watching a high standard of performers.

A highlight of the festival will be on Sunday evening where the top dancers will compete for a place in the National Young Performer Awards to be held in Invercargill in October.

The public are invited to attend the festival, with events running from 8.30am till 9pm over the four days, excluding breaks.

- Entrance by donation.

- Kapiti Observer