Junior Dance Journal, 2020
Plan for Friday, Feb. 1
6:15 run through Solo Stars W and review of the routine.
6:25 run through Solo Stars Q and review of the routine
6:35 run through Solo Stars F and review of the routine
6:50 partnered F
7:10 first round WTFQ
Center floor Waltz, Foxtrot
Junior Journal, Jan. 25
Have decided that what we do and who our dancers are is so very special and unique, we should keep track of what we do and when we do it. We are currently trying to 'catch up' with where we should be and where we would have been if we could have continued working towards competition instead of concentrating so heavily on performances.
Our concentration on performances was not just on the dancing. It was on construction of the dances, use of props, organization of props, lighting, back-up dancing, some music and singing....yes we like to do it all. Now we are preparing for the USA Dance competition in Bethesda, Feb. 16, Mid Atlantic Championships. All the boys will be dancing with 3 or 4 partners; all the couples will be doing multiple age categories and two medal levels.
Today we had a discussion with the dancers about our Malaguena/Espani Cani dance which we hope to perform at the competition. All our dancers use capes.Two of them do a semi-feature as back-up dancers, and another two dancers do normal partnering for the Espani Cani part. The female partner was not going to be at our next performance. I thought of 3 ways to deal with the problem. The dancers came up with 2 more. 1-replace the female dancer with a different girl; 2-eliminate the Espani Cani part; 3-have two boys do the man's choreography to Espani Cani. Here is what the dancers suggested. 4-Do a new choreography for the Espani Cani part; 5-force the female partner to attend the performance. We had a good laugh over that. I was tending towards the 1st or 3rd possibilities. Then the mother of the female partner said she didn't realize the performance would be on Sunday, not Saturday, so maybe she could go with us after all. So the solution that had us all laughing, turned out to be the best one.
We did a lot of 'comparison' dancing today. Sometimes just two dancers, both doing solo stars. I even got in on this one. We also added 16 beats to our solo stars samba and 16 beats to our solo stars rumba. We did some intense review of the gold cha cha and jive. For the 'fun' thing, after lunch we had a couple of hula hoop contests. I think this one has a lot of obvious relationship to what our dancers need to be able to do: We start with one dancer doing a simple hula hoop move of his or her choice. Next dancer does that and adds one more move. Next dancer does the first two moves plus a third move his or her choice and so on. So you have to remember the sequence, be coordinated and creative. Another hula hoop contest was a pair of dancers either matching each other's moves or complementing them. Three pairs tried this. The first pair was very creative. They did something completely new, something none of them have ever done with the hula hoops. They could have won on the basis of being crowd pleasers. The next pair had a fabulous plan with horizontal and vertical circles, but they dropped the hoops. They had a good plan for structure. The third contestants, did something pretty simple and pretty easy. They made no mistakes. They had execution in their favor. They had to be the winners.
I spent an hour and a half putting new music into our computer.
I remarked on fb that 3 of our dancers got PERFECT scores on footwork for the quickstep center floor/progression. One of the ISTD Examiners reacted. That's two of us who appreciate the value of good use of the feet in ballroom--well two adults and 3 youth.
Thursday, Jan. 30
So far this week J had his regular double lesson w A. They did all the ballroom, all the Latin, including some open material in Cha cha, and the 6 solo stars dances. How good are they? Not as good as their potential calls for them to be. R and D did ballroom on Monday and Latin on Tuesday. We continued their lesson into the next time slot and did more ballroom. Their solo stars is a little weak, but we are confident we can get it together in time. J and N had an extended lesson too. They are really doing well. It helps to have a comfort level with your partner so brother-sister teams have that as a real advantage..
Friday, Jan. 31
Tonight was ballroom night. We switch off between solo stars and partnered ballroom. WFQ.. We did some Latin too
Saturday Feb. 1,
We reviewed the bronze tango. Our dancers have trouble rotating to the next partner. Too bad. It wastes a lot of time. Kaelan was showing more attention to frame. Alanna could do this stuff with some more regular private lessons. We did a lot of 'pairs' and discussed and compared. Alanna was a 'stand out.' Maya left her chair out from lunch.
Sunday, Feb. 2
Andreas came in a practiced about two hours on ballroom and solo stars. He will get extra points
Plan for Friday, Feb. 1
6:15 run through Solo Stars W and review of the routine.
6:25 run through Solo Stars Q and review of the routine
6:35 run through Solo Stars F and review of the routine
6:50 partnered F
7:10 first round WTFQ
Center floor Waltz, Foxtrot
Junior Journal, Jan. 25
Have decided that what we do and who our dancers are is so very special and unique, we should keep track of what we do and when we do it. We are currently trying to 'catch up' with where we should be and where we would have been if we could have continued working towards competition instead of concentrating so heavily on performances.
Our concentration on performances was not just on the dancing. It was on construction of the dances, use of props, organization of props, lighting, back-up dancing, some music and singing....yes we like to do it all. Now we are preparing for the USA Dance competition in Bethesda, Feb. 16, Mid Atlantic Championships. All the boys will be dancing with 3 or 4 partners; all the couples will be doing multiple age categories and two medal levels.
Today we had a discussion with the dancers about our Malaguena/Espani Cani dance which we hope to perform at the competition. All our dancers use capes.Two of them do a semi-feature as back-up dancers, and another two dancers do normal partnering for the Espani Cani part. The female partner was not going to be at our next performance. I thought of 3 ways to deal with the problem. The dancers came up with 2 more. 1-replace the female dancer with a different girl; 2-eliminate the Espani Cani part; 3-have two boys do the man's choreography to Espani Cani. Here is what the dancers suggested. 4-Do a new choreography for the Espani Cani part; 5-force the female partner to attend the performance. We had a good laugh over that. I was tending towards the 1st or 3rd possibilities. Then the mother of the female partner said she didn't realize the performance would be on Sunday, not Saturday, so maybe she could go with us after all. So the solution that had us all laughing, turned out to be the best one.
We did a lot of 'comparison' dancing today. Sometimes just two dancers, both doing solo stars. I even got in on this one. We also added 16 beats to our solo stars samba and 16 beats to our solo stars rumba. We did some intense review of the gold cha cha and jive. For the 'fun' thing, after lunch we had a couple of hula hoop contests. I think this one has a lot of obvious relationship to what our dancers need to be able to do: We start with one dancer doing a simple hula hoop move of his or her choice. Next dancer does that and adds one more move. Next dancer does the first two moves plus a third move his or her choice and so on. So you have to remember the sequence, be coordinated and creative. Another hula hoop contest was a pair of dancers either matching each other's moves or complementing them. Three pairs tried this. The first pair was very creative. They did something completely new, something none of them have ever done with the hula hoops. They could have won on the basis of being crowd pleasers. The next pair had a fabulous plan with horizontal and vertical circles, but they dropped the hoops. They had a good plan for structure. The third contestants, did something pretty simple and pretty easy. They made no mistakes. They had execution in their favor. They had to be the winners.
I spent an hour and a half putting new music into our computer.
I remarked on fb that 3 of our dancers got PERFECT scores on footwork for the quickstep center floor/progression. One of the ISTD Examiners reacted. That's two of us who appreciate the value of good use of the feet in ballroom--well two adults and 3 youth.
Thursday, Jan. 30
So far this week J had his regular double lesson w A. They did all the ballroom, all the Latin, including some open material in Cha cha, and the 6 solo stars dances. How good are they? Not as good as their potential calls for them to be. R and D did ballroom on Monday and Latin on Tuesday. We continued their lesson into the next time slot and did more ballroom. Their solo stars is a little weak, but we are confident we can get it together in time. J and N had an extended lesson too. They are really doing well. It helps to have a comfort level with your partner so brother-sister teams have that as a real advantage..
Friday, Jan. 31
Tonight was ballroom night. We switch off between solo stars and partnered ballroom. WFQ.. We did some Latin too
Saturday Feb. 1,
We reviewed the bronze tango. Our dancers have trouble rotating to the next partner. Too bad. It wastes a lot of time. Kaelan was showing more attention to frame. Alanna could do this stuff with some more regular private lessons. We did a lot of 'pairs' and discussed and compared. Alanna was a 'stand out.' Maya left her chair out from lunch.
Sunday, Feb. 2
Andreas came in a practiced about two hours on ballroom and solo stars. He will get extra points