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  **

The BTDA Festival, Auckland 2014 - Salem's Report

This is Salem's report on the British Theatre Dance Association Dance Festival 2014, which he attended as part of the Waikanae Dance School's performance team.
He did this report to the Kapiti Coast Youth Council as he received a $200 Youth Dollars grant from them to help cover his costs to take part in this festival.

Salem’s Trip to the BTDA Festival in Auckland

5^th – 8^th June 2014

At the Youth2U Dollars ceremony

A very big “thank you” to the Kapiti Youth Council for granting me $200 Youth2U Dollars.  This helped me cover the rest of my costs for me to participate as part of the Performance Team for Waikanae Dance School at the British Theatre Dance Association’s dance festival for 2014.

As part of the performance team, I had helped in some of the fundraising activities such as performing at the Waikanae Easter Market, and even performed for the Paraparaumu/Raumati Community Board to get some funding for the team’s trip up to Auckland.  It was a lot of fun.

After all our hard work, I was so excited to go on my first plane flight ever, to Auckland.  I had never been to Auckland before either so it was a weekend full of new experiences.  We stayed at a holiday motel/park was had loads of palm trees which I was very impressed with as we don’t have any, or as many, down this part of the North Island.

I really enjoyed being part of the BTDA dance festival, I met a lot of new people and made plenty of new friends.  It was great to be able to compete against a lot of new people.

The Attitude film crew

I also had a film crew from Attitude Pictures with me.  They had been filming me before this trip, at home in Kapiti, having lessons and me teaching as well.  I got very used to having them around.  It was weird saying good bye to them at the end.  

You can watch my documentary at  http://attitudelive.com/blog/dan-buckingham/documentary-salems-ballet.  Here is the add for the programme on You Tube :

These were the first competitions I had ever danced as part of a duo, a trio, and an acrobatic troupe.

It was also the first time I had competed doing an acrobatic dance solo as I had only started learning acro in term 4 of last year.  I had choreographed my acro solo over the summer holidays and this was my debut performance.

I was up against very experienced and amazing girls, they were all very nice to me too.  I was a bit nervous as to how I would do. 

I received 2^nd Place.  I was very happy with that result.

Practicing for modern trio

My results for the festival were:

   

    1^st Place – Acro Duo

    2^nd Place – Acro Solo

    2^nd Place – Acro Troupe

    Highly Commended – Classical Duo

    Commended – Lyrical Solo

    Commended – Modern Trio

1st Place for Acro Duo

You can see some of my dances from the festival on my You Tube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWosTjBuKQhhucPJMxSK7Xg and I put together a video about my trip to the festival which you can watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PhZETQwTcE.

So “Thank You” again to the Kapiti Youth Council and the Youth4U Dollars grant for helping to make this great experience happen for me.  It has been really appreciated.

Salem Foxx

Upper Hutt Comps June 2014

Upper Hutt Competition Society

Competition Results 

20-22^nd June 2014

Salem received a Upper Hutt Competition Society Incentive Award for Restricted Jazz.

Results for the weekend were:

Second Place - Restricted Jazz

Third Place - Musical Theatre

Very Highly Commended - Self Choreographed

Highly Commended - Contemporary

                         Lyrical

                                      Jazz Impromptu

Salem competed at the Upper Hutt competitions for the fist time in June and had a lot of fun.

A new theatre to dance in and some new faces for him to compete against.

Warming up backstage for lyrical

It was a nice big stage at Expressions Theatre and the boys had two dressing rooms to themselves which was a bonus.

In the dressing room.

It was a modern and tap competition, so no ballet this time and it will be a little while yet before he competes in tap.

They had a self choreography section which required a time limit of two minutes, Salem had wanted to do his acro dance "Safety Dance" but that was well over that time.  So he choreographed a new acro dance "Cotton Eye Joe" for a bit of fun and performed it for the first time at these comps.
Hopefully he will get to perform it again.

Cotton Eye Joe

Truffles was due for another performance so this time Salem entered "Robin Hood" in the Musical Theatre category so he sang while he danced.  He was very nervous beforehand as he had never sung on stage but he had a real blast doing it and achieving a third placing was a bonus.

Robin Hood and Truffles

He was a bit dissappointed with the Jazz Impromptu section as they played a very contemporary piece in which basically everyone danced contemporary while Salem, being the Aspie (Aspergers) that he is, only did jazz steps which was very, very hard with the choice of music.  Well done him for keeping to the style!!!!

Warming up for jazz

All in all it was a great weekend, just lot's of time spent travelling and getting home very late.
Public transport is pretty bad on the weekends especially when the trains are replaced by buses making for a very long journey indeed.

Incentive Award for Jazz

Robin Hood and Palmerston North Comps

Robin Hood

Yep, it's that time of the year when competitions start up again.
Salem has been busy choreographing more dances which brings his total up to 11 dances which are choreographed by himself.

He will be debuting his new demi-character dance "Robin Hood" this weekend at at Palmerston North Dance Association Competitions at the Regent Theatre, Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North.  He will be up there with other dancers from Waikanae Dance School.
Salem will be performing on all three days so if you are up that way, check him out.

Robin Hood riding through the glen......

I have made him a Robin Hood costume including green tights and his horse which we call "Truffles" ;-)
Actually he had grown out of all his costumes except for his Krakowiak costume so all costumes are new and look fantastic!!!!!!!!
I still have to sew up some more tights/leggings for him though.

It will be interesting to see what people think of this new dance, Jonty keeps laughing every time Salem practices it in front of him.  It is a very funny dance.

We will put it up on You Tube when we get back from Palmerston as we want it to be a surprise up there.

Hutt Valley and Kapiti Competitions

Two Cups and a Flower

Sorry we haven't done a post sooner, I am still having problems with our internet connection and to top it off, our camera seems to be on it's last legs and is making funny noises.
My apologies to anyone we have had emails from and not replied to.  One email I tried to send off 20 times (no kidding) before I gave up.  I seemed to have a connection so pressed send and then it disconnected.
So here is our up-date........ fingers crossed.....

Classical Impromptu

Salem had a lot of fun at the Hutt Valley Performing Arts Competitions which was held at The Little Theatre, we were there from the 13th to 15th July .
We were lucky enough to stay with the wonderful Helena which meant no travelling back out to Kapiti very late at night, and then back to the Hutt after only a few hours sleep.
A big THANK YOU to Helena.
The weather was really stormy over that weekend.  It was so bad that we didn't even want to step out of the theatre to go next door to the library in the long breaks between dances.

Modern Impromptu

His first dance was on Saturday night, Contemporary 12yrs and over and he came 1st Place.  He was so thrilled.  He won a cup and it is really huge.
He also danced in the Junior Variation but wasn't placed.  Only 1st and 2nd was awarded.

On Suday he was awarded Very Highly Commended (4th Placing) for  his Classical, Character and Impromptu Barefoot dances.  It was the first time he had ever done impromptus at competitions.  He then won 1st Place for the Classical Impromptu. He won another cup. I watched him dance and he looked amazing.
He also danced in the Neo Classsical class but didn't get placed.  Only 1st, 2nd and 3rd was awarded.

Then on Monday was all the modern dances.
He was awarded 3rd Place for Restricted Modern Jazz Solo 12 and under 14yrs.
Very Highly Commended's for both Modern Expressive/Contemporary and Modern Jazz Solo.

Salem did his first impromptu for Modern, every one did jazz while he did contemporary.  He did well considering the song was "You Gotta Know" by Supergroove.  Check the song out on You Tube. He earned a Highly Commended.

We later found out that Salem had been awarded Runner-Up for the Modern Scholarship winning a rosette, a dance gear voucher and some cash.  We had left to go home before the special awards had been presented.  We have picked up his goodies since then.

Barefoot Impromptu Costume

Then it was the Dance Kapiti Dance Festival which he danced in from the 20th to 23rd July.
This is a local Kapiti competition which meant little traveling.  Thanks to Grandma for all the rides to the theatre and for all the hot chocolates!!!!!!
I didn't take any photos at this competition due to the camera having a hissy-fit.

Salem was awarded Very Highly Commended's for his Classical, Character, Novice Variation and Neo-Classical 14 yrs and over.

For Modern Expressive/Contemporary he got Commended, and for his Jazz - Highly Commended.
The adjudicater seemed to not like/understand the choreography for his contemporary, which is implied in his report.

Well, no more competitions until the next ABTC's one in October on Labour weekend.
Salem has been busy getting ready for his exams and having some great lessons with Jonte and Jacqui.
He is also putting together his own choreographies and they are looking amazing,  more on those later.
And he has been going to a Lyrical, Jazz & Acrobatics class at Waikanae Dance School which he is really enjoying.
Well that is all for now....wish me luck in posting this........

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."

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.

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!!!!!