Month: August 2016

5 Days to go!

~ Lifelongdancestudent ~ Leave a comment

Blue Taps

There are 5 days to go until the BRIGHTON TAP FESTIVAL! (Although there are actually 7 days until I actually go). I suddenly realised last week that even though I had bought a 2 class pass for the afternoon, I still needed to email them to book my classes! Anyway, all sorted. I am booked onto Kate Ivory Jordan’s Beginners class followed by Maud Arnold’s Beginners class! I am so excited, although a little apprehensive as I will be going on my own. I haven’t managed to persuade my SO to have a go, and I’m still trying to get some work colleagues who have shown interest along to the class I regularly go to, let alone get them to come to a festival!

Now I am trying to decide which of my four pairs of tap shoes to take?

Rio 2016

~ Lifelongdancestudent ~ Leave a comment

ARI don’t know about you, but I feel really inspired by the Rio Olympics at the moment. I’m
watching it on TV after work and catching up on some on BBC iPlayer at the weekends.
My favourite events are definitely all gymnastics related! These people are incredible athletes. They are strong and flexible and have the ability to fly through the air or jump from the ground onto a 10cm beam straight into the splits! (Achieving the splits is still on my bucket list LOL).

Pint-sized Gold medallist Simone Biles of the US has been one of my favourites, and her team mate Aly Raisman is also in my awesome list. I just really love their style.
Well done to our GB gymnasts Amy Tinkler who got Bronze, along with the amazing Gold medallist Max Whitlock. It has definitely spurred me on to start strength training and stretching…

GD

It has been so cool that Ballet has been mentioned on several occasions during these Olympics. GB Hammer thrower Sophie Hitchon was a former ballet student and Dylan Tyler credited his sailing success to his ballet dancer parents! (He tried ballet as a child, but hated it and took gymnastics instead). I think the discipline of dance is very transferable into other sports.

What have been your Rio Olympic highlights?

Review: Sleek Technique Ballet Bootcamp

~ Lifelongdancestudent ~ 1 Comment

This afternoon I did the Sleek Technique Ballet Bootcamp DVD workout.

In the introduction the instructors, professional dancers Flik Swan and Victoria Marr, draw you in with how this workout will give you the “ballerina body you always wanted” and give an explanation of the ballet positions.

The warm up is the same as the Barre Technique DVD, so more arm swinging to get warmed up!

There are then 3 Bootcamp workouts to do either individually or one after the other if you are super fit and hardcore!

Bootcamp 1 gave a challenging workout with plies, chasses, planks (which I hate!), reverence, and arabesque twists. I particularly enjoyed the jete sequence. The mat work had those planks which were really tough! I felt like a lump of lead. Anyway, they’re so good for your core. Plus the leg work is great for lengthening tight hams like mine at the moment.

Bootcamp 2 had an arm cardio section, and my arms were burning way before this, so it was tough, but so good. You can really feel those muscles working! The arabesque section really tests your coordination. There are plenty of balance and core exercises on this DVD!

Bootcamp 3 was my favourite because it was a bit more dancey with weight transfer, arabesque, attitude and port de bras. I need to watch the circular port de bras again because I’m sure i did it wrong, but you can’t really watch the screen while doing it. The floor work is once again excellent for core and leg building.

The DVD ends with a good cool down section.

Verdict: I prefer this DVD to the Barre Technique one. I was less concerned about pulling muscles and bad technique (although still possible when moves are sped up) and there were plenty of teaching and technique points throughout, i.e. things you forget when concentrating on something else. It is definitely a bootcamp; I was dripping with sweat and everything was working! It is probably more manageable and enjoyable to just do one of the workouts because they are quite tough if you do them properly.

Give it a go! You’ll be sculpted in no time.