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DANCE! Does anyone
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DANCE! Does anyone
DANCE! Does anyone here love to dance like me? If you do, feel free to talk about tips on dancing, questions on dancing moves, or anything else about dancing!
submitted by Twirlgirl, age 12, The Mountains, Milky Way
(September 14, 2017 - 8:10 pm)
(September 14, 2017 - 8:10 pm)
Oooh, yes! I love dancing! I've taken ballet since I was 3 or 4, and I've always loved it. Last year I also took jazz, but now I take private ballet and group lessons. One of my weaknesses is that I'm not very flexible, and I'm not even close to doing the splits, which is really annoying because I'm pretty much the only one in my class who has trouble with splits and flexibility.
(September 15, 2017 - 9:39 am)
I just got my point shoes yesterday! It took us an hour. I wonder if I was the hardest customer yet. XD I'm exited, but also a little nervous. I've never done point before. Does anyone have tips for me?
(September 16, 2017 - 9:56 am)
Ooh, congratulations, Leeli! I used to dance ballet, but quit a couple of years ago to do flamenco!
(September 17, 2017 - 5:08 pm)
Thank you! Ooh, flamenco sounds cool!
(September 17, 2017 - 8:01 pm)
I do! At least, I did. I did ballet from second grade to the beginning of eighth (so just a few weeks ago), but I stopped because of many reasons. One of them being how competitive everyone was. They were all on dance team, and doing so many auditions and tryouts and stuff, and there I was, just wanting to have fun. My school trained amazing dancers who wanted to dance as their career, not average dancers like me who want to have fun. So I stopped. I'm currently trying to find a new school, one that's less competitive and more fun-based. I'm also trying to find a school with a freer dance style, and not so much technicality and classical-ness. I did a recital with the more modern of my two dance teachers at my former school that involved a lot of freer movements and partnering. I loved it! The partnering took some getting used to-- I was the tallest girl in the class, and so was partnered with the tallest boy, who was like (not joking) 6' 4'', and I'm only 5'4''. So that was interesting.
@Leeli:
congrats on pointe shoes! In addition to ballet, I've also been doing pointe for about 3 years now (before I stopped). It will be so hard. You will want to cry. Or scream. (I did both.) Or maybe just throw your pointe shoes across the room and never pick them back up. But it is so worth it!!! It gives you so much flexibility, core strength, ankle strength, back strength, strength in general :), and balance as a whole. Plus, I think I have you beat out for awful-fitting feet: I have extremely long, narrow, and archy feet. It takes me (or took me, rather) about an hour to find the right pair. They were never quite perfect though... until my last (and most expensive) pair. They were a brand called F.R. Duval (anyone heard of it?), and they were so archy and narrow and long. They were absolutely perfect for me. I'd never been able to go all the way over my toes due to my arches, but with these, it popped me right over-- and beyond! So keep holding out hope for that perfect pair. I promise you, it's out there. :)
~Starseeker
(September 19, 2017 - 6:22 pm)
Yup! Go Irish dance! Killim, Inktail, and I constitute the entire CB Irish dance community, I believe.
@Leeli, I can't do the splits either.
(September 16, 2017 - 10:51 am)
I LOVE dance!!
I used to do ballet and tap before switching a bunch of studios and then switching dancing styles completely. I do Irish Dance and ❤️love❤️ it.
(September 16, 2017 - 12:15 pm)
I. Love. Classical Ballet.
In our comunity, we have two dance "Studios". One for little girls from ages 3 to 8, and one from girls ages 9 to 18. I did the 'little' girls dance since i was able to, then I went into the 'Older' girls dance class. The option is given to you, that if you find you love, love, love ballet, then you can go to a more 'professional' dance studio. I'm fine with just the comunity dance studio.
@Leeli- I get it. I am nowhere reletively near doing the splits. I can barely touch my toes!! And you have toe shoes!!! SO. COOL!! Unfortunatly for me, along with almost 0 flexibility, I have very weak ankle strenghth. It's always a problem for me when we have to do a grande plea ( Or however you spell it), and have to stay down near the ground for so long while relying on your ankles to support you. last year, when we were doing warm-ups, we were practicing pas de chats, and on the way down, I landed with my ankle twisted under me! I had to lay low for a few weeks after that.
@Doctor Who?- You do Irish Dance?! I once saw some irish dancers preform, and I was blown away! How do they (you) move so fast? Does it take a lot of practice and skill to do that? ( Also... are you Irish?)
(September 17, 2017 - 2:48 pm)
Yes, I do, along with Kitten and Inktail! And it's so cool you do classical ballet! I used to do it too, but I think I found more passion in Irish Dance. We move fast because we train fast. Or at least, that's what we do. We do a lot of stamina, flexibility, abs, and other workouts to improve our strength in those areas. Because of that strength, we can move our muscles faster. I go to practice 3 times a week. It's not a lot, and I would have done 4, but I have youth group on Wednesdays. Skill comes with practice, so yes, the higher the level you want to go, the more you have to practice. I am Irish, although I'm more Scottish than Irish. (Bout an 8th Irish and I'm a quarter Scottish. I'm half Japanese, so...Japanese Scottish y'all!! XD)
(September 17, 2017 - 8:04 pm)
Thank you! Aw, I'm sorry about that! And yes, Grande pleas are so difficult! Especially when you have to hold them for long periods of time. Pirouettes have been especially difficult for me lately, because at my old dance studio, we practiced landing them in front, and now at the new place I go to (as well as my private lessons) we have to land them in back! It's been messing me up, and it didn't help that I'd only ever done singles and at my group class they had us try doubles. In case you were wondering, it was an epic fail. For me at least. XDm
(September 17, 2017 - 8:05 pm)
I havn't even attempted a double. My ballet classes only go throughout the winter, and end in the spring, and usually in the summer I do not practice anything at all. xD So now in the winter, I have to practice, practice, practice untill I can do everything flawlessly. Though this year, there only might be me and one other girl signed up to do ballet! It seems like a lot of new people try it one year, then they find out that it is a LOT harder than they thought, and then it leaves only the 'experienced' ones like (well, not me) the one other girl who is signing up.
Last year, I conquered the tour jete, and I'm hoping that I can still remember it come first lesson of the year.:) In one of our routines, we had to do a tour jete, then land on our knee. I always made a big 'THONK!" noise when I came down! (Darn those hollow stages!:))
(September 18, 2017 - 6:52 pm)
Iʻm pretty sure Iʻm the only CBer who dances hula... I really enjoy it! We are learning a new dance right now about a beach house.
(September 17, 2017 - 8:34 pm)
Hey Leeli! Sorry I didn't get to answer until now, but I may have a tip or two about dancing on point:
1. Whenever doing point, remember not to overstrain yourself, or you can hurt yourself really badly, so also remember not to do most things that require a lot of years of practice and lessons beforehand if you haven't had them.
2. If you don't know how to do something, don't just guess and try - make sure you're doing it right before you try.
3. Sometimes you're going to have to ignore pain a lot, so try to practice sometimes on ignoring the pain. (Sometimes it requires acting skills, to ignore pain and pretend you're blissful;).)
4. Always remember that when doing point, or any type of ballet really, make sure to be relaxed and make it look easy and simple. I'm not sure if you've ever heard this, but one of the main points of ballet is to make it look easy, natural, effortless and graceful, and as if it requires a very small amount of strength.
5. Let the music take you. Go with the music, because that's when you dance the best - not when you're concentrating like crazy on every move, because that might make you look stiff.
Sorry if my tips don't really help, I really just thought this all up right now, but I know all of this from books and just from logic. I only took ballet lessons once, but I might be planning to take dancing lessons. I just recently got a ballet bar and gymnastics mat, and I've had point shoes for about a year now. I used to not be able to stand in them, and now I can stand on my toes in socks for a second or two! So, I just thought of a number six:
6. Work hard, try your best, enjoy, and have fun!!!!!
(September 17, 2017 - 9:15 pm)
Oooohh! I take ballet and jazz/modern. I've been on pointe for almost a year. It's really fun, but hard and scary sometimes. I prefer contemporary dance to ballet, honestly, just because there are fewer rules and it's more creative, but ballet is awesome and I'd never give it up. I'm pretty flexible but notoriously bad at turns. T^T
(September 17, 2017 - 9:39 pm)
Oy, dancin kids! (Sorry couldn't help myself. Billy Elliot reference anyone?) In case you're new, I AM THE DANCING QUEEN OF ALL DANCE! Just kidding. I wish ;)
Anyway, I do every classical dance type (except for Irish), and I may even start African Dance at some point. My favourites include Hip Hop, Lyrical/contemporary, and musical theatre depending on the song. (Billy Elliot!!!!!)
Have any of you seen Billy Elliot? It's sooooooooooooooo good. It's about a boy who wants to be a dancer in the midst of a revolution and..... Well I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it. Listen to Electricity, Solidary, Shine, Gradma's song, the Letter and the Letter Reprise if you can't see it anytime soon. Those are my favourite songs. Oh, and Expressing yourself (my brother played Machell in the one I saw) it's a pretty cool tap number.
And I'm not on Point yet, I was out last season, as many of you know, cause of an injury. So I need to build up my muscles again and keep it slow so that I can go on Point next year.
Oh and flexibility tips, sit with your legs apart and your butt to a wall for like awhile, or sit in second or any other positions like that. I usually sit like that when watching TV and such, and guess what? I'm super flexible!
And when u sit in grand pleie, it's more of your core that your using rather then your ankles. Sure you use those too, but you might want to do more situps or other abb workouts, to help straighten your core.
I saw Billy Elliot on TV. It was wonderful. And at the end, many/all of the actor/dancers who had played the part of Billy in the live show over the years came onstage and did one phenomenal tap number all together!
Admin
(September 17, 2017 - 10:20 pm)