Star Search Finals 2014

You can spot his red boots from miles away

On Friday it was the finals of the Star Search talent competition at Coastlands Mall.

It was another opportunity for Salem to perform "Robin Hood" again.

Heaps of people were there and Salem had a blast.

He didn't get anywhere, but he never expected to, he just had fun entertaining people.

Well done to the winner and the second and third placed performers.

What was really nice is that a dance teacher came up to us after Salem had performed and said that he was really good and well done.

Later this month Salem has his last dance competition of the year.  There are actually two on at the same time, one ballet and the other modern, we decided on the modern one in Upper Hutt as he wants to debut his new tap dance and he will get to do his new jazz dance "White Trash" for the second time, plus get to do his "Cotton Eye Joe" acro dance again.

Today Salem was at the New Zealand School of Dance for the last Associate Weekend of the year.

He came home late tonight hungry and tired but all set for doing it again tomorrow.

He will sleep well tonight!!!!

It's that time of the year again - Star Search 2014

With his certificate for making it into the finals.

It was Star Search time up at Coastland's today.  It doesn't really seem like that long ago that he entered last years one.  This year's offering is "Robin Hood".
The stage was tiny so Salem had to make a few little changes to his dance which worked out very well.

Juniors and Seniors waiting for the results

He was up against singers, musicians and one other dancer.
One of the judges was an old ballet teacher of his.
She said some nice things about his performance.

Salem with Liam from Judith Fuge Dance School

Salem, along with two others, made it into the senior finals which are being held on Friday.  So he gets to perform again which he is looking forward to doing.  He doesn't care if he gets anywhere or not, he just loves performing.

Being presented his certificate

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.

Second Place in Star Search Heat

With his certificate

I am so proud of my boy, he got second place in today's heat of the Star Search at Coastlands.
He was up against singers, musicians and other dance acts.
He even competed against one of the performance groups from his dance school.
Not bad for his first talent quest and it was the debut for his "Bond on Bond" dance.
First place went to singer Lily whom Salem used to dance with years ago so that was really nice.
So they will be competing against the other 1st and 2nd place getters from Monday and Tuesday in the junior final on Friday.

Salem and an admirer

Everything didn't go smoothly as Salem was supposed to be the 8th act but the computer crashed when they tried to play his music CD.  So he ended up dancing last in case the computer crashed again.  He was all prepared to dance without his music.
But it played and he danced really well.
He was very surprised to get second place but was quite thrilled with himself.
Afterwards Grandma treated us to a very yummy real hot chocolate at Butlers.

Well done Salem!!!!!

Practicing for Star Search

Practicing at Coastlands

We were back up to Coastlands to practice on the tiny stage.
Salem is now very confident dancing on the slippery surface and we have sorted out where he is going to throw off his jacket so that it doesn't get lost in the audience.

Putting on a show for the shoppers

He put on another show for the shoppers and it was a lot busier today.
He had a lot of people stopping to watch him.
Quite a few young teenage girls watched him and then wanted to talk to him.
They told Salem that he was a really good dancer and some said that they will come along to watch him tomorrow.
How cute!!!!!

Just call me Bond...

The it was off to the gym for some practice of his other dances and then to work on hi "Bond on Bond" dance.

James Bond!!!!

It was a good opportunity to try out his costume and to make sure everything stayed in place when he is dancing.

And we also wanted to see which colour waistcoat looked better as we have a black one and a white one.

We stuck with the black waistcoat as the white waistcoat made him look like a waiter which is not very James Bond-ish.

We thought that the white waistcoat would look good for his "Sh-Boom" contemporary dance, along with his black leggings and white shirt that he is wearing, and either a red or blue bow-tie.
What we would love is to get a "boater" hat and that would give us the total look that we want.
We will have to keep an eye out in the op-shops.

Salem looks so suave and grown up in a suit.
He really loves wearing them too.
So after a successful practice session it was off home.

Roll on tomorrow!!!!!

Getting Ready for Star Search

Salem has entered a local Star Search Competition up at our local mall.

He will be performing on Wednesday at around 11am.  So if you are out here in Kapiti, you should pop in to the Coastlands Mall and check his dancing out.

Apparently it is mostly singers that have entered, not many dancers at all.

And the performers are aged between 12 and 18 years old.

Salem has entered just for fun as these competitions aren't really geared for dancers.

The stage has been set up in the mall and we went and had a look at how big it was today.
It's not big at all and is quite awful for dancers to dance on.  It is made of basically blocks joined together side by side, shiney in some parts and quite slippery and very uneven so Salem had a bit of a trail run this afternoon as the stage wasn't being used.
He had quite a few mall goers stop and watch him dance.
He managed to fit his Du Hast contemporary dance to the size of the stage.  He was a bit worried about hurting his feet on the uneven jutting up bits of the stage so we thought he could wear his ballet shoes.
So then it was off to the gym for his dance practice.

At the gym we went over his dances and then he decided that he would like to do his new dance, Bond on Bond (James Bond) which is a neo-classical dance, for the Star Search Competition.
We are still working on that dance and hadn't actually done an ending for it but we came up with a suitable finish which works well.
So after a really good practice, poor boy, I really tired him out, we went back to the mall for him to see if it was possible for him to do the Bond on Bond dance safely on the stage.
He was able to but only after taking his ballet shoes off as the stage was too slippery in places.
So he will have to do that dance with no shoes.  It will look very contemporary.
We will be able to get some more practice in on the stage on Tuesday afternoon.
All he is worried about now is falling off the small stage.
He will be fine!!!