Summer Dance - Day 5

I realize that Day 5, Friday, was several days ago, yes.  Unfortunately, I got sick on Friday afternoon and have been pretty useless all weekend.  I started feeling it sometime after lunch, but I stayed through contemporary and hip-hop because it was just a sore throat at first.

Day 5 Schedule
Stretching/Recovery
Ballet
Lyrical
Lunch
Contemporary
Hip-Hop

Stretching was very interesting.  We learned a lot of different ways to stretch and which stretches with help with certain things like turnout, arabesque, etc.  I also learned that I have really loose hamstrings (I find that hard to believe...but don't argue with the teacher), and a well-streched psoas.  Therefore I should have no problem with high extensions, right?  Wrong.  Gotta work on that leg strength.  Also, the only thing holding me back from my front splits are my hip flexors.  I always stretch them on the sides, but not much in the front.  There's so much to fix!

Ballet and lyrical were really fun!  We had the same teacher a room for both, so we did barre for around an hour then center for about 15 minutes, then we learned some lyrical choreography in the remaining time.  I was really proud of myself, the choreo remembering part of my brain was on!  I remembered most of the routine we learned in lyrical, then after lunch in contemporary, I remembered most of choreography we learned there too!  In contemporary, we learned a piece to an instrumental song, which I've always wanted to do :D

Overall, it was a great week and I really hope I can go back next summer.  I feel like a better dancer, even in just the five days.  I loved trying other styles and learning my strengths and weakness.  I have a whole new list of things I need to work on now, but that's good.  Having small goals to work toward and specific things to improve are why I love ballet.

Summer Dance - Day 4

Today's schedule
Floor Barre
Ballet Barre
Ballet Center
Lunch Break
Tap
Acro

So today was great!  It started off with floor barre, like on Monday, so I know I'm going to be hurting tomorrow.  I hadn't had the teacher we had for both ballet classes today in any previous classes, but I really liked her.  We got to try a lot of new things and she gave lots of corrections.  Also, there were only three other girls in class today.  I'm not sure what happened to the rest of them, there are usually between six and nine other girls, but not today.  Not complaining, I love smaller classes!

Today was my first time trying acro.  It was fun, but I don't think I'll keep taking it.  I mean, I might take a class occasionally, but not consistently or weekly.  We started off real small, with bridges and bridges on our knees.  Then we moved on to backbends.  I tried, but I had this feeling I was going to slip and crack my head even with a wall behind me and the teacher holding my back.  She said I didn't have to do it today if I didn't want to, so after a couple more tries I just stopped.  Then we did some stuff across the floor.  I tried to crab walk, but I half-failed.  But I half-succeeded too ;)  There wasn't anything I completely "got" until we did the side round cartwheels.  I'm not sure that's the actual name though.  Anyways, I loved those.  I also really liked teeter-tots and cartwheels.  My cartwheels to the right were good, but my left side was horrendous.  Oh well, practice makes permanent!

Summer Dance - Day 3

Today's schedule
Conditioning
Ballet
Zumba
Lunch Break
Contemporary
Hip-hop

Not much to say for day three.  We had just gotten to our second activity, ballet, but I wasn't feeling good so I called my mom to come pick me up.  I'm not really sure what happened, but I didn't really have enough energy to move anything.  I sat out of ballet and the first 15 minutes or so of Zumba, but I was feeling a bit better so I finished the rest of Zumba.  Zumba was really awesome and fun, so I'm glad I didn't have to miss out on that.  Conditioning was really fun, too.  We had about 12 different strengthening activities set up around the room, and we all had partners.  Every two minutes, we would switch activities.  It was really good, I'll do a post later about some of the exercises I've learned.

My mom picked me up just as Zumba was ending and took me home.  I felt a lot better after I showered, ate, and slept, so I'm going to try going tomorrow.  I'm really excited for tomorrow too, because we have two hours of ballet in the morning and in the afternoon I'm doing acro for the first time!

Also, does anyone have a type of ballet slipper that they really love and recommend?  I'm looking for a new pair, so if anyone has recommendations that would help so much :)  I got some new leotards too, so I'm going to put together a few reviews next week.  Keep dancing!

Summer Dance - Days 1 and 2

Well.  The last two days were my first two days of dance camp.  Let's just jump right in and start this post off with how sore I am.  Yesterday, we started off with floor barre.  That was yesterday at 9am.  Today, 11pm and MY ABS ARE STILL DYING!!!!  Seriously, if you ever get the chance to take a floor barre class, you better jump all over that!  So our schedule for the last two days has been as follows, each an hour long:

Monday
Floor Barre
Ballet
Jazz Hip-Hop (Jazz teacher was absent so we had hip-hop instead)
Lunch Break
Contemporary
Hip Hop

Tuesday
Pilates
Ballet
Tap
Lunch Break
Leaps and Turns
Jazz/Lyrical

In ballet, hip-hop, contemporary, and tap, they're getting ready for their summer showcase next week.  I really like how they are teaching here; they don't focus too much time on the routine, and when they're working on it they encourage the girls who aren't in the showcase to still participate.  Some of the teachers have even retaught it from the beginning for us new students.  I hated my last studio during recital time because the entire class would become rehearsal and the girls who weren't in it were just sitting bored.

Plus, I really love the choreo we've been learning for hip-hop, contemporary, and tap.  In hip-hop, we have Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke (that's my jam!), and in contemporary we have The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice (also a favorite).  In tap, I don't know the song and I don't have tap shoes, but I did it in bare feet and it was still really fun.  I might even have to invest in a pair of tap shoes ;)

So yeah, it's been really fun!  I'm still terrible at hip-hop, but better...slightly better.  That makes me happy :)  I still have trouble remembering choreography, but I'm working on it.  I just really need to focus.  Three more days of camp!  I'm exhausted already, but I'll try to make the most of it.  I can't wait until Thursday when we have 2 hours of ballet :D  Has your summer intensive ended already, or is still going?  I'd love to hear about your summer dance, and good luck with whatever goals you have!

Summer Dance And More News!

Hey guys!  It has been a long time since I last posted, I know, but there's been so much going this summer and not much dancing. Buuut, my summer dance camp is starting tomorrow! :D  I'm so excited to get back to dance, I haven't really danced since recital back in June :O  During my occasional stretching sessions, I noticed that I haven't lost much flexibility.  I'm still just as close to (or as far from, depends how you look at it) my splits as I was during the dance season.  Yay!  I really hope to close those last two or three inches on my front splits this week.

I originally planned on doing two weeks of dance camp, but I was volunteering as a counselor at a music camp and was having so much fun with the other counselors that I decided to volunteered for two more weeks than I'd originally planned.  I have some plans in August that I can't change or work around, so I can only do one week of camp :(  That's only five days, but I'll take what I can get.  I start tomorrow, and I'll try to post updates everyday during this week.

Also, if you've been following my blog for a while (I saw I had some new followers, welcome!), you know that I am homeschooled.  And you also know that I didn't really like my last studio and was looking to change after recital.  Now you're probably thinking, "Yes, Jordan, we know....but what do these have to do with each other?"  Well, I applied to a private school in my area, and I was accepted with a scholarship.  I love homeschooling, but I've been homeschooled for almost 10 years and I think this would be good for me, so I'm going to do it.  The best part is that the school offers ballet classes as an option for Physical Education!  I might be taking ballet everyday and getting credits for it!  *fist pump*

That's all the news for now, but I'll hopefully have another post tomorrow.  Keep dancing!