Day 242 - Teaching Choreography

Sometimes I forget that the people i'm teaching choreography to can't see the pictures in my head, but we did get the first section done :)

Very happy with the way it's progressing but there will be some damage control to do next week. Lots of re-capping to do as well.

 

Chilling at a friends birthday party now so blog done and time to dance :)

Day 239 - Teaching Pointe

This evening was the last summer adult class which included half an hour dedicated to pointe work. It's been a really valuable experience for me to develop my teaching methods and my own pointe technique.

In the adults ballet class on Fridays there are usually a few doing the class on pointe. I have been spending some time correcting and advising but my time is divided. Having a dedicated class means that i can fully focus my efforts to describe and demonstrate exercises and techniques in greater detail.

From the in class reaction and feedback I am confident that my methods are well receieved and beneficial.

Day 237 - College etc.

Just a quick word about college today as I'm shattered.  Thursday is a long day with college and then work in the evening (and voting as an extra today) and I'm now ready for bed.  A very physically and mentally exhausting day.  Music was the underlying theme for my DDI class today, looking at how to communicate to examiner and pianist the rhythm, tempo and style of the desired piece of music for a particular exercise.  I think of my self as a musical person but this seems to he a hurdle for me.  I plan to make note of how I do this while teaching tomorrow and see if I can develop it further.  I'm wondering if it's being put on the spot that stumps me?!  

After DDI I had an Advanced 1 Ballet class.  I'm still not completely up to doing everything in class because of my knee, particularly jumps, but I think small improvements are being made.  I haven't put my pointe shoes on since the re-injury but today I made plans with some fellow students to do some extra pointe work after half term which is next week.  

Anyway, night all :)

Day 230 - Monday on a Wednesday Improv and Teaching

It's Wednesday so I headed of to teach ISTD Primary.  For my teaching exam (hopefully at the end of this year) I need to know the exercises from each grade from Primary to Grade 5.  This is just for this level, after that I will need to know these plus Grade 6 and Intermediate.  This is not a straight forward thing for me as I did not do these grades growing up.  I figure that as there are 6 grades I need to learn, with 1 day at college a week, that leaves a grade a day for the rest of the week.  OK so this is a big undertaking but I'm hoping that by the end of this term I will mostly be able to recognize each exercise from the music and at least some of them without this prompt.

On my way to teach today I listened to the complete class about three times (doing the exercises in my head and with my feet on the bus!) and then did the class by myself once I'd got to the hall.  As I have been teaching this grade for 4 weeks now I feel pretty confided about the content of the syllabus, this is mostly through physically doing it as well as teaching. Therefore my plan to at least visit each grade once a week should hopefully be a successful one.

While in the studio I also did a small improvisation to ease my way back into choreographing.  My knee is still a weak so this is very calm and controlled.  Music = Monday by Ludovico Einaudi.