Session Two Day Seven (TR)

Class One Jazz (Younger):
This class went really well! My one dancer is progressing quite well and I think I'm going to start her on some harder things. We did leaps, kicks, pirouettes, chaines, and leaps, and I think she could do stag leaps as well. She is doing better with the hip hop routine and told me that she has been practicing it. She is doing really well, I'm very excited to get to continue to work with her!

There was another applicant today, and she did really well! She came at four and stayed until partway through the second class. She had a good aerobic warm up, and got along well with the students. It was very fun to see them interact with a new teacher, and it was nice to have someone there to help give corrections and keep the class going.

Class Two Jazz (Older):
This class went well today too! We worked on pirouettes, kicks, leaps, chaines and began learning side leaps today. I've had them do 8 counts of kicks and 8 counts of free dancing, and am trying to work them up to counting on their own. It's kind of fun, and I think this will be an excellent way to teach them how to count music and do each movement on the assigned count. They are doing really well with their hip hop dance, and are all very excited to learn the whole thing!

We had a talk today about failure. Some of the dancers seemed a little frustrated about their progress, and so I decided that it was time for a talk. I told them a story about when I was learning to ice skate from a professional ice skater, and she said that if we weren't falling, we weren't learning. We then talked about what this means in dance. I told them that it doesn't matter how many times we don't get it quite right as long as we keep trying. They took it a little bit literally, (there was a lot of talk about falling when we dance) but I think it helped. The rest of the class seemed to go smoother, and they all seemed determined to keep trying to progress.

Day Nine

Today went pretty well. I came prepared with a dance for them to learn, and they got most of it down! I kept it pretty simple because I was worried about the younger dancers being able to remember it and execute it, but with the older girls leading it's going well.

The youngest dancer still refuses to do a lot of the things. She starts to pout when we do the combinations but she came and did them (if in an upset manner) after I told her they would be in the dance. She did the first part of the dance well and happily, but when we added kicks and turns she started to pout and wouldn't do anything. I didn't really baby her today; I wanted to get through as much of the dance as I could, and didn't really want to stop the other girls learning by stopping class to convince her to participate. I'll probably try and do more next class to help her, but I'm not sure what...

I had each dancer pick a stretch to do after warming up today, and that worked pretty well. I wanted to keep everything quick and simple, so we could get to learning the dance, and we were still able to stretch pretty well in all directions. I kept all the practicing technique pretty simple and quick since most of the steps were in the dance.

After the other girls left we practiced chaines and pirouettes and then did some free dancing and walking through the jungle. I wish we had more students that stayed longer so that this one student could experience imagining and dancing with others her age better, but it was still fun.

Day Six

For the warm up today I simplified counting game. We did hops and steps and then another set of releves and skips (not smooth transition) and did four to one and then one to four. Worked better than four different things (it was hard for me to call everything out in the right order). I was still very out of breath while calling out the next movement, and overall this game not work as well as I'd expected.
We tried to do kicks to beat today. It was a struggle. I may need to try some rhythm games first so they can gain a better understanding of rhythms and beats and then try again.

We also did the "purple mud" again and it helped the newest girl and one other girl (who has been doing pas de papillions instead of leaps) but a little pointless for the other students. I almost wish I could split them up, but I think the youngest dancer would just see that as her not being good enough and the age difference really isn't that different.

We didn't get to chaines with whole group (three of the dancers had to leave) because I lost track of time, but we got through a lot of other things, so that was good.

I felt like today got a little out of control. One of the girls is pretty hard to get to pay attention, or to listen to all of the instructions. As soon as I say we are going to do kicks across the floor she'll just go without the rest of the instructions. Perhaps I can better present my information so that she doesn't think I'm finished before I am, but I think she also has a short attention span.

I think I need to start preparing a dance or combonation for the girls. I have noticed in the past that I tend to lose control when there is too much of a routine and the kids can predict exactly what will happen next. They start trying to take control and getting a head of themselves and I have five children going different directions. It helps having the two older girls there, but it is still a struggle. Maybe we should start playing the shape game and combining things together so that they can progress and their interest is kept.

I am feeling frustrated with my choreography and ideas in the dance world a little bit...