Session Two Day Eleven (TR)

Class One Jazz (Younger):
We had a fun day today! I decided to try and do the isolations seated, for both classes, to try and help them distinguish movement of their hips and their ribs. It worked pretty well! It is a lot harder to use your hips to move your body when you have both sitz bones on the ground, and they looked good! I think it will still be a while before I can have them move just their ribs while standing, but I think this is good progress, and a good solution to the problem.
We still worked on the usual things; pirouettes, kicks, leaps, chaines, side leaps, and normal leaps, but I began to combine things together. I had her do 8 counts of kicks and then an 8 count pirouette (the music was kind of slow) and it worked pretty well! She got mixed up about which foot to use when starting the pirouettes, but I think that was more me confusing her as I tried to mirror her (I may have done it backwards the first few times). I think with practice we'll be able to get them down really well!
The stag leaps are coming along pretty well too! She gets mixed up with which foot should leap, but they're getting better. I had her practice a high chaine and a low chaine with out the leap before we started the stags, and that seemed to help. She still bounces between each step, which throws off her momentum, but that'll come with more practice.

Class One Jazz (Older):
This class went well too! The girls are getting a little more rowdy, and want to play tag through all the exercises, but they are doing well. We did pirouettes, kicks, kick and pirouette combination, side leaps, leaps, chaines, and I began to teach them how to do a floor roll. We started by doing one chaine and then tucked the back leg to allow us to do a bum roll so we could come back to standing and turn under ourselves. It was pretty rough, but I think they'll get it with practice. I am hoping we can do chaines into a bum roll into two chasses and a side leap, but it'll probably be a few weeks before we attempt that. We made it farther in the hip hop routine, and they are doing well. They understand the counts pretty well, (even if their counting with the music still needs a little work). They all take corrections really well and are a delight to work with.

Day Twelve - Showcase!

I arrived late (due to car trouble) but the girls were there and so excited to go!

We began by doing a simple warm up (some free dance and the rhythm song) and then did some quick stretching. We then practiced our "explode" combination, and ran through the dance a few times. We had to practice not talking and narrating through the dance (which I realized we shoul've practiced a lot sooner). I then sent the girls to grab a drink and bring in their families. We were waiting for one parent so I had the girls show their chaines (since they are the main thing we didn't do in our dance) which was very fun. We then did the dance, and besides some giggling it went off without a hitch! They all did so well, and I was so proud of them for remembering and picking up so much! It was really exciting and fun to see them so happy and excited and to see how far they'd come!

With my plans to get a teaching job out of state after I graduate I was a little sad to have this session be over. I'll miss these girls, and I hope they sign up next session as well! But I am also excited to get an opportunity to try some of the new ideas that I've had with this next group of dancers.

Day Eleven

Today was one of the late comer's last day. (The other student hasn't shown up for about a week and a half, and I realized that I don't have any contact information for her because she signed up late.) We had her mom come and watch which was really sweet. It is so cute to see how much these girls love and are excited to show their parents all they've learned. I was also impressed with how well she focused and paid attention even though she had an audience.

We continued in much the same pattern as last time; we went around the circle picking one stretch to do, practiced our technique and then ran our dance. Today I did better with time management and didn't stay on one thing too long. We made it through everything fairly quickly and got right down to the dance. The girls were very concerned about how things would work with one of them missing, but I told them we would practice on Thursday before their parents came.

I handed out fliers with the details of the performance and what each dancer was to wear and expect. I'm having the students come in to warm up and practice and then the audience members enter after that. Hopefully it will go well!

All in all, even with the late start, I think we are ready to perform!