Quickly improve your arabesque!

nearly cried when i saw this! I was looking for stretches on the internet because its all I really wanted to do and found angelfire.com (what a coincidence eh? its fate).

Here is the arabesque part:

"1. Find a table or something sturdy that stands about three feet from the ground.

2. Stand with your back to the object, and place your stretched leg ontop, keeping good turnout in your supporting leg and in your working leg. Pull up through your tummy and keep your back well supported with your hips square. Make sure you're doing everything correctly for your arabesque. (It is okay to hold on to something for ballence.)

3. Slowly and carefully lift your leg off the object, keeping everything well placed. When that leg refuses to work any longer, switch sides.

4. When it starts to get easy at that hight, start using a higher object! (How exciting!) If you are having trouble holding your back up, you need to strengthen your back muscles. Refer to arabesque strengthener."

I will do this everyday! To check out other sytrerches go to http://www.angelfire.com/me4/tutus_n_toes/Stretches.html

most of the stuff here is the usual and I do them a lot.

My schedule on top of college

*I am not complaining. I love dance and I would have my schedule even busier if I could. I just want to show people how much work is put into our training. These dance classes are put on top of a 4day a week 9 to 5 very physical performing arts college course. I never get any breaks from my family who presume I'm lazy because I'm tired at home so I'd just like to show people its not what they believe. Dancers are the most hard working and unappreciated people in the world.

Monday:
Jazz 7:00pm - 8:00pm

Tuesday:
Ballet 8:00pm - 9:30pm

Wednesday:
none yet

Thursday:
Interning in Macushla Dance Group 11:00am - 12:00pm
Contemporary 6:00pm - 7:30pm

Friday:
none yet

Saturday:
none yet

Sunday:
Contemporary 11:00am - 12:15pm

Sway

So i recently made a new friend who too is a dancer, so we talk all day about dance and have the greatest laugh. I mentioned yesterday, because we are both considering applying to a college in the south of Ireland which has a lot of heavy ballet, that I have a swayed back, to which he replied "Your joking right? Oh my god this is crazy so do I". We have a lot in common, both contemporary dancers and both got injured and out of dance for a while.

But this blog is about sway backs. Dictionary.com defines a "swayed back" as a "Veterinary Pathology" and the noun means "an excessive downward curvature of the spinal column in the dorsal region, esp. of horses."

My friend was proud of his sway, demanding that it made our fifths tighter and I didn't disagree. But then I got thinking "sway backs are not desirable", which they aren't, they kill pirouettes and ballet teachers will do everything short of beating it out of you? For him he has embraced it and looked on the bright side, maybe its his contemporary and jazz history. However for me I have been constantly aware of it, due to ballet, so much to the extent that I perfect my posture so much contemporary teachers mistake me for a ballet dancer so i have to loosen up. Personally I don't know which method is best! Ballet being my second style I would lean towards eliminating the problem, but having a stiff back in contemporary is no good.

However, from my experience if you ever talk to a dancer who ha a sway back, they will tell you that you can never get rid of it and only control it. C'est la vie! At least we get a tighter fifth!

Billy Bell, SYTYCD 6 has a sway back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0w_TKMtZFI and I belive Victor Smally did too

Solo

So I ask Michelle "Can you help me with my University solo, please?" as she is my teacher, she replies "Yes I can, just come up with a concept and we'll develop it from that!", I'm like "Ok I know we're contemporary dancers and all but are you for real?" Course what I actually said was "Yeah k thats awesome!" bah I'm an idiot...

WAIT! No I'm not! After weeks of having that nagging voice in the back of my head saying
"Uh dumb ass, you need a concept you know!" to which I reply;
"Pffft I have one!"
"Oh yeah, what?"
"Uh I have my ideas..."
"No you don't!"
"How do you know?"
"Because I'm you, you tool!"
"Yeah, well, I, you, suck it bitch!" ... *out loud* "Awe shit!"

But apart from my inner monologue being a demented and abusive pair and me needing to be locked away I have it! My solo concept! Abandonment and the need to stand on your own two feet! I want something emotional so I'll work harder on it. I'm doing it to My Immortal by Evanescence (I know how emo right?). This routine will either be epic or a big pile opf "seriously even make me look at that and I WILL kick you so hard in the nuts you'll have tree tonsils..." and I'm hoping not the latter! I WANT THOSE JUDGES TO CRY LIKE BABIES! I really need this!

Choreographing Scene 5a

As we all know, I am not a ballroom dancer. I have never trained in ballroom, except for two or three Latin classes when I was a preteen. However, the courses only ballroom dancer has disappeared, and as I said before the choreography for the dancing scene in the Christmas play came into my command. The script hints towards a foxtrot.Foxtrot. Ok, it is not my genre, I never trained, but the minute they gave me this post, I knew what to do, and I did it, a very simplified version of it. As simple as it was my dancers, who are actually actors, could not get it, they could not get "slow, slow, quick, quick, slow" my interpretation "Step, cross, step and turn, line drop step". A child could do that! Then we went on to other pieces, so I decided I‘d go even easier. I gave them jazz squares, sixteen bloody counts of jazz squares, and it would look great! It would look great, if they could do it. Moreover, if they could dance in sync with a little coordination! No, they each randomly stumble and flail as if they were flounders lined up on a ship deck!

Tuesday: Today rehearsals went great! None of the losers who gave me trouble showed up so I was happy. Some parts were changed, not majorly, and I improved what they were doing wrong. Everything went great and I was very happy.

Wednesday: Lord help me please. Back stage I tried to run through the dance but the costume mistress was more concerned about getting they're mustashes on rather than them learnin the dance so I had to give in, 3 of the six dancers on the stage didn't know the rutine. When about to correct what they did wrong the director (My tutor) spoke at the same time, I didn't notice but that didn't stop her from shouting at me. I stopped talking and she went on to explain so then when she finished I went on to explain what happened but one of the dancers who never attened any of my rehersals started to back talk to me and the director yelled "shut up". SO I turned around and said "don't speak to me like that", she said sorry but one of the actors said "She is the teacher she can speak to you how she likes" (I hate country people. So I left the rehearsal then and there, I sent a text message to my director saying sorry and that I am sick of having to work with such disrespectful students. She replied asking me to come in at 3:00 for a meeting. So I did and we had a quick chat, and sorted things out, afterwards my dance partner approached me and said "You should not have been such a brat, and your fucking up the dance" I replied saying "right so you can be the choreogrpher then, I'll quit" she replied something like "No, I..." but I walked away and went up to resign. The director asked me not to resign and to choreograph the rehearsals on thursday. I am wary and don't have the energy to work with these people but I have to.

Thursday: Only one dancer shows up. I am alienated from the others in my course and I can't wait for university next year.

PS. Sorry this is late.
Love S

Genres; The value of Dance?

*Been a while I know but last term was so hectic. I've organized this term so that I'm not as busy.

So as the title suggests This entry is about genre and style of dance. As a contemporary dancer I value all forms of dance that require ultimate flexibility and true work ethic. Saying this may sound like I don't value street dance very much, but I do! I can see the technique and the athleticism of the whole genre, but barely any stamina. If a street dancer was to try out for a dance school and told they weren't what the school was looking for there would be this whole issue of "Oh ya'll are close minded and stuck up!" when simply its probably because the dancer can't point, or jeté, or anything else necessary for dance schools. However street dancers are constantly saying that classical dancers are pussy's and snobs and constantly making fun of ballet, the ultimate dance! Ballet is the most disciplined dance I know of and street dancers are just scared to even try it. If they want respect, they should show some.

By the way I'm not taking Hip-Hop this dance term ahaha

Dance Partners'...

My newest dance partner is nice. However, she seems to care about what her little clique think about her more than being my dance partner. Even though I proposed the idea of us being partners, as we are both very tall and it would be very hard for her to get a male counterpart, I am beginning to regret it. I took a risk, the major one being she is a trained Irish dancer. Irish dancers are very stiff and even though she has had some ballet, she can be quite stiff. Also she isn’t putting as much energy into the relationship as I am, I believe that partnering is 65% trust, how can she let me do lifts when she doesn’t trust me and how can I let her mount my back when I don’t trust her? I have tried to spend time with her but she seems to only want to do this when her clique are not around. In her clique, there is one other girl, a singer and a boy, an actor, the actor does not particularly like me and so neither does the singer so my partner’s loyalty is split, well it should be but it is clear where it lies. This feeds into more distrust. The funny part to me is that if I walked out of the partnership I would be on smooth sailing to another partner. However, my partner would be screwed, as I said before she is very tall for a dancer and most male dancers would look ridiculous beside her and find her impossible to carry. I however do not. Therefore, her snubbing really is not doing her any favours, except she is the only dancer I can be paired with in my college course. There is another female dancer in the year but she is strictly solo and hates partnering as she can’t handle lifts, mounts or even dips, so if I am stuck until September too. Is it worth risking it by telling her that if she keeps up her rudeness I will quite? Will she realize that loosing me will hinder her more than it will affect me? On the other hand, could I be reading into the whole thing and blowing it out of purporting in my mind? Is there anything I can do to make her want to work on our personal relationship?

Help!

Love,

S