Costume Check

Peasant Pas - Giselle costume

Today we thought it would be a good idea to check that Salem's old costumes still fit him.

And to try out what he was going to wear for the Peasant Pas and for Proud Mary.

I was pleased with the waistcoat I had made for Peasant Pas.
We were influenced by the costumes from the Royal New Zealand Ballet's recent production of Giselle.
So that is why he is wearing a shirt with rolled up sleeves.
I think it looks very smart.

Du Hast contemporary costume

His Du Hast costume still fits and so does his classical outfit which I think we will have the black leotard under the waistcoat like the photo we have used for the blog title above.  Last year Salem wore his red leotard but I think the black looks more grown up.  I'm pleased I don't have to make any alterations.

Our first idea for the Proud Mary costume

We had a few ideas for Salem's Proud Mary costume so had Salem dance in them.
Our first idea looked good but Salem does like to wear tighter fitting costumes when he has to do a lot of more dynamic dance moves.

This is now the Proud Mary costume

So we came up with this costume which he can move very easily in.
Not very jazzy but he loves it and he can wear his Elvis frilled shirt which is now too short in the sleeves so he can't wear it for his Bond on Bond costume.

I will make him a black pin striped waistcoat to wear as well but if it's too much, I'm sure he will be able to wear it for something else.

I'll make a few different waistcoats for him, they don't take too long to make.

Then I have to start making some patterns up to make him a Polish character costume because as soon as the Alana Haines Awards are over then he will be working on a Polish character dance for the next lot of competitions.

I've found some great photos for design ideas.

I'm lucky I can sew!!!!!!!!

"Sh Boom" Costume

Sh Boom ,Sh Boom

Yesterday The pair of white cricket pants arrived in the mail.  I had bought them off Trade Me.
It was the only way we could get a nice pair of white pants for Salem's Sh-Boom costume.
So Salem had to try the whole costume on and it looks so good on him.
He looks so smart and grown up and it is easy for him to dance in.
I will put elastic braces on his pants so that it helps keep the shirt in place.
And I have to hem up the legs on the pants as they are a bit long for him, but that means it will last him a while as he is getting taller.  He grew 5cm over the last couple of months.

Just wait til you see him in his Proud Mary costume!!!!!!!!

Now every time I look at you

Salem had his private lesson yesterday and that went well, his teacher will used most of the choreography that we worked out for the Peasant Pas.
And he had his first Level Two Contemporary class for the year.
Plus practiced at the gym before both classes.
He is very dedicated!!!!!!

If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love

His old contemporary Sh Boom costume

Sh Boom, Sh Boom

"Life Could Be A Dream"

by The Crew Cuts

 
Hey nonny ding dong, alang alang alang
Boom ba-doh, ba-doo ba-doodle-ay

Oh, life could be a dream sh-boom
If I could take you up in paradise up above sh-boom
If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love
Life could be a dream sweetheart
Hello hello again, sh-boom and hopin' we'll meet again

Oh, life could be a dream sh-boom
If only all my precious plans would come true sh-boom
If you would let me spend my whole life lovin' you
Life could be a dream sweetheart

Now every time I look at you
Something is on my mind dat-dat-dat-dat-dat-duh
If you do what I want you to
Baby, we'd be so fine

Oh, life could be a dream sh-boom
If I could take you up in paradise up above sh-boom
If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love
Life could be a dream sweetheart

Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da
Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da
Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da, sh-boom

Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da
Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da
Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da, sh-boom

Every time I look at you
Somethin' is on my mind
If you do what I want you to
Baby, we'd be so fine

Life could be a dream
If I could take you up in paradise up above
If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love
Life could be a dream sweetheart

Hello hello again, sh-boom and hopin' we'll meet again boom sh-boom
Hey nonny ding dong, alang alang alang sh-boom
Ba-doh, ba-doo ba-doodle-ay
Life could be a dream
Life could be a dream, sweetheart

Life could be a dream
If only all my precious plans would come true
If you would let me spend my whole life loving you
Life could be a dream sweetheart

dee-oody-ooh, sh-boom, sh-boom
dee-oody-ooh, sh-boom, sh-boom
dee-oody-ooh, sh-boom, sh-boom
Sweetheart!!

A Very Jazzy Practice

It was very hot and extremely humid at practice today.
Poor Salem had sweat pouring off him.
Had to have a lot of water breaks.

As well as working on his contemporary and ballet dances, he spent  a bit of time on his jazz dances and they are coming along really nicely.

He is still experimenting with changing some of the steps around and adding in how he would react to an audience with his facial expressions etc.

Tomorrow he has a private ballet lesson to work on his dance for the Alana Haines Awards which is coming up very soon.  It will be held over the Easter weekend.

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.