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

Contemporary Exams Next Week

Yes, it's that time of year again, the NZAMD exams.
This year Salem is doing his Level 3 Contemporary exam along with his Senior Bronze Contemporary medal.
For his medal he is doing the exam dance and a shortened version of his own contemporary dance "In the Shadows".

His contemporary classes at Hayley Johnson's have been going well, he had his last exam practice on Tuesday so now it is just practice, practice, practice!!!!!

Next year he will be getting back into NZAMD jazz, goodness knows what level he will be.
And would like to do medals for tap as well.

Level three has been a nice change music-wise as the two levels before were very monotonous.  But he is getting sick of it now especially as he picks up different sounds, like booking chickens and waterfalls, which end up distracting him.

Looking forward to Wednesday!!!!!!!!!

Lots of Exciting News

Salem with his Ballet Exam Certificates.

It's been a very exciting time for Salem lately, He's had his ballet exam results back. 
He passed with distinction with a mark of 96%. I am so pleased for him as he really worked hard. Because he got over 90%, he received a BTDA Platinum Award too.

Preparing for his exams

We have had lots of good feed back from the documentary about Salem on Attitude, you can watch it online at http://attitudelive.com/blog/dan-buckingham/documentary-salems-ballet .
We have people coming up to us to say hello and how much they enjoyed the doco.
There was a lot of lovely footage of him dancing.

At practice at the studio at City Fitness.

Salem is also a finalist in the Attitude Awards for Creative Achievement so they will be flying us both up to Auckland in December for the awards which is a black tie event. 
I will have to get Salem a new suit as he keeps growing out of all his other ones.
His old "Bond on Bond" suit is so small on him.

A film crew will be interviewing him some more in just over a week so he will be on TV again in October and December.  
You can check out the finalists at http://attitudeawards.org/2014_awards.html.

We have just found out yesterday that Salem is a provisional finalist for the Pride Awards for Creative Achievement and Innovation (Senior) Awards. He will be interviewed for that in the next week or so.  http://www.prideawards.org.nz/.

Tired out at the gym after having a fun practice in a grass skirt.

Plus Salem have two competitions coming up, the first in two weeks time up in Palmerston North where he will get to perform his new jazz solo for the first time. He's very excited about that, it's quite a funny dance. 
Then the next one in October, which is modern and tap up in Upper Hutt, Salem will be doing his first ever tap solo.  He has choreographed a tap dance and it is looking great.

Warming up at the Auckland BTDA Festival.

Straight before that he has his contemporary exams. 
For his medal exam he gets to do one of his own dances, "In the Shadows" which we have shortened.  He has to do two dances for the medals.

Waikanae Dance School Exam Awards Presentation

At his dance school in Tawa, Hayley Johnsons Academy of Dance, Salem been cast as Daddy Warbucks for the end of year production of "Annie". 
It's going to be very busy in Term 4!!!!!! 

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.

Contemporary Exam Results

Salem got his Contemporary exam results today after his ballet class.  It was great to get the results so quickly.  We were very pleased with his results.

For his NZAMD Level One Contemporary exam he got High Honours which is a 90% - 94% pass.

His examiner made the following comments :  "A very promising dancer.  Contemporary style is developing.  Further study quaility of movement in Combinations.  A strong dance performance."

Going in to the Level One exam

For the NZAMD Contemporary Medal Award he was graded Excellence Plus.

The examiner made the following comments :  "Two strong performances.  Great dynamics developed in Dance 2 (Du Hast).  A very promising dancer."

Salem has done very well.  He should be proud of himself and the work he has put into his dancing.
I'm proud of my boy!!!!!!!

Today's Contemporary Exams Done and Dusted

Accepting his medal

The contemporary exams are over for another year.  Salem is very pleased with what he did today but has to wait a couple of weeks or so until we get his results.
At least with the medal test he gets his medal straight away.  The kids all line up when their group has finished and they each are presented with a medal.  This time it was his Silver NZAMD Contemporary Intermediate Medal.  But we still have to wait for his report.

Is No.5 for Level 1 Exam

First exam of the day was his Level 1 Contemporary Exam.  We had to be there over an hour earlier to make sure everyone had all the right gear, the girls had to have their hair done and they all had a good warm up.  They were in the exam room for about 45-50 minutes.  They all came out smiling so all must have gone well.

No.7 for Medal Test

Then it was off for a coffee (for me) and a hot chocolate for Salem.  He was able to relax a bit and he told me about the exam.  The examiner was really nice so made everyone feel at ease.  Then it was back to the studio and get ready for his medal test.

All ready for the Contemporary Level 1 Exam

With the medal test, the parents are allowed to go in and watch, as long as we are quiet.  The kids come in one at a time and then get to watch the dancers that come after them.  It was quite nice to watch them all.

During the Medal Test

Salem had to do two dances and did a very good job of them.  He seemed to have a good burst of energy and really put his all into the dances.  I was very proud of him.  I was filming his last dance and was so engrossed in watching him that I forgot to follow him with the camera near the end of his dance.  

Well done Salem!!!!
Then it was a quick bite to eat for dinner and he had a ballet class.  He was very tired after that.
He will sleep well tonight.

Contemporary Exams Tomorrow

Salem getting ready for his ballet exam 2006

Salem has his two contemporary exams tomorrow.  He has been doing a lot of practices at the studio at the gym.  He has also had some mock exams at his dance school.  We have been working on the polishing up on his dancing and he is quite confident.

Practicing his exam smile

Last night I found an old SD card I hadn't seen for years and it has some lovely photos of Salem's first ballet exam from 2006.  He was only six years old.  It was for RAD Pre-Primary.

Going in for their exam

He was so little then.  He was very serious about his exam and was very pleased with himself afterwards.  He's glad he doesn't have to wear those shorts anymore.  It was leggings straight after that except that he had to wear the shorts again for his Primary exam.

All very pleased with themselves afterwards

Well, he has one more Contemporary class today and then next term hopefully he will be starting the next level's syllabus.  The school holidays start at the end of next week so there will be no contemporary classes that week, just ballet.  But the second week of the holidays there will be Grade School in preparation for the Ballet exams in November.  No rest for the wicked!!!!!

Getting Ready for Contemporary Exams

Having fun at the gym

All the madness of the dance school concert is well behind us now and Salem has been back to working hard at the gym.  His personal trainer, Belinda has given him a new lot of exercises to do, all of them can be done at home which is good as some days we can't make it up there.

Salem's contemporary exam and his contemporary medal test are all coming up on the 20th September so we are making the most of the studio at the gym for him to practice all his contemporary exercises and dances.
He has been having the occasional audience now and then as other gym members see what he is up to and watches him for a dance or two.  The other day an elderly lady who used to be a ballet teacher watched him do some of his ballet and was very impressed with him.  She enjoyed watching him and he enjoyed having her watch him dance and listened to her comments about technique etc.

With Belinda, his trainer

But at the moment we are really concentrating on his contemporary.  These practices are going really well and he is really tidying up his technique.  For his medal test, he will have to do two dances so he will be doing half of his Du Hast dance and half of the Sh-Boom dance.  He knows these very, very well.

The dance school is having some extra lessons on the up-coming weekends before the exam so that every one will be ready and know what to expect.  And will be having a mock exam too.
He is quite confident that he will be ready and will do well.