Dance Week 1

February 3, 2008  FILED TO: Blog, Dance

Well, week 1 is over and this is the start of my year-long journal.  It’s been a thrilling, exhausting, sore, fun, daunting, nervous week of adjustment. I’ve very much enjoyed everything so far but really needed the weekend to recover my energy and heal my sore muscles.  Since starting I’ve been constantly aching, constantly hungry and quite tired (mostly from lack of sleep on the warmer nights).

On Wedesday morning, my first day, after a warm, restless night I took the tram and arrived at school very nervously, not sure at all what to expect.  I was immediately allocated a locker and a warm-up studio I quickly changed and made my way down to warm-up. I expected the daily warm-up to last for 15 minutes or so and consist mostly of stretching. I was wrong. It was a tough 30 minute workout with crunches, stretches, splits, etc. It seemed to last forever and I knew that I would be really sore the next day. After that we had an orientation session where we went through the student handbook and got our student cards and discount cards for dancewear stores (very handy). After orientation it was straight into our normal timetable.  Being a Wednesday the next class was advanced ballet – not too hard but it still pushed me. Then we had a 30 minute break for lunch (a light one!) and to change for advanced / professional jazz. Again, more stretching and crunches. But the class wasn’t too cardio-heavy. I really enjoyed it, I really like the teacher, I’ve been to his classes before. The routine we did was quite funky but I think I managed alright. What struck me during this class as my muscles were starting to fatigue was that I would have to do all this again tomorrow, and the day after, and so on. I’m so used to having a day to recover from tough classes.

Thursday was a very similar day, beginning, after warm-up, with a theory class, followed by a break, intermediate jazz, another break, and then beg/inter ballet.  Friday was a little different with warm-up, funk/hip-hop and jazz back-to-back.  I was getting a little giddy from hunger by the end of jazz!  Then we had our first funk/hip-hop syllabus class.  I coped surprisingly well considering my lack of hip-hop exposure and I loved the choreography.  Let’s see how I do on the exam!

During orientation I found out that as part of the Dance Teaching course we must attend jazz and ballet on Wednesdays (this term) with the certificate IV and diploma students, and on other days with the certificate III students.  Other classes are a mixture of syllabus classes with diploma student, classes by ourselves and theory.  We also have exams every 5 weeks for hip-hop, jazz and tap – that’s a bit daunting considering I’ve done very little hip-hop and tap before.  We will also be studying choreography, stage management and have to show our proficiency at dancing ballet, jazz and hip-hop with a partner.  We must also attend a one-day First Aid course.

After taking the tram on Wednesday (and suffering during the walk home) I decided to drive on Thursday.  Thankfully I found that driving was faster than taking the tram (which saves me the walk to/from the tram stop) and I managed to get parking so I will keep that up for a while.  It’s good to get home 30 minutes earlier so I can get more work done.

In terms of the course, so far all of the teachers seem very supportive and professional and a couple of them are great choreographers.  I had expected to feel a little old but I’m happy to find I’m not the eldest, or the shortest, or the fattest / skinniest, or the worst.  There are actually 3-4 other students around my age.  Being one of the teaching students I am held up as an example quite often (to my embarrassment), particularly to the certificate III students, so at least I know my technique is ok.

So that’s week one out of the way.  I managed to purchase a new leotard, tights, pants, legwarmers and tap shoes today.  It took me a while to find but I went to the Bloch store in Camberwell.  I couldn’t really do without tap shoes when I have an exam in 5 weeks!  Also, the uniform of leotard (no bra) and pink tights for ballet is pretty strict so I thought I better get one more leotard.  I’m getting used to having to wear 2-3 outfits per day just for school – and the loads of washing!!  Now I’m going to sit and relax, watch the first episode of Australia’s So You Think You Can Dance and prepare for my first full week of classes.