A Quick Catch-up No.2 - Lessons, getting ready for exams

Salem and his Grade Ones
Photo from Waikanae Dance School

Salem's classes have been going well and he is working hard at getting ready for his BTDA Intermediate exams which will be in early June.  He has had a mock exam a little while ago and would have passed if it was a real one.  He has done a lot of work in his dance journal, Michelle his teacher is pleased with what he has done so far.  So it is all looking good.

He is still loving being teachers assistant for the Grade One Ballet class, he gets so much satisfaction and joy from doing the class.  He has been writing up exercises for the grade ones and preps which is part of his exam work.

Jacqui and Jonty have been suggesting that he take up tap for quite a while now so Salem is now doing a Grade Four Tap class, he has been having a lot of fun with this.  He has to stop doing it like a ballet dancer though :-)  He has his third lesson on Friday night (tomorrow) straight after his Jazz/Lyrical/Acro class.  Hopefully his tap shoes arrive tomorrow!!!!

Salem has been having contemporary lessons at Hayley Johnson's Academy of Dancing in Tawa.

He has been loving the classes and everyone is so friendly.  We have to catch the train there but it is worth it.

His contemporary is really progressing this year.

More up-dating tomorrow night.... it has turned out not to be a quick catch-up!!!!!

A Quick Catch-up No.I : In the Paper, Junior Associates Weekend......

Dancing his way to the top
By JOEL MAXWELL

Reaching for the stars: Kapiti’s Salem Foxx, 13, will join New Zealand School of Dance’s junior associate programme in February.
A 13-year-old Kapiti boy has been selected from hundreds to join a New Zealand School of Dance's programme for talented young dancers.
In February, Salem Foxx will attend the first workshop for the school’s junior associate programme.  Salem, who has danced for a decade, said he was ‘‘really excited’’ he had been accepted for the course.  ‘‘It’s just such a great opportunity. Dancing is my life.’’ He was accepted for the programme majoring in contemporary dance, but Salem’s real passion is ballet.
Mum Michelle Foxx said the programme caters for talented dancers aged 13 to 16 and draws hundreds of
applicants for spots as either a contemporary or classical major.  ‘‘Salem is working for a career as a professional dancer. He lives and breathes dance.’’  She said Salem’s first weekend workshop runs on February 15 and 16.
‘‘They also do the Royal New Zealand Ballet master classes, which are every ballet season . . . they have to
go on them as part of the junior associate course. And he will also be going to the New Zealand School of
Dance winter school.’’ Salem starts the summer school for dance next week as well, she said.
‘‘It’s hard work being a dancer.’’

- KAPITI OBSERVER, 9 JANUARY, 2014

It's been a while since our last post, I've had some major issues with our computer and haven't been able to upload anything, emails taking forever, even resorted to going up to the library to use there computers and getting very frustrated.  I seem to have fixed things for the time being and am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be successful.

A well deserved fizzy drink at the end of the
Associates Weekend

Salem had his first Associates Weekend at the New Zealand School of Dance on the 15th and 16th of February.  We were up very early to get the train and buses in to Wellington for early starts.  He really enjoyed all the contemporary classes a lot.  He is the only male contemporary major and was one of only three junior contemporary majors.  He enjoyed making new friends.  There were plenty of boys doing the ballet and they were surprised that Salem didn't join them for the boy's classes.

They all worked hard over the weekend and just before it was time to finished on the last day, the parents were treated to a display of some of the work that the Associates had learnt.  It was very good to watch and I was very pleased with what Salem had learnt.

His poor toes had taken a beating over the weekend and I had to tape them up for him for his Intermediate and Grade One classes the next day.  I made sure he had a good sleep in.

That's a good start to our catch ups, more tomorrow night if my computer doesn't have another melt down.

Wellington Summer School 2014 Part Two

Chatting before Contemporary class.

After the warm-up class, Salem's first "proper" class of the day was Contemporary with Anita Hunziker.

He really enjoyed this class and said that Anita was a great teacher.

Contemporary class (1)

Salem did very well to travel into Wellington every day and the get home between 7.15 and 7.30 pm, eat dinner, tell me how his classes went and then off to bed ready to be woken up at 5.45 am for his cup of tea and to get ready for the day.  Out the door for the 6.15 am bus,then on the train where he ate his breakfast.

Contemporary class (2)

On the last day parents were allowed to watch the classes which was great.
It's really good to see what they have learnt and what they need to work on.
And of course it's a good experience to learn from different teachers.  Salem's a bit spoilt in that way.

I'm not sure yet if Salem will be going to next years Wellington Summer School as I think the Boys' Ballet Summer School in Sydney is more important for him to attend.  He really needs classes that are just for boys.

Contemporary class (3)

Unfortunately when being the only boy in a class full of girls, you miss being taught how to dance like a man.
Salem is lucky now as his teachers, Jonty, Jacqui and Michelle are concentrating on Salem standing, gesturing and dancing like a (young) man.

Contemporary class (4)

The contemporary class this year really inspired Salem and he has since choreographed a contemporary dance to "In the Shadows" by The Rasmus.  He will be doing this dance at competitions this year.

It is very different to his old contemporary dance "Du Hast".

Well, I seem to be have had better luck uploading everything tonight even though it is sooooo slow!!!!!
All the videos which are on this post are not on You Tube.

Contemporary class (5)

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.

Ballet Boy is Back

We are back after having a few technical difficulties and ready to do regular posts again.
Salem has been busy with his dancing all summer only taking a few days break.
Last week he attended Summer School which was held at the New Zealand School of Dance.
He had classes from 8 o'clock in the morning and finished at 4.15 in the afternoon.  That was Monday til Friday.

He had six classes every day starting with the Zumba warm up which he didn't really enjoy but he still did it.
It really wasn't his thing.
He also had Jazz with Ange McKellar which he really enjoyed.  He liked it so much that he decided to go back to doing jazz which he hasn't done for 1 3/4 years.
Then there was the Classical class with Nicole Ransley, he liked that class but really enjoyed the Repertoire class with Shannon Dawson.  Shannon is such a good teacher.
Next up was the Intermediate Foundation Syllabus class with his old teacher from Wellington Dance Academy, Helen Calman, followed by Contemporary with Geordan Wilcox to finish off the day.

His favourite classes were the Jazz and Repertoire classes followed by the Classical.

It is sooooo nice not to have to get up so early everyday to get into Wellington in time for the classes.

On Monday he went and had a contemporary class with the Wellington Freelancers with Sacha Copeland at Thistle Hall.  He really enjoys doing these classes with adults and learns so much.  This class taught him about using space and using your body for percussion and improvisation.
What impressed him was doing some of the exercises with his eyes closed, he really got to feel the music.
We are now using that in our sessions at the studio at the gym.

The last two days Salem has been going to the Summer School that his dance school, Kapiti Dance Centre, is running this week at their new studio.  He has been helping with the littlies which he really likes doing.

This runs from Monday til Friday 9 am to 12 noon so he will be helping out for the rest of the week.

After this we have lunch then it's off to the gym for a practice session.

We have been working on all his competition dances, improvisation for his contemporary, and some jazz thrown in for good measure.

I was going to include some videos but I still can't upload them.

I'll try again tomorrow on my oldest son's computer.

A Contemporary Class and a Video

Thistle Hall

On Wednesday morning we went into Wellington for another class with the Freelance Dance Community.
This time it was a Contemporary/ Improvisation class with Marisol Vargas.
Salem really enjoyed this class and Marisol was a great teacher.
Marisol is from Chile and even though her english wasn't 100%, Salem still was able to understand what she was saying and really learnt a lot.

Marisol Vargas

Seeing experienced dancers in the class made things easier for him and gave him more confidence in what he was doing.
The improvisation was challenging for him but he joined in with it all and made a real effort.
This was great as it is something we are working on for him.
It is giving him more tools/ ideas as he is wanting to enter in the Contemporary Impromptu section in competitions this year.
Thank you Marisol for the great class and the lovely things you had to say about Salem's dancing.

And a big thank you Alan for sending us the link to the You Tube clip above.
It is great to see a male ballet dancer dance en pointe so well.
Salem just loves this clip.

I've been trying to upload some videos of Salem dancing which we recorded today but it is just not happening.  I will try again another time, hopefully we will be lucky.

Salem practiced today at the studio at the gym but had a few falls as the floor was very slippery today.
It is a yoga studio so doesn't have a dance floor.  Lots of space and mirrors though.
He was very determined to continue on with practicing but when he landed hard on his wrist and sprained it, I said that was enough.  So it was off to get an ice pack.
I put arnica cream on his wrist when we got home.
His wrist was feeling better when he went to bed tonight.

Dancing Through the Holidays

Even though it is the summer holidays and Salem's dance school is closed until February, Salem is still doing plenty of dancing.  He wants to keep up his fitness for Summer School which is coming up soon.
If he doesn't dance, he gets too bouncy at home!!!!  But don't worry, he has had rest days too.

Since the last post, Salem has had some one on one time with Louis Solino and has learnt heaps.
Louis takes him through a floor barre and then his been doing a little ballet and a whole lot of contemporary.
Salem loves how Louis explains things to him and shows him how things are done.
They have worked on a old choreography that was done for Louis and have spent time working on Salem's "Du Hast" dance, changing bits of the choreography that Salem hasn't been happy with and making things flow more smoothly.  Salem has really enjoyed doing this and is confident to change the choreography by himself which he has done in his practices since then.
The dance is looking so much better.

This morning he attended another class of Louis's at Thistle Hall with the Wellington Freelance Dance Community.  It was a floor barre and a contemporary class.
He really enjoyed this and Louis taught everyone a great choreography.
I watched and it looked fantastic.
Salem worked hard and he kept up with all the adults in the class.

Afterwards we went for a cup of tea and something to eat at the St James and while there said hello to a few of the RNZ Ballet's dancers and had a catch up with Jonte.

Then it was a visit to the Hobson Street Park to have a bit of a play and a splash in the pond to cool down.
While splashing around in the pond, Salem decided to do some of his contemporary exercises in the water.
He had to do the exercises slowly so he didn't slip over, and it was quite windy, great for cooling off.
You can see one of his exercises in the video above.