Showtime - The Magic Toybox

Ready to perform in "The Lavender Story".

It was show day on Sunday for the DancePointe Academy and The ReelJig Irish Dancers.

We got to the Little theatre nice and early and settled into the boys dressing room to get into costume.
The younger boys didn't arrive until a bit later.

There was a bit of time before the rehearsal started and there were a few dancers practicing on stage while the music was being sorted out.

Salem had a bit of a practice of his jazz dance without his music then decided just to dance to the music that was being played and had a lot of fun with some ballet and jazz.

He seemed to entertain the parents in the auditorium and the other dancers on and off the stage.
I didn't seem that many of them had seen a boy dance like Salem.

Going Backstage.

The rehearsal was a bit chaotic and the show didn't start until about half an hour after it should have.
We both watched in the audience until a bit before Salem was to dance.

He was at the end of "The Lavender Story"which was between the Irish reels and the Irish hornpipes and jigs.  He really blew everyone away.

It was quite a buzz to overhear some parents say "That's Ballet Boy".

Jacqui was in the audience watching and was pleased with his performance.
Unfortunately she had to leave before seeing him dance in the second half.

Rehearsal time.

The second half was "The Magic Toybox which included both dance schools and Salem did his Krakowiak dance about three quarters of the way through.

People were very impressed with his costume when he was walking around and also when ducking into the auditorium to watch the other dancers.

His Krakowiak costume is very hot so he was getting very sweaty.

He performed his dance extremely well.  I don't think any of the kids had seen a dance like that before.
The boys definitely hadn't.

Watching the others.

He joined everyone for the final bow and stayed on stage for the trophy presentations as this was the end of year concert for both schools.

They put on a bit of an afternoon tea which was lovely, so we had some fruit and sponge cake with cream and strawberries to fortify us for our long journey home.

Salem was so tired, it was such a long day and it was straight to bed when we got home.

Rehearsal For The Magic Toybox

Having a bit of fun in the trees.

Salem has been invited to perform two of his dances at the end of year concert for Dancepointe Academy and the Reeljig Irish Dancers who are both based in Khandallah.

They are doing a combined concert, "The Magic Toybox", at the Little Theatre in Lower Hutt tomorrow (Sunday).  Should be a lot of fun.

Tree Ballet

Sharon Vanese, the teacher at Dancepointe, came along to see Salem dance at his lesson with Jacqui on Thursday.

So yesterday, after his Intermediate class at Waikanae Dance School, we headed off into Wellington and then caught another train up to Khandallah for a rehearsal with everyone else at the Khandallah Presbyterian Church Hall.

Outside the church hall.

We went there a little early so we could have a look around the village and have a hot chocolate.
It is really a lovely little village.  Salem had fun climbing and dancing in the trees.

Waiting!!!!!!

There was quite a long wait before Salem got to dance and he only did one of his dances, the jazz one.
There was the usual chaos in the waiting room, kids playing and being very loud, full of excitement.

Salem entertained many by practicing some acro.  Everyone impressed with his flexibility.

There were four young boys who were toy soldiers, they were wondering who this big boy dancer was.

It was a quick dash to the bus after he danced and we managed to get to Wellington Railway Station and on a train in just under 20 minutes.  We caught a very quick bus!!!!!

Acro, Intermediate, Grade 1, Swimming and on the Leader Board

Salem has been busy as usual with his dancing.  He has been having his lessons with Jacqui and Jonty as usual and his Acro class and Lyrical & Jazz class as well.

On Monday he started doing his BTDA Intermediate class with Michelle at Waikanae Dance School.  He was very excited about that and found it very different to the RAD syllabus.  He is enjoying this a lot more.
So he has been practicing his new exercises up at the gym before he gets into his own dances etc.

What was even more exciting for him, was being the teachers helper for the Grade 1 class afterwards.
He really enjoyed being with the younger kids and is looking forward to next week.
It's a good sized class with six girls and one boy.

He is enjoying the challenge of his acro class and is so pleased at being able to stand back up after doing a bridge and is working hard at doing a tidy walkover.  Luckily we have a large flat lawn, which we just had mowed, for him to practice on.

It's a bit scary watching him sometimes!!!!!!!

Salem has been having swimming lessons once a week with the Kapiti Homeschoolers at the Aquatic Centre and after two lessons, can swim a length of the pool, back stroke, without stopping and can swim freestyle a bit.  He gets in to the big pool and practices for over half an hour before his class starts.

Not bad for a kid who hadn't been in a pool for over five years.

It's great exercise for him, really gets those leg muscles working.

Every Wednesday at City Fitness, they have a 1 Minute Challenge which Salem has a go at.
Last week it was how many push-ups can you do in one minute.  Salem did 35 proper push-ups, which isn't too bad for a thirteen year old.  He made it up on to the leader board.

Then today, the challenge was how many sit-ups in one minute.  Salem did 50 which put him up on the leader board and was still there when we left two hours later.

Well done Salem!!!!!!

Dance Journal Entry No. 3

Salem's Dance Journal

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Jazz Exams

When I was at Summer School at the New Zealand School of Dance in January, one of the classes was jazz.  I had not done jazz since I had finished doing Grade 2.  This class was a lot of fun so I thought I would do jazz again.

So this year I did Grade 5 NZAMD Jazz.  Jazz has more sharper moves than ballet but sometimes I slip back into ballet habits.  When I am practicing jazz up at the studio at th gym, Mum says "This is jazz, not ballet!!".  This makes me laugh.

On Thursday the 26th September I did my Grade 5 Jazz exam at KDC.  There were four of us in our exam group.  There was Hannah, Ainslie and Florance.

Our examiner was Mrs Patten.  She was very nice and made the exam very easy.

The next day I did my Intermediate Bronze Jazz Medal Award.  I had to do my jazz exam dance.  This time I was in a bigger exam group with my friend Bethany.  Our parents were allowed to watch us this time.  It was nice to have an audience.

Mrs Patten was very friendly and talked to us about our dancing and gave us tips too.  She presented us with our medals.

I got Distinction (95% +) for Grade 5 Jazz exam.  And I got Excellence Plus (highest mark) for my Intermediate Bronze Jazz Medal Award.

Dance Journal Entry No. 2

Salem's Dance Journal

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Intermediate Foundation Exam

Warming up in the dressing room.

The last time I was at the New Zealand School of Dance was when I did my RAD Intermediate Foundation exam on the 5th of September.  My examiner was Miss Wu.

I was very sick on exam day, I had been sick all week and in bed.  I didn't do as best as I could but I did pass my exam.

I did my exam with Josephine from Kapiti Dance Centre and two girls from Mary Rodgers Ballet School.
They did a few of the exercises very different than me and Josephine.

Ready for my exam.

This was my second year doing Intermediate Foundation, it was getting very boring.
My favourite exercises are the Adage and the third Allegro.
I am glad I was able to do the classical boys variation and not the other one.

Junior Associates Audition, ABTC Comps and Dance Journal

Practicing for Ameno.

Last weekend was very, very busy.
So much for a rest on Labour Weekend.
Friday evening it was class as usual and Salem had a very enjoyable class.
He is gaining more acrobatic skills.

He had to miss his Acrobatic class on Saturday as he attended the audition at the New Zealand School of Dance for the Junior Associates program.
We had to leave very early and got there in good time thanks to Grandma, so he could warm up in time for the classical class at 8.45am.

Salem will write more about that later in this post as he is now writing a dance journal as part of his work for doing BTDA Intermediate Ballet.

Being Siegfried.

After the audition we went out to the Hutt for the Associated Ballet & Theatre Club Inc's (ABTC) Competitions at the Little Theatre in Lower Hutt.

I had booked us into the Angus Inn as it was not worth going back and forward to Paraparaumu over the weekend.  This was so much easier.
Luckily they let us check in early as we had a few hours before Salem had his first dance.

It was so nice relaxing in a nice hotel room and not having to hang out in the dressing room for hours.
We enjoyed our stay there!!!!

Looking very Polish.

Salem did very well over the two days of comps especially as he was performing all new dances which he had choreographed himself.  Everyone commented on his Krakowiak costume which he loved wearing.

He has won another trophy for coming first for the Classical Impromptu.

His results are:

1st Place -  Classical Impromptu 12 years and over
3rd Place -  Barefoot Impromptu 12 years and over
3rd Place -  Character 13 years
VHC -  Classical 13 years
VHC -  Barefoot 13 years
VHC - Lyrical 12 years and over.

Salem will write more about the comps in another post soon.
Here is his first Journal entry:

Salem's Dance Journal

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New Zealand School of Dance

On Saturday the 26th of October, I had to go to the New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington, so I could audition to try to get into the Junior Associates.

I had to be there very early in the morning.  There was a lot of other dancers too.  There were four other boys as well but the rest were girls.

We had to get our numbers, I was number 37.  Then we went into one of the studios to have a warm up.

Eating my cheese and crackers.

Then we all went into Studio 1 for a ballet class.  All of us boys had to go down the back so we couldn't see what was happening very well.  The class went for one and a half hours then we had a break.  I had cheese and crackers.

After that we had a contemporary class which wasn't as long.  The best bit was doing an impromptu.  That was fun but the music choice was horrible.

UPDATE:  Salem was accepted on the New Zealand School of Dance Associate Programme.
He is now a NZSD Junior Associate Contemporary Major.

Sad News

Paul (seated) and Louis
photo by Ross Giblin

This morning when I was looking at what was happening in the news on stuff.co.nz, I came across this article http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9332900/Genius-lyricist-and-writer-Jenden-dies.
It was a very sad way to start the day.

Paul Jenden is the partner of Louis who teaches Salem contemporary dance.
Louis had said that Paul was very sick in hospital but we were all hoping for the best.

We had last seen Paul perform in the pantomime "Cinderella" at the Circa Theatre where he played Sven from Sweden.  He was so funny and the panto was such fun.

Louis, Jonty and Paul in "Fairy Stories"
photo by Stephen A'Court

His last production was "C- The Musical" based on his personal experience with cancer and Louis was part of the cast.  Unfortunately we were not able to get to see it but have been told by friends that it was great.
Which he then followed by appearing in WOW before becoming ill.
A very creative, talented man.

Rest in Peace Paul.