Month: April 2017

Summer Term Begins

~ Lifelongdancestudent ~ Leave a comment

Last night I went back to Rhythm Tap 1 and 2. I was half looking forward to it and half not, having had flu the previous 2 weeks, but once I got there I was back in the zone! I have to say the classes have become really popular (we have a great teacher and the style is modern and upbeat), so it was quite full. It was also nice to see faces from last term back again.

We did some more complex steps travelling backwards across the room, adding in some extra heels here and there. We were also working on tapping in 3 beats to a bar, like a waltz. Thankfully I had clarinet lessons when I was at school, so I understand musical time signature to a point. At the moment I am trying to work on keeping down in the knees and making the steps smaller and more accurate. Easier said than done!

Nicholas

Because the class size is so big, I am finding it a little hard not to get pulled into what the crowd are doing, which tends to be speeding up like a military march and ignoring the beat of the music! Last night I tried to ignore that and feel the music and not worry about being the last one to get to the other side of the room. It’s more important to get the steps right than get there first!

Highlight of the class: heel click in the air!

Things to practice this weekend:

  • Pickups travelling backwards with extra heels (no clawing!)
  • Shuffle exercise travelling forwards and changing feet
  • Crawls

Happy Easter! 

~ Lifelongdancestudent ~ Leave a comment

It’s the Easter bank holiday weekend and annoyingly I am ill yet again, even though I had been taking Centrum Performance multivitamins and been feeling really good since last weekend when I actually caught some sunshine ☀. Maybe I’m just allergic to London 😞

Anyway, starting to feel better and hoping to get proper rest and do some stretching during my week off work next week. 

LCBE (Last Class Before Easter )

~ Lifelongdancestudent ~ Leave a comment

Today I went to my last Tap class before Easter. I feel really tired today as the cat keeps waking me up at 4am(!) so I wasn’t feeling at my best when heading down to Morley College at lunchtime, but I didn’t want to miss out.

As usual it was too hot, I was too hot and with a fuzzy foggy head, I was wondering if I was going to be able to get through the entire 45 minutes. I had hydrated before the class and made sure I drank throughout, but if you’re tired, you’re tired.

Rucksack

Our teacher explained after our warm up in a circle that we were going to spend the entire class on our routine. Oh no. That would require some serious brain power.

Despite my reservations, it was actually good fun as we tackled a whole extra section which included scuffs, shunts and turns. She did say to me “Sorry, but I’m going to push you” which made me slightly nervous, but I do like the challenge, but she also told me to try and push my toes forward and out as she felt I was clawing them. Yes, that is my trademark. I will try and work on that because I KNOW I do it all the time. I was told off for that in a Jazz class taster at Morley a few years ago after the teacher felt where my toes were through my shoes and it made me slightly paranoid. But it is good to be made aware of things that are hindering your progress so that you can correct them.  That is the thing with dance training – they’re always correcting your feet!

Anyway, I am going to enjoy the two week break and catch up on some sleep before returning to Wednesday night classes!