Practice, Pointe Shoes and Praise

Straight after class

At lunch time today, Salem went down the road to get some bread for lunch from the shops.
On his way home he walks past the local primary school and today a group of boys came up to talk to him.
They said that they had seen him dance at the local talent quest and thought that his dance was really cool and that he was a great ballet dancer.  One of the boys even said that he would like to try ballet.
This was really nice for Salem to hear and apparently this happens from time to time when I'm not with him.

Then after a day off yesterday, it was back to work as usual.
Lots of practice at the gym and we concentrated a lot on his Peasant Pas variation.
It was mainly some contemporary to warm up with then it was on to the ballet.
This weekend is the Ribbon Festival at the Little Theatre in Lower Hutt and he will be performing all three days.

I've also discovered that I can upload my videos if they are short so below you have a bit of a taster of Salem's dances at practice today.

If you are getting my posts by email you will have to go directly to www.balletboynz.blogspot.com to see the videos.

At his Intermediate Foundation class this evening he was back in his pointe shoes, he stuffed lots of fleece around his toes so he didn't get another blister like last week.  The fleece worked well and there were no sore toes!!!!!

Warm-up exercise

Du Hast - Contemporary

Pas de Quatre Boy - Classical

Bond on Bond - Neo Classical

Practice, Boys Class,Pointe Shoes and Ballet Exams

Hard at practice

This is a very busy time for Salem.
He has been getting ready for his RAD Grade 5 exam and his RAD Performance Award exam.
We have been up at the gym in the dance studio nearly every day.
Salem has had his normal classes plus a mock exam on the weekend.
He knows it all and now we are working on polishing up everything.

Glen Harris

The day after his last performances of Giselle, he went to the Boys Ballet Class with the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
His teacher was Glen Harris who is the RNZB's ballet master for the moment.
Salem really enjoyed the class and Glen gave the boys lots of good tips which Salem has found very useful.
He has been practicing one of the dances from Giselle that Glen taught the boys.

Getting ready for his Intermediate
Foundation Class

Salem loves his blue pointe shoes and has been using them in his Intermediate Foundation class.
He is becoming more confident with them and is doing centre work with them on.

His blue pointe shoes

His pointe shoes still need a bit more wearing in.

So exams are on Sunday and his examiner is his old ballet teacher from Wellington.
I know he will do very well!!!!

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.

First Pair of Pointe Shoes

At Gubbs buying his pointe shoes

Today we went into Wellington to "Gubbs" (a dancewear/shoe shop) to get Salem his first pair of pointe shoes.  He was so excited.
"A boy getting pointe shoes!!!" you say.
Well Salem has been wanting to dance en pointe ever since his ballet teacher asked his older brother, who was also a ballet dancer, if he wanted to learn pointe.
His brother said no, but it put the idea into his head that he could, as before he didn't think boys were allowed to have pointe shoes.

So this year the girls in his ballet class have started using pointe shoes, they first had to do a written test to get their Pointe Shoe Licence and Salem did the test too.
He passed and because of being so busy over the last few months didn't get him his shoes.
But the other day in class, his teacher mentioned to him that he can go and get his shoes and start using them with everyone else.  So off we went.

He said they feel really weird but can't wait for his teacher to check that they fit him properly so he can break them in and dye them a different colour.  He so doesn't want pink.  We will probably colour them black or even blue.  He wants a manly colour.
They will be ready for when he goes back to classes after the school holidays.

Men in Tutus

We went to see Men in Tutus earlier this year and he just loved them.
He thought they were so funny and was so impressed with them dancing en pointe.
He thought that one day he might be able to join a company like that as it looked like so much fun.

We know not many boys would like to dance en pointe but this is another skill he wants to have for his ballet career.
He has been getting himself ready with specific exercises for his feet, ankles etc at the gym.
We will keep you posted as to how he goes with it all.