Day One

I was planning on teaching the basics of pirouettes, jazz kicks, leaps, chasses and chaines, in both jazz classes and was planning on teaching a basic ballet class for the general dance class, but we only had three students sign up total, so we had to combine classes. Luckily they were all in the younger age group (from 5 to 8).

For the first day I taught some basic stretching after we did a little bit of cardio to warm up our bodies. Then we worked on pirouettes, kicks, leaps, and chaines. The youngest girl struggled a bit after the stretching. She was in the class with just her sister which helped, but she still cried most of the class. I think she took gymnastics in the past, and picked up on that very quickly and was just not sure how to deal with not knowing how to do things yet. We took turns doing our favorite tricks (she did some very impressive cartwheels) to help her calm down and gain confidence, and did a bit of freeze dance. Hopefully I'll be able to help her calm down and do a little bit more each class so that she can improve and not feel like she can't do any of it.

The last class only had on girl, and she picked up on things very quickly. I taught her the same things so that she would not be behind or feel lost when we combine the classes next time. She had lots of energy, but was able to focus and follow instructions very well. She responded well to imagery, and it was a fun class!