Session Two Day Ten (MW)

Class One General Dance:
I began teaching modern this time, and it was a lot of fun! We started class by watching part of the Taylor Swift "Shake It Off" music video to show them different kinds of dance. It was a fun way to introduce a new style of dance. We did a combination with the "x" and fetal positions, plies, tendus, walking and leaping patterns and began learning a dance/combination. It was a fun day, and the dancers really enjoyed it! I had quite a few who said they liked it better than ballet, which is kinda fun.

Class Two Ballet (Younger):
Today was a little crazy. The boy and the three younger girls were very hard to get to pay attention. One kept swinging on the barre and the boy would alternate between kicking or punching one girl to the other. It was chaos. I'm starting to realize he needs a lot of personal attention, to keep him on task and to give him the encouragement that he needs. I am very excited to have an assistant!
We made it through plies, tendus, rond de jambs, eleves, releves, kicks, sautes, pas de chat, leaps and chaines, and I tried to have them do a pirouette combination where you do four quarter turns, two half turns and four whole turns, but after the eleves and releves they were pretty tired, so it didn't work very well. I think I'm going to do something else next time.

Class Three Ballet (Older):

I did a few new things to try and help this student progress a little bit more. I had her try and do the combinations without me saying anything and only directly following me on the first side. She did pretty good, but I think I want to keep working on it. I want her to get to the point where she can count and remember most of it on her own. We did plies, tendus, rond de jambs, eleves, releves, pirouettes at the barre, sautes, center tendu and pas de bourree, chaines, pas de chats, and leaps. The pas de bourrees are looking a lot better! I made a center tendu combination that ends with three pas de bourrees and it's helping a lot! I'm excited and I think I'll be able to put them in her dance! She really struggles to remember things, and I think she's not as hard of a worker as the other student who has her own class and I forget that sometimes. I want to inspire her to push herself or even just exert herself so she can do even better without me telling her exactly what to do next. 

I've been struggling with finding ballet music that I like to create dances for the showcase. Everything I find is either too slow or just doesn't fit. I'm going to keep looking and hopefully I find something soon so they can start learning it!

Session Two Day Three (TR)

Class One Jazz (Younger):
None of the students showed up today (one informed us that they would be absent when she registered, and I don't know where the other one was,) so I used the time to lesson plan and prepare.

Class Two Jazz (Older):
We were missing one student today (the boy who came last time; I am hoping that I didn't scare him off with the hip hop we did at the end of the class) but everyone else was there. We worked on pirouettes, leaps, kicks, chaines, chasses and continued our hip hop routine. It was a very fun class and the students are a fun group! I had them do most of the exercises without me a couple times which went really well. I'm hoping to help develop their memories as I teach them and it's going pretty well!

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 Seven

We did the usual exercises today, but we went through them faster so we could learn new material. The students are beginning to remember how to do each step and how they start, which is very exciting because it means we can focus more on technique and begin adding other concepts and steps.

We learned a simple combo today (it was very cute to see how wide-eyed they got at the new word) and it went very well! They learned it quickly, and were able to do it by themselves by the end of class. It was quite fun and exciting!

The main technique we focused on was spotting during all of the different types of turns that we practiced. We talked about spotting without tilting our heads and I used the image of your chin staying on a table, but I think it was a little difficult for the dancers to understand. I think I might try a book or something on the top of their heads, and see if that helps.

We also attempted to do kicks on a beat, which was fun, if a little messy. There was definite improvement from last class though! Mostly it is a struggle to get them to do the step before the kick on a beat as well, but we'll keep working on it. It will be exciting to see them continue to improve.

After we practiced each exercise I had the dancers try and do it on their own (without my verbal ques or physical example). They did quite well and I was very impressed with their willingness to step up to a challenge.

Our youngest dancer got discouraged at one point, but she cheered up after we did silly high fives. I think she is doing better at facing new steps and not getting discouraged.

It's very funny and interesting to see the different parents who are so involved in their child's dancing and proper technique. In a way it is very exciting and fun, but it also worries me. If a child has too many authoritative figures giving them corrections it is easy for them to become discouraged, but so far the children have seemed fine.

One of the late comers was absent today, so I only had one student until 5:30. We did some simple games (freeze dance, a rhythm game, and a creative game involving jungle animals). Then we stretched and left a little bit early because we were both a little worn out.

Overall I am pleased with the progress that these dancers are making and I really enjoy keeping them on their toes and trying to not do the same type of class twice in a row. I think it makes the class more engaging for the students and for me as a teacher.